Beautiful Tyrant (Enemies to Lovers - Dark Romance Book 3) Read online

  'I would say it's nice to see you again, but I'm really not feeling it,' I reply. 'Who gave you the black eye?' I already know, but I have to make sure.

  'Who do you think? He's pissed that I slept with you guys.' Harper gives me a wry grin. I'm just beginning to understand what this woman went through while Brandt was inside. Hell doesn't even begin to describe it.

  'Let me get this straight. Even though he ordered you to sleep with us, and you initially refused, he's upset with you?' Forget slow, I'm going to drag his death out over several weeks and carve him up piece by piece.

  'He's sweet like that,' Harper growls angrily, looking up at the ceiling. This gives me ample opportunity to check out the rest of her body for bruises, but mostly just because I want to. The woman is hotter than a jalapeno's backside and twice as fiery. I want to fuck her every which way under the sun and come back for seconds.

  'Brandt's okay,' I say. I know she'll be wondering, and it would be wrong of me to keep that from her. Besides, she's not the enemy any more. Mal has taken top spot and until he's dead, I haven't got time to hate anyone else.

  Harper's gaze slowly lowers down to mine, and though she is smiling, the smile is lopsided. 'Yes, but for how long? He means to kill him. We need to get out of here and help him.'

  Tell me something I don't know. 'Well off you go then, Houdini. You do your stuff.' I look at her expectantly and sure enough I get a reaction.

  'You're the one who can pick locks, asshole. This is your area of expertise.' To be fair, she has a point, but she's forgetting a few things.

  'While I admit I have a talent for getting out of tight spaces, Miss Wilkinson, it's hard to pick a lock when you've been tied up, rather than cuffed.' Wriggling about on the floor to test out how tightly I've been tied, I am rather dismayed to find they've done a reasonably decent job of restraining me. This does not look good.

  'Well you'd better get good at it, pretty damn quick. After one night with him you won't want to stay here for another, trust me. Mal has a way of making you wish you had never been born.'

  I don't doubt it, but that still doesn't help me at this moment in time. There is no way I'll be able to get those cuffs off Harper in my current predicament. I'll need to find another way.

  'Do you trust me?' It's a stupid question, and deserves a stupid answer.

  She snorts at me, as expected, and shakes her head. 'I wouldn't trust you if you were the last man on this earth.' Yeah, that's kind of what I expected, and it has to change. We need a truce.

  'We're on the same side here, sweetheart. We'll need to work together if we both want to get out.' A bout of screaming from inside the workshop makes us both stiffen, and we remain quiet until it subsides. I have no idea who's out there because it was dark when I entered, but it's obvious Mal has found someone to play with. Let's hope whoever it is keeps him busy for a while.

  'You must be mad. Don't think I don't know you were going to kill me. You told me so yourself. Nothing's changed. You want him. I want him. We're not going to be friends in this lifetime, sweetheart.' The sarcasm dripping off her tongue is endearing. I like a woman with a vicious sense of humour.

  'We're going to have to figure out some kind of truce, or we'll die here. Is that what you want?' I like to point things out in black and white, just so I know where I stand.

  Harper glares at me. 'Yes, dying is preferable to being idiot enough to trust you.' She looks all righteous fury as she stares at me, her indignation worn like a burning badge upon her chest. I want to drink all that anger up and channel it into something useful - preferably our escape plan.

  'You know I like to fuck angry women, don't you?' I grin at her. 'Angry blokes, too, for that matter.' Brandt was an incredible fuck when angry. I wonder if Harper would be as good. My cock is already stirring just thinking about it.

  'You know Mal likes to kill people that fuck me, don't you?' Touché. Little Miss Firecracker is making my dick hard. There is then another scream from outside, and it sounds much worse than the first one. So much for my horny thoughts. I think Mal's getting a little carried away out there.

  'I fucked you a few hours ago and I'm still alive.' I'm losing the circulation in my wrists, but so far everything else seems to be working.

  'You won't be for much longer, so don't get comfortable.'

