Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 71701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71701 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 359(@200wpm)___ 287(@250wpm)___ 239(@300wpm)
Read Online Books/Novels: | Her Rebellion (The Rite Trilogy #2) |
|---|---|
Author/Writer of Book/Novel: | A. Zavarelli, Natasha Knight |
| Language: | English |
| ISBN/ ASIN: | B09WNG5667 |
| Book Information: | |
I am a Sovereign Son. A king within The Society. With a look I send men to their knees. Yet she stands tall against me, taunting me with her rebellion. But we all have rules we must live by. Even me. And I have broken the most sacred. I took her to my bed. I claimed that which did not belong to me. And now that the beast within has had a taste, it wants more. | |
| Books in Series: | The Rite Trilogy Series by Natasha Knight |
| Books by Author: | A. Zavarelli, Natasha Knight |
1
Judge
I check my watch when the knock comes on my study door. Miriam is prompt, as I expect. “Enter.”
“You wanted to see me, sir?” she asks, eyebrows raised in confusion.
“I did. Come in and close the door.”
“It’s late, sir. I was—”
“This won’t take long.”
She nods, closes the door, and comes to stand before the desk. I’ve set one chair there. A low wooden one. Uncomfortable. Small.
“Sit, Miriam.”
She sits, arranges her usual black dress over her knees, and finally meets my gaze.
I set the paperweight on the center of the desk and watch her stunned reaction. The only sound is a tiny intake of breath as color leaches from her face.
“She didn’t lie, did she?” I ask, somehow calm even though what I want to do is the opposite of that. It’s violence. Pure and simple.
“I don’t know what you mean, sir.” She folds her legs one way, then the other. Then she stands. “I’m tired. My shift is over. Perhaps we can—”
“Fucking. Sit.”
She lowers herself, her knees trembling.
“You’ve been feeding my mother information.”
“Your mother? No, sir. I work for you.”
“Ah, but you and she, well, with your brother being Theron’s father, I imagine you’re all very close.” That’s what I discovered after a little bit of digging. It didn’t even take that much. She used her ex-husband’s name on her initial application years ago. Somehow it slipped past my grandfather although maybe he didn’t care who my mother took for a housekeeper. She lived in the cottage by then. It’s not like he ever had to see either of them.
“It’s not like that,” she croaks out.
“You kicked her when she was down. Literally and figuratively.”
She swallows hard.
“You could have killed her.”
“Sir…”
“And I believed you. The black eyes were convincing. How did you do it?”
Nothing.
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is what I did,” I say more to myself than her.
“I’ll gather my things.” She starts to rise again.
“Did you hear me dismiss you?”
She drops back into her seat.
“And no, you won’t gather your things. Because if you do, you’ll be going directly to a prison cell.”
“Sir, it wasn’t my intention. I never would have hurt her.”
“Oh, I think you would have, but let’s go ahead and discuss that, shall we? Whose plan was it?”
She hesitates. “No, I really... I mean… She was so cruel to me. So belittling. You bringing her here like that brought her down a notch.”
“And you wanted to bring her down a few more.”
“She’s spoiled. You said it yourself.”
“How do you know what I said?”
She looks around the room.
“Walls seem to be remarkably thin in this house.”
She nods like an idiot.
“Did you tell her I gave her my permission to ride with Theron that afternoon?”
She clears her throat.
“Why?” I ask.
She shakes her head, eyes wet although I’m pretty sure any tears she sheds are to save her own skin and not for any remorse she may feel.
“Answer me.”
“We thought maybe Theron…”
“You thought to put Mercedes in his path. You and my mother.”
She lowers her gaze to the floor.
“What else does my mother know?”
She stares at me with her stupid eyes. She’s not the brains behind this operation.
“How you answer me will decide what I do with you, and prison is a very real possibility.”
“I… The courtesan.”
Fuck.
I keep my face neutral and impassive as if it means nothing at all. Because it means everything. Because if my mother knows what Mercedes did, she can cause real trouble for her. And she will if it will serve her.
I need to think. To get ahead of this. I have fucked this up so royally.
“Here’s what’s going to happen, Miriam.” She looks up at me and wipes her eyes and her nose. Snivels like a pig. “You are going to pretend this conversation never happened.”
She’s surprised at this. Nods enthusiastically. “Of course, sir. Of course! Thank you!”
“Don’t be so eager. If my mother or Theron get wind of this, if they find out that I know, I will haul you to a jail cell so fast you won’t know what hit you. Am I clear?”
“But… sir…”
I pick up the paperweight and toss it from one hand to the other as her face turns a shade of gray I didn’t know was possible for a living, breathing human being.
“And according to your file,” I say, opening the single folder on my desk. “It won’t be your first time. You were in prison before. Petty crimes but enough of them. I don’t imagine you liked it much. Inmates are brutal, aren’t they?” I give that a long minute to sink in. “None of the comings and goings of this house will be discussed with my mother or brother. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
I get to my feet, walk around the desk, and loom over her. “And if Mercedes so much as feels you’ve looked at her the wrong way, there will be hell to pay. Am I very fucking clear on that point, Miriam?”