Concede (The Diamond Empire Book 1) by Kathy Coopmans (bts book recommendations .TXT) 📕

I glare at what’s left of his red and swollen eyes. One is budging far enough out of his head I can see the muscles attached to the socket. How he has any feeling left to show his painful emotion beats the shit out of me.

“You’ll burn in hell over everything you’ve done.” His speech is slurring. He’s losing the strength even to sweat. I want his tears mixing in with his blood, though, and then I’ll kill him.

“I run that place, or have you forgotten already? Brain getting a little foggy, Agent. It won’t be long now before you feel nothing at all. I’m not God. Therefore, I don’t forgive. You got up in my business, which I don’t take kindly. You threatened my brothers, which is a sin in itself. Do you know what gets me angry enough to kill? It’s when someone touches what belongs to me. Add those up, and it equals your death.”

“You don’t deserve a woman like,” he grates out, setting off on a coughing fit, unable to finish.

“You don’t know what I deserve or don’t.” No one knows better than me, I’m not deserving of Victoria, but when the hell has that stopped me from getting what I want?

That would be never. Besides that, I wouldn’t pursue her if I didn’t know deep in my bones; she cares about me.

“Maybe not. I do know Victoria isn’t your type. You like blondes who live at the gym and get their fucking stomachs stapled and showcase their tits in see-through dresses, not women who hide their fuller shape in loose clothing. The only thing Victoria has that would interest a man like you are plump lips and a beautiful face. You’re nothing but a contaminated piece of scum.”

He speaks so low I can barely hear the bullshit spilling out of his mouth. It’s enough to pulse my anger through me, working like a bull seeing a red flag waving.

Victoria is a lot of things. Fuller shaped isn’t one of them. A bombshell with raven hair is more like it. And so, the fuck, what if she was. She isn’t his; she’s mine.

He’s right, though. She isn’t my usual type. To me, that only means one thing, the ones I fucked before sinking into her warm, wet pussy taught me how to make her drip with pleasure. And her lips. I haven’t been able to get them out of my mind. They can suck dick like a pro, and I enjoyed every minute of them sliding up and down my shaft. I’m dying like a man thirsty for water to taste them.

Hissing through my teeth, I stand and ram the heel of my hand into his nose hard enough that his nasal cavity has to be sticking to his brain. Fresh blood squirts all over my white t-shirt, staining it just the way I like.

“That’s for my brothers. You have three last right sacraments. Best make them good, Agent,” I tell him coldly.

He smirks before coughing up so much blood I’m surprised he doesn’t spit out a lung. Amazed, he’s even breathing.

“Your father must be proud his baby boy went from being a whore to a legit paper pusher, to a cold-blooded killer, that led an innocent woman astray. Is that why you like Victoria so much? Got a secret thing for tainting the innocent? Do you get off on turning them into little whores?”

He stutters half his words. I’m impressed he’s pushing through the bloody gargle to talk, even if it’s going in one ear and out the other. Even more, Aidan hasn’t pulled out his gun and shot him for the shit he said. But his word I could kill him is just that, his word.

And a man’s word is everything.

“I can smell your jealousy. Too bad for you, I can taste it too. Your hatred for me over wanting my woman is extra bitter. Your last rites are over.” I’m going to cut out his vocal cords and choke him after I slit his throat.

My fists heat up. Before I know it, I’m smashing them into the pathetic idiot’s mouth over and over until several teeth meet the crimson color on the floor.

Blaring sobs meet my ears. I watch tears drip down what’s left of a quivering chin, inhaling the tangy smell of his blood.

My beast yells and beats on his chest, knowing we got what we wanted out of him.

“If you’d dug deeper into my past, you’d know I was young when my father died. I can’t remember him. The one that raised me is mighty proud.” Gabe is standing several feet behind me with Aidan, Roan, and a ton of other men. He flew back here from Texas a few days ago to settle some things with Roan. Probably ready to get this shit show done and over so he can get back to Texas. They know me well enough that I’ll kill when I’m damn good and ready.

“I don’t like clean cops any more than I like dirty ones.” In fact, I hate any man with a badge. Bastards think that they can push people around and break the same laws they arrest people for because they have one. It sucks we need them. Crooked sons of bitches.

Agent Wozniak jerks his head back and hacks a wad of blood at my face. That’s all it takes for me to end his life. He’s useless. But his death will satisfy my beast.

For a while, anyway.

“My hands are itching to use this knife.” I pull out my favorite blade from the inside pocket of my jacket, remove the leather sheath, and twist it around to let him see the full benefit of the WASP double-edged dagger Gabe gave me. Any knife will kill. This one can also numb or knock someone out with a single shot of CO2. Depending on where I inject them.

“Dear Jesus, kill me now and get it over with.”

“My pleasure. This one