  There's little chance of that. 'Does Mal like men?' I feel the need to get the question out there before we begin. I like to know what I'm up against.

  'Don't you want to leave that as a surprise? You sure you want to know beforehand?' She gives me a sassy little grin. How the hell has the woman stayed alive this long? If she were mine, I would have killed her years ago.

  'I'm a masochist. I need to know these things.' Why I want to know whether I'm about to get fucked in the ass is beyond me, but maybe it's so I can brace myself in advance.

  'Liar. You like inflicting pain just as much as Mal does. You're just as much a monster as he is.' She gives me a knowing look, but she's wrong and I have to set some things straight.

  Looking up at her, my lips tighten. 'Mal and I are nothing alike. Sure, I like kinky shit, and I have fun controlling people, but my end result is pleasure not pain. Brandt may hate me, but it's not because of the sex or what happened between us. It's about what happened after. I never meant to hurt him. I'm in love with him, and you know it.'

  'You've killed people. You'll kill again. Give me one good reason why I should believe a single word you say?'

  'Because as I said before, we're on the same side. We both want Brandt, and if he's dead neither of us wins.' I'm exasperated, but it's not her fault. I'm not getting through to her. I can see it by the way she's looking at me. I need to try harder.

  She makes a funny little squeaky sound in her throat. 'We're not on the same side. If you get a chance to kill me you'll take it. Then you'll have Brandt all to yourself. Call me a liar.'

  Damn it. This one is not as stupid as she looks. Trust Brandt to want a woman with brains. It's no good, though. I'm going to have to come clean with her. If I don't, neither of us are getting out of here with a heartbeat.

  'Fine. At first, I wanted you dead. I was jealous, and yes, I do want him back. He doesn't want me, though. You may have noticed. If we manage to get out of here alive, and Brandt wants you, I won't stand in your way. I give you my word. That's one way I differ over Mal. My word means something. Yes, I've killed people, but I won't kill you. We'll need each other to get out, and besides, Brandt would never forgive me. That boy is in love with you, however much he wants to deny it.' There. I've said it.

  'And I'm just supposed to believe that? You'll let me ride off into the sunset with your ex and you'll never kill anyone ever again? You must think I was born yesterday.' She growls in frustration, pulling at her shackles, and at the same time there's another scream from outside. The effect is quite eerie. I do not want to know what is happening out there, although I have a bad feeling I'm going to find out, whether I want to or not.

  'Never kill anyone again? You must be fucking joking. The first chance I get that idiot out there is biting the dust. I've never killed anyone for sport before, but Mal is going to be my first. He's going down slow and painfully. That's a promise.' Jesus Christ, I've made two promises to Harper in less than ten seconds. This is a record for me. I must be desperate.

  She looks at me suspiciously. I've not won her over - not yet. She's been through too much to just start trusting people at the drop of a hat. That's going to take time - time we don't have. How can I convince her? Dammit. Where do we go from here? She's probably going to ignore me for the foreseeable future, and I can't say I blame her.

  'What did you do to him?' Her voice is low and quiet. She doesn't want Mal to hear, and I can't say I blame her. The last thing we want is for him to come rushing in and gag us. Things are bad enough as it is, and they're only going to get worse. I've got one thing to be thankful for, though. She is speaking to me. Curiosity has got the better of her.

  'I di
d something stupid.' Actually, I did something really stupid, and I haven't stopped regretting it ever since.

  'How stupid?' As I've just answered that question in my head, I sigh. Still, she deserves the truth. If I tell her some of my secrets, perhaps she'll tell me some of hers.

  'You can probably already guess what I did.' It's not hard to join up the dots and as I've already mentioned, Harper is a fairly intelligent lady. Mind you, she's not that bright. She ended up with two psychopaths for partners, one of which she married.

  'You slept with someone,' she murmurs.

  'I did. I slept with someone.' Even now it hurts to talk about it. I didn't think it would. I thought I'd forget about him ten seconds after the deed was done. How foolish was I? Still, it taught me a valuable lesson. Never shit on your own doorstep. You'll end up putting your foot in it at some point.

