Page 73 of Vicious Kingdom

“You could try to be nice to people,” Annaliese scolded after I scared yet another vulture away.

“I have you now, Anna. Just because I didn’t want you doesn’t mean I’ll let another man think he can take you from me.”

That shouldn’t have made her smile.

She should hate me.

But instead, the look of trust and devotion in her eyes was enough to make me kick myself for the callous comment.

Another group approached. Jon Hertz, I knew, but the younger man, whispering with two women, was a stranger to me. Kevin, the guy from pizza night, bounded after them a moment later, sidling up to one of the women, who squeezed his cheek.

As though he was a child.

“Annaliese, look how happy you are?” her uncle beamed.

“Uncle Jon, have you met Baldwin?” she asked breezily.

“I have.” He shook my hand, fingers chubby and soft. “But he hasn’t met your cousin. Baldwin, this strapping lad is my son, going to take over for us someday.”

The slim man was anything but strapping.

“A pleasure to meet you,” I said robotically.

One light brown brow flicked in amusement. The cousin bent and whispered to one of the women, and she giggled.

“Jonatan, say hello to Mr. Baldwin,” his father coaxed.

“I don’t have to.” He tossed his head with a sneer of disgust. “He tried to buy our company. I don’t have anything nice to say, and as the adage goes, I should just keep my mouth shut, right?”

The girls on his arms cooed. Kevin looked bewildered but sided with the popular energy vibrating through his group.

Annaliese shot them an annoyed look. “Really, Callah?”

One of the women shrugged. “He’s not wrong.”

“He’s calling it like he sees it,” the other woman added. “He’s going to make a great CEO one day!”

Mio dio, this kid? Really? He was the heir when they had a capable, clever alternative?

I pulled Annaliese into my body.

Her cousin looked between us, grumbled something under his breath, and drug the others away. Kevin at least had the decency to give us a half-hearted finger wave before he loped after the group. Annaliese shifted against me, her body warm and supple where it pressed to mine. I could feel tension in her frame.

“You’ll have to forgive Jonatan; he’s having a hard time with the situation,” his father explained. “The turn of events was a difficult thing for someone so young in the business world to understand.”

And yet at his age, I’d already clawed my way out of the streets and begun to lay the bricks that would become my kingdom.

“I understand,” I said, not understanding at all. The young man's behavior seemed more like jealousy than anxiety.

Jon nodded appreciatively. “Well, I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone. Plenty of other guests to greet.” He patted my shoulder and waddled away.

Annaliese’s body relaxed the moment her uncle disappeared into the crowd. My arm instinctively tightened around her waist.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“For what?”

“Being civil. Uncle Jon can be a bit much, but he’s a good egg.”