Page 14 of Vicious Kingdom

This was unacceptable.

I needed to purge the poison from my grey matter. Short of having a lobotomy, the only path to ridding her from my life was to destroy her world here and send her packing.

Annaliese was nothing to me.

I just needed to make my body remember that.

The idea came to me last night as I watched the city drive by beneath my window. I would force Annaliese from my city, make it so she never haunted my days again. Simple. Elegant.Vicious.It was the perfect revenge to give the temptress. She thought she could play with me once? I would beat her at her own game. First, I needed to find out what she wanted most and take it from her. Make leaving the city the only option.

As I washed up, I formed a stronger, more detailed plan. To chase her from the city, I would have to be around her.

Can I do that?

The washcloth tore at my skin. I didn’t have a choice. The tangle of feelings was already fucking with my head. Better to take a bit more poison to accomplish the end goal of purging it completely.

It started today. Annaliese once wanted a boyfriend her parents wouldn’t approve of? Her words to explain her lies. Well, it was time to see how the little temptress liked a taste of her own medicine.

I slid the jeans over my hips, shifting under the stiff material that was foreign to my body. For the sake of my sanity, I would go to a charity event and begin to wreak damage.

“Watch out, little one, I’m coming for you,” I snarled, tucking the black tee into the jeans. The man who stood in front of the mirror was a far cry from the polished persona in designer suits that was my usual costume.

If the visage threw me off, it would do the same to her. A spritz of an old bottle of cologne that had been gathering dust in the back of the bathroom drawer, and I was out the door.

***

They said the road to hell was paved with good intentions. That was exactly the disgusting mess spread before my eyes. Thegroup of society’s finest was gathered not to help build homes in poor neighborhoods. No…they were talking to reporters. They were posing for tabloids. Their phones were out, and selfies clicked for their social pages.

I shook my head.

The self-serving volunteers weren’t the only ones taking advantage of the situation. There was another player making a profit while hiding under the name of altruism. The Irish ran these streets. I saw Flannigan in the throng. He had no idea my brother was his biggest rival in the underworld. To the world, he was an affluent construction owner, one of the biggest in Chicago.

I knew better.

He was using this cleanup initiative to rebuild portions of his territory at the charity organization’s expense. Clever. He probably had financial ties to the organization. If the numbers were followed, what would they show?

Not that I would confront him.

No, my involvement was secret.

“Let’s get a group photo,” the event coordinator called.

I sidled to the middle, pressing close to the cute blonde with half her hair pulled off her face and wrapped in a bun on the top of her head.

That fucking hair that I couldn’t stop touching in my dreams.

“Smile,” I murmured while squeezing her hip.

Annaliese gasped just as the photographers began snapping pictures. “Baldwin! What are you doing?”

“Business,” I clipped out.

She shifted slightly, but my fingers gripped her hips tighter. She wasn’t escaping my presence. If the feel of her under my touch shot a bolt of excitement through me, I refused to notice.

After the group dispersed for individual photos and interviews, I kept my hold on the socialite. Annaliese turned intome, questions on her lips. But I wasn’t done. I caught the eye of a reporter, flagging him down. He spied me next to Annaliese and pulled a photographer over.

“Today marks a momentous occasion,” I said, shifting to stand possessively over Annaliese.

A picture was snapped.