  'Why? You loved him. Why would you do that?' Harper's looking at me as if I have two heads, and to be fair, she has a point.

  'It doesn't matter,' I say, evading the question, but it's too late. Memories are already coming back to haunt me.

  She twists her head, trying to get a closer look at me, but it's my turn to look at the floor. I don't want her to see me now. 'You didn't think he'd find out,' she whispers. She says it, like I committed the worst sin in the world, and to some, maybe it is. In prison, though, it's a way of life. It opens doors, it procures goods, it lets you in on secrets, and it gets you places. It's a necessary evil if you don't want to spend your life rotting in a cell.

  'No, I didn't think he'd find out,' I growl. Hopefully she'll get the hint. I do not want to talk about it.

  But Harper has no intention of leaving it alone. She can see I'm in pain and she wants to twist the knife. 'Was he prettier than Brandt? I find that hard to believe. Was he better in bed, perhaps? Again, hard to believe. I know there are anatomical differences between us, but he's pretty talented under the sheets, isn't he?'

  Oh, you have no idea. There are things we've done together that would have to been seen to be believed. I decide not to answer. She'll get bored with this conversation, eventually.

  'Look at me, Gabriel.' For some reason, I obey. I look up at eyes that are almost as dark as mine, and equally as beautiful, albeit in a different way. Mine are hard and only flames of obsidian can be found in their depths. Harper's are a deep, rich sable. They are the colour of dusk, upon mountains of fiery sand dunes. They change every time you look at her. They are as unique and unfathomable as she is.

  'Why did you stay with him?' I ask. If this is twenty questions, I don't see why I shouldn't have a turn. 'You're not afraid of dying. I can see it just by looking at you. In fact, you'd welcome death, wouldn't you?'

  'Stop trying to change the subject,' she bites back, although her voice is soft. There is no sound outside now, which means Mal has either taken a break from his fun, or he is listening in on us.

  'I'll answer you, if you answer me.' Besides, I'm curious. I think I'd have rather killed myself than put up with Adley's perversions day after day. What hold has he got over her? Brandt. Mal controlled her by using him.

  I can already see the cogs in her head turning. There are wheels between wheels, but she'll figure out what she needs to.

  'You weren't betraying Brandt, were you? You were getting yourself out of there. What did the fuck pay for? A lawyer's visit? Some fresh evidence? And he never let you explain, did he? He wouldn't give you the chance.'

  I smile grimly. Harper has obviously had a lot of practice at this. She's far too clever for her own good. 'It paid for some evidence to disappear, actually, but it had the same effect. I knew Brandt would get out well before me, and I didn't want to be stuck rotting behind bars while someone else took my place. I always knew he was in love with you. It didn't matter how much he tried to hate you, every time I talked about killing you he'd clam up like a constipated hippo. I wanted to get to you before he did.'

  'I'm not a threat to you,' Harper whispers. 'You're beautiful and deadly. Who can compete with that?' Her eyes begin welling up with tears. I don't know if it's because of the situation we're in or because she thinks Brandt is still in love with me, but I can soon put that notion to rest.

  'You're right, you're not a threat to me, mainly because you've already won. You've blown me out of the water. Brandt only has eyes for you.' It's the truth. I know he still cares about me, but it's not in the same way he cares about her. That's when it comes to me. There is a way to win back his affection, and the way rests between the girl's legs. Well, that's possibly oversimplifying the problem. I'll need to get under her skin first.

  'If you'd explain why you did it, he'd forgive you.' She looks away as she thinks about what I've told her, biting her bottom lip in the process. She looks adorable. I want to suck that lip into my mouth and bite it - hard - but there's no chance of that at the moment.

  'I would never explain myself. Firstly, it makes me look weak, secondly, he doesn't want to hear it, and thirdly, he wouldn't believe me anyway. That ship has sailed.' It doesn't mean I can't board another, though. Whether I'll get the chance is a different question entirely.

  As if to echo those thoughts the screams from the other room begin again, and this time they are much more frenzied than before. Then they end abruptly, before the door to the little bedroom flies open and Mal storms in, looking very pleased with himself.

