Page 74 of Vicious Kingdom

I scanned the room. “I need to speak with your father.”

“Business already?” She frowned. “Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“This can’t wait.” Our arrangement required clarification. I needed to establish boundaries. There would be no more of these events. I wasn’t a trophy to be trotted around Hertz’s friends.

Annaliese let out a small sigh.

“You okay?” I asked, surprised by my own concern.

“Fine,” she said too quickly, then looked up at me with those blue eyes. “Just tired of all this.”

I understood completely. The party felt interminable, with each introduction more tedious than the last.

“It will be over soon,” I promised, ignoring my own confusion at why I was trying to be nice to her.

But that trusting smile on her lips probably had something to do with it.

Chapter 26 – Leonardo

The murmur of voices abruptly stopped the moment I stepped into the office.

“Don’t you know how to fucking knock?” the cousin spat.

I didn’t spare the man a glance. “We need to talk, Hertz.”

Alfred looked up from his desk. His brother swiveled in the second chair at the opposite end of the elongated structure. “Me? Or him?” Jon jerked a finger at his brother.

This space made it feel as though spiders crawled down my spine. “Since you’re both partners,” I ceded, “you need to understand that this marriage will happen on my terms. Tonight’s party? This will be the last stunt of the kind that you pull.”

The bastard’s lip twitched. He not only hadn’t told his daughter, he hadn’t told me until it was too late for me to back out. Everyone knew, all the guests, and then the bomb was dropped in my lap so I couldn’t refuse.

Afred steepled his hands. “Why does that matter?”

I stopped before the desk, pinning the businessmen with a hard look. “It will matter to several of your most prominent investors if you do it again.”

“We should cut ties while we still can!” the cousin insisted, his tone imperious and self-important. “He’s going to ruin us.”

I would. But not here. Not today.

“Are youthreateningus? Over a simple soiree thrown in honor of our little girl?” Alfred’s voice dripped with eagerness.

“If you want a social gathering, you run it by me first.” I reached slowly into my suit jacket pocket.

Jonatan yelped.

Haha, pussy.

“Relax, son, he’s not armed,” the uncle chuckled.

The uncle might be a jolly fellow, but he was stupid. I was armed to the teeth.

Producing the only weapon I needed, I set down an envelope. “These photographs won’t go public if you don’t pull another stunt.”

Jon reached over his brother to pluck the envelope. He peeled back the flap and thumbed through the photos. Alfred peered over and, a moment later, snorted.

“These are circumstantial at best,” he countered.

“Be that as it may, if I found them, I can find others. Your shareholders won’t be happy to learn their chief officers have had dealings with countries on the Eastern Continents.” I held my ground. These had been hard to come by, and they weren’t the greatest quality.