Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 272

Chapter 272

“And what did you say you want from me?”

“Save my sister.” The tears spilled over again, tracking clean lines down her cheeks. Most importantly, my sister. Then my friends. Protect them from Big Bryan.” She pressed her palms together like a supplicant at an altar. “In return, I am willing to do anything. Anything at all.”

I held her gaze for a long moment, then turned and walked out of the room, still naked, feeling her eyes on my back until the door closed between us.

The living room of the penthouse was dark, the whole city glittering beyond the floor to ceiling windows like a field of fallen stars. I lit a cigar, let the smoke curl into the air, and stood there with my thoughts.

I had heard about some of Big Bryan’s activities over the years. They were low, even for me. Trafficking, blackmail, extortion, violence that served no purpose beyond cruelty. But I had never imagined it went as far as forcing girls to work for him, pumping them full of poison to keep them chained. Consent was where I drew the line. I believed in giving people options, choices, the freedom to walk away. Everything else in this world could be negotiated, but that line was absolute, and men who crossed it were the kind I made a point of removing from the earth.

And the bad blood between me and Big Bryan had gone on long enough. Years ago, he had crossed me in a way I had never forgiven and never forgotten. Perhaps it was time he paid for what he had done, and for everything he had done since.

But I had to be sure Scarlett was not lying to me. In this whole world, there was exactly one person I trusted unconditionally and irrevocably, and that was Dominic Ford. The man who had pulled me off the streets, given me his name and his family and his loyalty, and never once asked for anything in return. He was the standard I measured everyone against, and he was also the reason I could not afford to walk into a war with Big Bryan on the strength of a stranger’s tears.

If it turned out that Scarlett was lying to me, I would teach her the consequences of wasting my time. She would learn that there were fates far worse than death..

I made a few calls, my voice low, my instructions precise. My people were the best money could buy, and they worked fast. By the time the cigar had burned down to my fingers, I had my answer.

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