Ruthless King

“What?”

“You won’t hurt him, will you?”

He turned back to find her chewing at her lower lip, looking worried. “What?”

“You won’t hurt Clive, right?”

“You don’t want me to hurt him,” he said slowly, wondering if he was understanding her correctly. “Just get rid of him.”

“Exactly. Could you just, maybe, relocate him? I mean, it’s not Clive’s fault. He’s just living his best spider life, you know? It’s just his bad luck that he chose my bathroom. Someone else could probably just carry on their business without worrying about him.”

“You think other people would leave him there?”

“Um. No. I guess not. But I don’t like to think about what would happen to him if he was somewhere else. It makes me sad. I mean, I want him gone, but I don’t want him dead. I’m not a monster.”

“Because only a monster would kill a spider?” he drawled. What would she think of him if she knew everything he’d done?

Regent didn’t regret any of it. Regrets were would be pointless.

He wasn’t a good person. There was no fooling anyone about that. He’d killed people. He was involved in a number of illegal activities.

But he didn’t kill innocents.

And he protected his family with everything he had.

That had to count for something, right?

However, for a woman who wouldn’t kill a spider, he wasn’t so sure that it did.

“You’re sure I can’t just kill it.”

“Yes, I’m sure. I really can’t believe you’d consider killing Clive!”

Dear Lord.

“Fine. I’ll relocate it . . . him. Have you got a container I can put it in?”

She nodded and rushed away. Regent turned to look up at Clive. “Well, Clive, are you planning on going easily or making this hard?”

Yeah. He got the feeling that Clive was going to make this as hard as he could.

She wincedas she heard a crash.

Uh-oh.

Seemed that Clive didn’t appreciate being evicted.

What was she thinking, asking Regent Malone to get rid of a spider? And not only that . . . she’d asked him to relocate Clive because she didn’t want him harmed.

It was a wonder he hadn’t just walked out on her.

Or laughed in her face.

Another bang. A curse.

She winced.

Yeah, she should have let Clive stay. How long did a spider even live for? She could have put up with him.