  'That little snitch won't be talking to anyone in the near future,' he comments, placing the cap back on the little tube of glue he's holding. I close my eyes. I wonder if I've got that to look forward to in my imminent future. I really hope not.

  Mal's feet walk towards me until they're planted in front of my face. 'I'm thinking of training you up to do this shit for me,' he comments, as he places the tube of glue back in his pocket.

  'Always happy to help,' I grunt. I've done worse things. What's a few more evil deeds between friends?

  'Good. We'll get Harper to watch. She loves that sort of thing.' Judging by the expression on her face, she's not quite as enthusiastic as he thinks she is, but I'm not about to tell him.

  'Right, after a hard day's work it's time we had some fun,' says Mal, rubbing his hands together. He bends down, and just when I think he's about to kick me in the stomach, he begins slicing through the rope that holds me.

  'I want you to hurt her, Gabriel, and I want to watch. Think you can do that?'

  I nod and give him my best smile.

  What else am I supposed to do? I could pretend I'm not going to enjoy this, but that would be a big fat lie. As long as it's just me hurting Harper we'll be fine, but when he starts taking his temper out on me things will change. As it's only a matter of time before that happens, Harper and I need to bash our heads together and come up with a way to get rid of the evil asshole. That's not going to be easy. If we kill him, someone's going to kill us. This is a dog-eat-dog world. It's the nature of how things work around here. Once you've seen inside this world, you don't generally get the chance to talk about it. You're either useful or you're not. I need to become useful.

  We have to find a way that will prevent Brandt from killing someone, while trying not to get killed ourselves. But from where I'm standing that looks almost impossible, and it's a fairly depressing thought.

  Chapter Nine - Brandt

  Our engagement party is a huge success. I make it my mission in life to ensure that everyone has a drink in their hand before I do my best to charm the pants off them. I used to be particularly good at making women lose their panties, but now I've progressed to men as well. I am on fire. Not all men swing that way, though, so I have to do my best to entice information out of them by whatever means necessary. That's where the alcohol comes in. So far it seems to be working fairly well, but I've yet to learn anything particularly interesting.

  Helena is doing an equally good job at keeping our guests entertained. She looks like a little starlet in her slinky black dress, and she's not showing at all beneath its seductive curves. I wonder i
f she's wearing one of those silly corsets. Nothing would surprise me where Helena is concerned. She needs to think of the baby. That should be her main priority now.

  When the evening finally comes to a close and we both head upstairs, Helena links her arm around mine. Is she about to offer me a reward for a job well done? I hope not. The thought of sleeping with her makes me ill. If I have to do it, I will, but I don't think we've reached that stage yet.

  'Did you enjoy yourself this evening?' she purrs as we walk up the grand wooden staircase, heading for what I sincerely hope is my bedroom. If I'm sharing hers, we will need to have words.

  'I had a wonderful time.' No falser words have been spoken. With the exception of the hot firefighter and perhaps one of the doctors, the evening was about as much fun as contracting the bubonic plague.

  She smiles, like a little child, her eyes sparkling with happiness. When we reach the landing of her parent's house she leads me across the hall to one of the rooms furthest away. I take this as a good sign. When she opens the door, I turn to her to say goodnight, fully expecting her to walk away. But instead, she sails straight past me.

  'You're sleeping with me. This is my room.' Without warning she begins unfastening the neck of her gown, and before I've had a chance to say a word she's peeling it down to reveal a pair of naked breasts. Considering I've been inside for the past five years, it should have me champing at the bit, but I find I have nothing but mild disgust for the girl.

  'I'm not sleeping with you, Helena. It's too soon. Go put a gown on. We can discuss this when we're both a little less drunk.' Is this the reason she's made sure my glass has been topped up all evening? Was she hoping to get her wicked claws into me? That's too bad. I've got more important things to worry about.

  'Brandt, don't be so silly. We're going to be married in a few days' time. We may as well to get to know one another.' Strolling towards me she places her arm on mine, but I begin walking backwards quickly. This is not happening.