Page 85 of Silver Sinner

"It's not bullshit. Amy got this for me and considering she was dating your cousin, it makes sense she could afford it."

Trik stalks closer until his cigarette breath washes over me, forcing Maddie to recoil into my shoulder.

"Drake was a fucking drug addict, not a jewelry nut. Any spare cash went to product." Trik grabs the pendant and smirks. "Pierce gave you this, didn't he?"

I keep my face as passive as I can and even feign rolling my eyes. "As if."

"It's written all over your face, bitch. You've got that same gooey look you had when I showed you him in the cell." In one sharp tug, the clasp snaps and the pendant falls away from my neck. "Cunt." He turns on his heel and strides away down the corridor where I was dragged yesterday. Two other men move from the wall and begin escorting us toward the entrance.

"Trik!" I yell as panic suddenly surges through me. "Trik, don't kill him! Please, don't kill him!"

Trik merely laughs. It echoes through the halls until he vanishes from sight, and there's nothing left for me to do but allow the other men to escort Maddie and me to the cars waiting outside. What's Trik going to do? It was cruel enough to accept an engagement in front of Pierce, but a man like Trik is so twisted that I can't imagine what he will do with that necklace.

Will he strangle him with it? Stuff it down his throat until he chokes?

My mind races with cruel possibilities that bring tears to my eyes, especially when we walk outside and see countless cars sitting in a single line procession filled with people. It's as if the entire estate is emptying. Maddie clings to me as we're escorted into a car and I strap her in the best I can without a booster seat. I ask for one and the guard looks at me as if I'm insane.

"Mommy?" Maddie whispers, gazing at me with some melted chocolate caught around her lip. "Where are we going?"

"A trip." I force a smile. "Like I said before, we're going on a trip."

She stares up at me, then she settles against my side and hugs my arm while slipping her thumb into her mouth. The sight sends a lance of pain through my heart. She hasn't done that since she was a baby. My lower lip trembles and I bite it hard, focusing only on keeping it together.

Then the car door opens and Trik slides in beside me without the pendant in his hand.

"Trik."

"What?" he barks.

"Did you kill him?"

He sends me a sidelong glare. "Are you fucking stupid?"

Angering him isn't my intention, but the thought of Pierce dead in that basement sickens me. "Please tell me you didn't kill him."

"I didn't kill him."

What little relief I feel is short-lived. "Promise me you won't."

"What?"

"Please! I'll marry you without complaints, I won't cause any problems, I'll do anything and everything you ask just please…" Tears smart in the corner of my eyes. "Please don't kill him."

A cold, lazy smirk creeps across his face. "I won't kill him. But not because you asked me to. I won't kill him because we're going to torture him every single day for the rest of his life. Keeping the woman he loves away from him? There is no sweeter torture. He'll never get in our way ever again, because he'll be too scared that his actions will result in harm against you. Don't you understand?" Trik leans in close and roughly grasps my neck. "Because of you, he'll never know peace. He will never again know power."

Then Trik's mouth collides with mine.

I don't resist.

It's easy to dissociate and focus on Maddie cuddling into my side, and one fact that Trik's given me that I hadn't considered until now.

Pierce loves me.

He loves me.

It hardly matters now, but it brings me a small comfort as the car jolts to life and Trik casts me aside.

In the grand scheme of things, Pierce is a mafia king. He won't let his empire crumble for someone like me. I know that because that's how this world I hid from actually works.