Chapter 6
The question was not born of curiosity; it was a deadly demand for confirmation, dripping with the absolute promise of violent retribution.
The silence in the grand salon became a physical, suffocating pressure. The dozens of ivory candles flickering in their ornate brass candelabras seemed to be the only things moving in the entire, luminous space.
Audrey swallowed hard, her pulse racing frantically. She met Gideon’s dark, commanding gaze. Her chest heaved rapidly beneath the fitted black fabric of her creased dress. She knew the extreme danger of answering that question. She knew the power of the Kerr family, and she knew Vanessa’s capacity for vindictive, fatal violence. She could still feel the freezing dampness of the cellar seeping into her bones.
But looking into Gideon’s eyes, feeling the absolute, terrifying demand for the truth radiating from his masculine frame, Audrey found she had no choice. The presence of the mafia boss stripped away her ability to lie. He had just physically defended her, breaking the socialite's grip on her body.
Audrey’s breath trembled violently, parting her lips before she could force the fragile words out into the open. She refused to look at the woman in the emerald gown. She kept her eyes locked on the man who commanded the city.
"Your brother Evan," Audrey answered, her voice quiet but devastatingly clear.
The admission was a knife to the chest of the entire syndicate. A collective, quiet gasp rippled through the elite guests standing near the velvet sofas. The sheer, audacious malice of betraying the boss with his own brother was shocking even to seasoned syndicate members who dealt in violence daily.
"In your bedroom," Audrey finished, her voice breaking slightly.
May you like
Gideon Whitmore stopped breathing. His jaw tightened instantly, the extremely short stubble on his face bristling with suppressed, explosive violence. The artistic tattoos on his hands flexed as his fists clenched at his sides. He realized in a fraction of a second that the woman he was supposed to marry had desecrated his own bed with his own blood.
He slowly turned his head, his naturally swept-back hair catching the light. He locked his cold, lethal gaze directly onto Vanessa.
