with him.
Now that I’d been outside the estate, I couldn’t help but smile as we passed
through the small town to get to Darren’s estate. The corners of my mouth curved
as I remembered speeding off down the road on his Ducati, giving his men and the
pocketed police department a run for their money.
“Something amusing?” Darren asked.
I smirked and casually pointed out the window. “I popped a wheelie on your bike
right … there.” I grinned, pointing to the exact spot as we drove by. “Pretty sure I
scared the shit out of one of your guys.” It was probably a bad idea to poke fun at
the idea of my successful escape, but he was the one who asked.
When I turned my head back to Darren, the look he gave me was positively
deadly. I gulped back my regret.
“Well, I hope it was enjoyable because you will never ride another motorcycle
like that again,” he said sharply.
I shook my head in disappointment. “You’re wasting my talents,” I said, turning
my head back to the window.
“Excuse me?” Darren quipped, anger beginning to rise in his voice.
I exhaled a deep breath. “Penguins can’t fly, but if you were to see one do it, you
wouldn’t try to stop it, now would you?”
Darren cocked an eyebrow, but I could tell he wanted me to elaborate.
“Guns, motorcycles, fighting? Not many girls come with the skills that I have. In
your line of work, you’re better off exploiting them than burying them.”
“And what do you know of my line of work?” His eyes narrowed at me, dark slits
just waiting for the challenge I was presenting.
I shrugged. “I know it’s dangerous and beyond illegal. And I’m smart enough to
understand that your life is probably under constant threat, especially considering
you have two cars to flank us with a total of six men to protect you, which then
inevitably, also puts my life in danger. Am I getting warm here?” I asked. I
shouldn’t sound so cocky, but he had to know I was right.
“I have a feeling you’re trying to make some kind proposal,” he sneered.
“I don’t think you want to fully domesticate me, not really, anyway. Watering
me down wouldn’t be in your best interests, not when I have so much more to offer
you than just a pretty face with a hot body.”
Darren instantly relaxed, crossing his arms over his chest, and leaned back
against his seat, a smirk on his lips and the cockiness of a crime lord giant. “And
just what else exactly do you have to offer me?”
“You can feel secure in the fact that when I eventually become the target of your
enemies, they’ll regret trying to play the damsel in distress with me.”
“And what makes you think you’ll ever become said damsel in distress?”
I rolled my eyes. “Oh, please. The moment you marry me is the exact same
moment you declare me as your weakness to the world. You already know they will
try to use me to get to you.”
“They can try,” he said, the cockiness in his voice unnerving. “And by try, I
mean fantasize about it in their heads. You underestimate my capability in the
underground and the civil world. My organization is much more than what you
think it is, with ties further and deeper than you can imagine. Yet some will still try
to cross me. I’ve been to war several times, Jaden, and I’ve never been beaten. So
should the day come when some idiot decides to attempt to fulfill his little
daydreams of overthrowing my empire, I will once again remind everyone why I am
not to be fucked with.”
Goddamn.
“So in response to wasting your talents, you have nothing to fear because I plan
to have you match me in just about every one of my talents. The idea of anyone
seeing you as my weakness will be gone before it’s even thought of. I don’t have
weaknesses, Jaden, and I will not allow you to become one; therefore, you will be
my strength instead.”
I furrowed my brows in confusion.
His strength?
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that by the time I’m done with you, my enemies will not even bother
marking you as a target because you will not be worth the bloodshed that you would
deliver should you ever be trifled with.”
A dark look came over Darren’s eyes as he grinned with satisfaction of his plan,
and I felt my stomach drop. He was going to make me like him, and I was too busy
trying to figure out if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
A few minutes later, I could see the black and gold gates to Darren’s estate open
for our entry. Trepidation swept over me as we pulled up to the house. More men
waited outside for us, only this time, most of them carried assault rifles openly.
Darren opened the door and helped me out of the car. My eyes traveled among
the men waiting for us, and I saw
