Page 130 of Avenging Azalea

I’d never been the type to stand up for myself or what I wanted. Hell, I’d never been able to find the perfect words when I really wanted to say them, but they were flowing now, and I was not about to stop.

Vera growled, and there was nothing sexy about it. I took a casual step toward her, making sure that she noticed the dress I was wearing.

Steph loved the small fuck you and helped me pick the most expensive and popular dress that was blowing up social media. Coincidently, it was from Vera’s direct competition. She said it would make me feel better to give money to Vera’s competitors. She really had a bitch streak that I adored, and right about now, I owed her because no one could’ve planned this. Vera certainly noticed, and she looked like she was sucking on a lemon.

Vera’s eyes roamed over the golden dress that changed colors depending on the lighting. I tapped the matching purse on the palm of my hand, enjoying this moment way too much. I was probably going to hell for it.

“No wait!” I held up my finger. “I know…Ronan told you that you had a demon from hell inside of you, and he was cleansing your soul.”

“You bitch,” Vera snarled. “I knew you weren’t as innocent as you acted. Under that good girl exterior was a pathetic, poor little whore just waiting for her chance to pounce on my man. You were probably licking your lips when you found out, and all too happy to console Titus by offering yourself up as tribute for his broken heart.”

“Wrong, he would need to love you to have his heart broken,” I countered.

Vera’s mouth dropped open like a gaping fish.

“How dare you speak to me like that.”

“Vera, I can’t believe I was jealous of you. I mean, look at you. You lost all of this when you had it in the palm of your hand.” I held my arms out to show where we were. “You screwed up. You ruined your marriage contract. Titus had every right to toss you to the curb. I didn’t do that to you. Unless of course you’re blaming me for your poor decision to fuck his older brother…in a church…on an alter…during his younger brother’s wedding?” I smirked and then crossed my arms. “Classy.”

She looked like she was about to have a nuclear meltdown. Vera’s hands were balled up and she was shaking.

“Now here you are sneaking into his office, hoping to win him back. Sad…just sad. And I’ll tell you something else…Titus ran to me the second he ended your engagement.” I took another step toward her, so we were only a few feet apart. “He begged me to give him a chance because he loves me. And now that I have him, I won’t be giving him up. So, you can find your way back out using whatever sewage pipe you crawled up here in and never come back.”

Vera stepped up to my face. She had a couple of inches on me, but I didn’t care and held my ground. Titus was mine, and she wasn’t getting a chance to dig her filthy claws into him again. No one with a heart as dark as hers deserved him.

“You have no idea who you’re dealing with or the lengths that I’ll go to get what I want.”

“You still don’t get it. You could kill me right here and still never get what you want. Titus will never love you. He will never choose you, and hurting me will only put a target on your back. Titus will come for you, and he will kill you.”

I couldn’t say if Titus had ever killed anyone, and yet I knew he would for me. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one in his way.

“She’s right, I would,” Titus said.

Vera jumped away from me and turned around to face Titus.

He stood just inside the office door, his face dark and eyes murderous under the otherwise calm expression. God made me wrong because I suddenly needed a fan to cool off. Damn, that look was hot. Titus prowled into the room like a predator on a hunt, going in for the kill.

“Would you mind explaining what you’re doing here, Vera? Or better yet, how you got into the building?”

Titus never took his eyes off Vera, but there was nothing sexual about the look he gave her as he walked over to me and slipped his hand around my waist. Vera’s eyes followed the action, but she didn’t say anything.

“Answer me, Vera, or do I need to have security throw you out?”

“I came here to talk some sense into you since you wouldn’t take my calls, but I see you’ve decided to slum it rather than be with a powerful woman,” Vera said.

Titus moved so fast that I didn’t even know what was happening until the decorative bust beside Vera exploded. Vera screamed and jumped away as Titus marched toward her with a gun drawn. I covered my mouth, the shock rendering me speechless as I watched.

Vera scrambled as Titus bore down on her until her back hit the wall. He touched the barrel of the gun between her eyes, and I cringed. Was he really going to kill Vera in front of me?

“Titus, please don’t kill her,” I said.

Vera looked truly terrified, and her once-perfect makeup was running in streaks down her face as she cried.

“Since my texts telling you that we’re done, and to stop harassing me, clearly didn’t get through that thick skull of yours, let me make it crystal-fucking-clear now that we’re face to face.” His arm didn’t waver, and it was as if the air in the room held still.

“We. Are. Over,” Titus snarled, the sound sending a shiver down my spine. “You are not welcome here. You show your face again, and my guards will put a bullet in your chest and dig a hole so deep in the Arizona desert, God won’t even be able to find your body.”

Vera whimpered, and I couldn’t believe it, but I felt bad for her. Yes, she’d brought this on herself, but this was the kind of fear I’d lived through for years before Titus found me. I’d blocked out so much of it that part of me forgot what it was like to stare death in the face. To know that another held your next breath in their hands. I didn’t like that this was partially because of me. It made me sick to my stomach that I had anything to do with this kind of terror in another.