Chapter 7 Long or Short Marriage

Donovan's POV

"Understood," came her reply seconds later.

Her voice was low and breathless. It was almost sweet. I wanted to turn her around to face me so I could be sure she was the one who had spoken.

But that would be doing too much. Instead, I asked one more time, just to hear her voice again.

"Do you or do you not have something to say?"

"I don't," came a curt reply, backed by fire and something darker in her tone.

Wordlessly, I lifted her off my lap, and with a wary look at the twins, I whirled around, pulling Eliana with me.

The next time I set foot in this accursed mansion, I'd burn it to the ground, I thought to myself as I got to the already-waiting car.

"Boss, the suspects have been rounded up at the warehouse," Cypher supplied from the passenger's side when I got into the back seat.

"Excellent."

With Eliana sitting next to me, I could make out the full features of her face. She definitely didn't look like a child up close, but she didn't look her age either.

Her lips were naturally pouty and pink, and she had doe-like eyes that, I bet, looked soft viewing a sunset.

If she were any fleshier, I'd say she'd look even younger. It's apparent that her skinny frame is due to starvation and not to a fast metabolism.

I should be pleased with that knowledge, but it confounded me a little. Whatever had happened with her and the twins should be none of my business, but I can't help but feel enraged on her behalf. I should be the one making her look like a shell of herself, not those twins.

My ego is only bruised because I wanted to be the one to chip off her worth and esteem, piece by piece, until there was nothing left but the ghost of her father's voice telling me to stop.

I hope he is in hell right now, watching me drive away with his precious daughter. I am going to build her back up, and when she least expects it, I'll tear her down into pieces.

"We will register our marriage at the court tomorrow," I said without looking at her.

She didn't say anything, but I knew she'd heard me.

I will not allow this kind of disrespect to slide.

"Am I talking to a plank?"

"I...I didn't know what to say," she stuttered gloomily.

"An okay would have sufficed. Even dogs react when spoken to."

Her eyes glazed over indignantly at my comment. I hadn't expected her to have that kind of fire, but I suppose even women don't like being compared to dogs.

"Understood," she said coolly.

"Do we go to the warehouse first, boss?" Cypher asked, distracting me from her.

I'd already thought about it before Cypher brought it up. It would have been nice to take the girl to the warehouse to show her what I'm capable of, but I think she'd be more receptive to my capabilities in more...private situations.

"Take the lady to the estate. Sarsk will drive her."

"Yes, boss."

At the intersection leading to the warehouse and the estate, Cypher and I got out of the car and joined another one waiting behind us.

Inside, I watched the back of the car I'd left to watch Eliana.

Just as I'd predicted, her shoulders seemed to relax as they rose leisurely. She was probably breathing in air for relief.

I couldn't help but smile coyly. It made me proud to know that she wasn't comfortable around me. That was what I wanted.

"Let's go," I ordered the new driver.

He floored the breaks and sped past Sarsk and my wife-to-be.

At the warehouse, Sarsk handed me brass knuckles with spikes. The suspects, the boring-looking men with petulant frowns, were kneeling before me, their lips bruised from the beatings my men had given them before I arrived.

For weeks, there had been items not accounted for in the logs, but nobody brought them to my attention because the men in charge of accounting were going behind my back to steal them.

One thing I hated was thieves who lied a lot. Choose one and stick with it.

One of the men with an unrepentant glare snickered at me.

I didn't hesitate to punch him squarely in the nose with the brass knuckles. In the silence of the room, everyone could hear the crack of his nose breaking and the sounds of his teeth as they clattered to the metallic floor.

"Now," I said to the other two suspects as I adjusted the cuffs of my suit sleeves.

"What did you do with the shipments?"

"He started it, we were only following his orders," the one in the middle next to the already-beaten bastard trembled as he ratted them out.

"So? If you were ordered, you were perfectly capable of moving, so it suffices that you should remember where the containers were moved to,"I said dryly.

Cypher came over with a kerchief to wipe my bloodied knuckles and the brass.

Lifting my hand, he swiped away all traces of blood until my skin was spotless.

"On his orders, we redirected the shipments to the north of Kaziele," the third suspect answered.

The north of Kaziele. That's where the stallions, Irkin's outfit, operated.

Were they working for Irkin?

Millions worth of weaponry and LSDs were in those containers. I'd have lost most of my major clients if it weren't for the fact that I was a verifiable man who did business with integrity.

And also because nobody dared to cross me because I would not hesitate even the slightest to burn them to the ground.

Glaring at the suspect I'd mangled, I said firmly, "I'm giving you 24 hours to retrieve every single container and not with a single item missing."

This was mercy, and they knew it. I could easily kill them and let my men handle retrieving the shipments, but being in Luis Santario's house earlier has muddled my thoughts.

After twenty-four hours, they could kiss their lives goodbye. Whether they retrieved the shipments or not.

Cypher hurried after me as I handed him the brass knuckles.

"Do we trail them, Don?"

Whenever it was just us, Cypher resorted to calling me Don, a diminutive for my name. Nobody in the outfit knew, but Cypher is a long-distant cousin of mine who I've lived with all my life.

I'd say we're practically brothers at this point.

"They wouldn't dare," I replied with conviction.

He nodded understandably.

I saw the fear in their eyes when I let them go. They would do whatever it took to retrieve my goods, even if it meant killing one another.

No man who has ever feared me has tried going against me.

"The lady is about to settle in. Gossips has already filled the stations that you have a wife," Cyhper said with a hint of amusement.

I knew what he was thinking. It was never in my reputation to date or entertain a relationship.

If the gossip has spread, then it was either of the twins that went to a news agency. It didn't matter anyway. Nobody knew what my plans were, and it wouldn't change the fact that I still couldn't be messed with.

Whether I had a wife or not wouldn't change that fact.

"What about the..." Cypher coughed, "other women?"

We got to the car, and he held the door open for me as I slipped into the back seat.

A restrained smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

I had a monthly supply of women who I bedded to satisfy my needs, whenever I had the urge but sometimes, my dark past would get a hold of me.

So far, I haven't been in bed with anyone in a year, but the women have been reaching out, asking if I needed them.

"I've been basically celibate in the past year, you know this," I adjusted in the back seat to get comfortable.

Cypher chuckled quietly, starting the car up.

"Want me to terminate the contract with the agency?"

He asked, referring to the escort company that had given me the roster of women.

"Don't worry about it. I may get bored with her, and the plan isn't to keep her forever anyway," I grimaced, not wanting to think of the matter anymore.

Cypher didn't press the issue any further and remained quiet for the rest of the drive to the estate. As he drove in silence, my thoughts couldn't stop thinking about how much Eliana Santario looked so much like her father.

It was going to be a long or short marriage depending on how quickly I can build her back up and bring her to her fall.