Jaden barely shook her head, her silence a painful pill to swallow.
“Any contractions or cramps?”
Again, she shook her head.
“Not so special anymore, now is she, Darren?”Daniel slurred from across the room.“You’re welcome.”
White-hot rage instantly exploded inside me.The actual admission coming from Daniel’s own mouth without a hint of remorse or fear left me in a state of absolute derangement that I visibly struggled to contain.Closing my eyes for a single moment, I took a deep breath to regain my last molecule of control—to accept that this was the last time my brother would ever cross me again.
Jaden’s slight squeeze of my wrists was the only reminder I needed to ensure that thisneverhappened again.Straightening my spine, I stood over her, my eyes lingering on hers for just a second longer before ordering the room to clear out.
“Sloane, take Jaden out of here.And have Sid look her over immediately.Everyone else, get out.”If Jaden miscarried because of this, Daniel’s soul was in for an eternal reckoning he would never escape from.
I watched as Sloane picked Jaden up from the floor and carried her to the door.Daniel’s soft laughter rang through my ears, echoing with the retreating footsteps and the sudden slam of the door.
Lifting my gaze, I looked my brother in the eye, his body swaying slightly while his tongue licked at the blood drying down his mouth from his nose.How much he had to drink, I didn’t know, and as much as I preferred to do this with him sober, I would have to take him as is.Because this couldn’t wait.
Pity, because he deserved to feel so much more pain than he was about to.
“I told you to stay away from her not more than six hours ago.”
Daniel shrugged, as if disobeying my direct orders was inconsequential to him.
“What are you going to do,brother?”he taunted, spreading his arms out wide.“You gonna kill me now?Or are you finally going to lift the veil and see the truth?”
Turning away from him, I removed my suit jacket and tossed it aside, my tie quickly following before I began to roll my tight shoulders loose.
“I’m going to grant you the same courtesy I do all men who betray me,” I replied, cracking my neck.“Even my own family.”
Daniel chuckled as he stared at me, a cocky bloody-toothed smile on his lips.
“Oooh, so dramatic, Darren,” he mocked, pacing back and forth.“We both know you’re not going to kill your last living brother.”
My gaze hardened as I leveled him with the truth he had yet to grasp.“Watch me.”
14
VINDICATION
From across the room, Daniel’s eyes flickered with alarm before he quickly blinked it away, backing up into a defensive position.
“I suggest you stop and think for a second before you make the biggest mistake of your life,” Daniel warned, failing to reason with me as I began to cross the room.
I might have laughed at him if I had been capable of feeling anything more than a singular emotion at that particular moment.
“If only you had considered the same, Daniel,” I replied before my fist swiftly connected with his jaw.
He staggered back, thrown off balance as he attempted to spin around to counter, but I didn’t give him an inch of breath.My elbow slammed into his temple, causing him to bend down low enough for my knee to drive straight into his ribs.The blow had him scrambling forward into my torso to keep me from lifting my leg a second time, but I turned with his momentum and tossed him away into the wall.
“Why, Daniel?”I rasped, my voice barely recognizable.“Why the fuck would you do this?”
“Because you wouldn’t!”he shot back.“She knows something and if Sloane hadn’t stopped me, I would have gotten it out of her eventually.”
“You stupid motherfucker,” I seethed, shaking my head.“I won’t involve my wife in our business over information she probably doesn’t have, so you decide you’re going to try torape it out of her?!”
“What difference does it make?She’s a traitorous whor?—”
“The difference is she’sMINE!You seriously thought you could touch her and I’d do nothing?!”