Their eyes widen slightly, but they don’t recognize the threat in front of them.

“Get it over with,” Mason grumbles.

“Don’t worry, big brother,” he sneers.  “I won’t take up too much of your precious fucking time.  I just have a few things to say and then we will leave.”

I’m guessing that the arrival of her long-lost lover was too shocking for her to notice the other woman in the room.  I recognize a threatened woman when I see one.  After all, I’ve been watching her husband rake his eyes over me with lust-filled want for the last ten minutes.  This is one crazy madwoman.

“Who the fuck is she?”  Her question isn’t directed at me, but I answer anyway.

“Emersyn.  It’s a pleasure.  And, sweet cheeks, I’m his future wife.”

I don’t know what made me say it.  Maybe I just wanted to slap it in her face that I won the priced Locke.  Or maybe it was just wishful yapping.  Either way, the words taste delicious.

The hand Maddox has wrapped around mine flexes, but he doesn’t outwardly react—nor does he dispute my words.

“HA!  You mean you actually found someone who you think loves you?  That’s hilarious.”

I take a page from Maddox’s book and growl deep in my throat.

“Shut the fuck up, Mercedes.” Maddox scolds.

She huffs at his reprimand, but she does shut her mouth.

“I was thinking one night that I never knew why you hated me so much.  It just didn’t make sense to me that you could give birth to someone and hate them instantly with everything you had.  I really don’t give a fuck what your reasons are now, but let me tell you a little fucking bedtime story this time.  There once was a man who thought he was broken and unworthy.  A demon that walked the Earth, causing nothing but pain to others with only a touch.  Then he met an angel that was just as lost as he was, and he realized, with her help, that it was never him that was broken.  It was never him that spread his villainous evil.  You see, that evil that he was told he had been born with… It came from only one person—you.  And once that man was free from the webs of her darkness, he realized he wasn’t some giant fuck-up.  He had just been born from evil and it took a little longer to clean that bullshit from his skin.”

“Now you little—”

“You don’t fucking get to speak!” he bellows.  “Let me ask you, Diana.  How many years have you been afraid that I would show back up?  That I would question everything you told me when I was at my worst?  I should have thought about it sooner, but I’ve been a little busy since.  It didn’t take long for me to sit at my computer and tap into your lives with just a few keystrokes.  You made a mistake though.  When you went to sell the company, I’m assuming because you were either drunk or had spent all of your worth, you couldn’t do anything without the one person who still holds twenty-five percent of Locke Oil, could you?”

I want to snap my eyes to his.  The shock of what he’s saying is making my head spin.  I didn’t even know about this.

“Ah, I can tell by your shocked and wonderfully terrified faces that you really did think I would never find out.  Isn’t it just fucking good fortune that I showed up when I did?  I don’t fucking want your company.  I didn’t when you assumed I did and I didn’t when I was fighting to rebuild my life twelve years ago.  But you can be sure of one fucking thing—I don’t care if it sinks you in the ground.  You want my shares—take them.  I know you need my signature to sell and you need to sell just to keep afloat.”

I can see the wheels turning in their heads.  They think they’ve won.

“Just like that?” Mason asks.

“Just fucking like that.  Oh…I forgot.  I won’t accept a check since I’m pretty sure it would bounce to the fucking moon.  You want them, then be prepared to bleed that money you don’t fucking have.”

“We don’t have that kind of money,” his brother fumes.

“Well, then, I guess I’m not fucking going anywhere.”  He laughs.

“Is this what you think will intimidate us?  Coming into my home with your slut and acting like we give a shit?”

My eyes narrow at Mercedes.

“That’s the thing, Mercedes.  I don’t really give a shit what you think.”

“You loved me once.”  It sounds like she is trying to talk herself into that one.