Cross My Tigress Face the Wrath

Derek: "Shut your mouth."

Dan: "Wow, Dad. All that scheming just for a woman, huh?"

Derek's face darkened, his eyes flashing dangerously.

Dan kept pushing, "If you're so capable, why not do it on your own? Instead, you manipulate women to get everything you want, and then complain that their kids are ruining your love life?"

"Dan!"

Derek's voice was sharp, cold, and warning, his glare icy.

Dan met his gaze, unflinching.

"It's a shame, really. You calculated every move, but you didn't expect the first Mrs. Murray to be smarter than you. Before you ditched her, she set you up."

Lacey had run off with half the map.

That move sent shockwaves through the whole Black Gate circle.

And Dan's mother? In the end, she had to die for Derek's sake, so he could go play happy families with that other woman.

At the mention of Lacey, Derek's expression turned downright murderous. The tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Dan just gave a bitter laugh at the sight.

Derek: "You brought her back on purpose, didn't you? And you've been helping her cover her tracks all these years?"

tone became. He'd been searching for Lacey for years, never finding her never realizing Dan was the one erasing her

was too respected in Black Gate. Her being alive was

have snatched all the power from me and

only woman who ever ruled Black Gate, and the

both Derek and Finch had bigger problems than

Derek was silent.

tongue, grinning. "I did you a favor and found her. Whether you can get that half of the map from her for

that Black Gate was a deep, dark pool-but no

Derek, was a hopeless romantic, even stooping to fake a marriage to

his own son, couldn't

at the

He shot Dan one

him, "If Lacey hadn't come back, were you planning to give even my name

infamous baby switch, Derek's lover got promoted, but

icy, his

around, cold as a winter storm. "Leanne took care of you for

pulled that con, I'd be just

That word-gratitude-hit a nerve.

cornered my mother, ruined her, and I'm supposed to

played her hand,

had a daughter-no threat to anyone's ambitions. But now Derek

was the

door on his