A string of curses left Zane’s mouth as his trembling hands tried to cover up the wound Tyrion gave him. He couldn’t stop the blood which oozed from the open wound, dripping down onto the floor.
It wasn’t a fair fight.
Zane didn’t have a gun in reach to use.
What kind of prince would come into someone’s home and attack them ?
"You royal bastard!" Zane spat, glaring at Tyrion. How was he to find work ?
"I am not the one who is a bastard. You inherited a good home, so you should have lived quietly instead of chasing around women. You brought this on yourself," Tyrion said, lacking sympathy for Zane.
Zane tried to stand up. The pain in his leg was unbearable, but he had far worse beatings than this when he was younger.
Tyrion shot Zane’s left leg, causing another cry to fill the room.
Tyrion thought it wasn’t fair for only one leg to be in pain.
"You won’t get away with this. Me speaking about your wife isn’t a crime," Zane said.
Even the palace wouldn’t be able to cover for this.
"You think the palace will protect you?" Zane laughed, happy to know Tyrion would have hell to face.
Tyrion wasn’t concerned about the palace. Stepping away from the title of crown prince should have been Zane’s first clue that Tyrion didn’t care.
It hadn’t settled inside Zane’s mind yet that he would be buried around the kingdom, where the town guards couldn’t find him.
"I only care about my wife’s name being in the mouths of men like you. You picked the wrong husband to upset, and for that, you’ll learn a terrible lesson," said Tyrion.
Zane started to worry about his fate. He wasn’t told the prince was .
Had Tyrion forgotten who he was?
It wasn’t a good look for a royal to be .
Didn’t Tyrion care what the town would think?
"You’re a prince," Zane reminded Tyrion.
"Am I not allowed to get upset when you speak about my wife because I am a prince? Is that why you thought you could get away with the comments about her? You thought wrong," Tyrion said, aiming the gun at Zane’s head.
Zane flinched upon seeing the gun so close. He stared right into the muzzle.
"Wait!" Zane exclaimed, having one card he could use to save himself. "This wasn’t all my doing. I was paid by a man in the court to go after your wife. I was paid to seduce and ruin her so she wouldn’t be able to marry you. I can help you expose what he wanted."
Tyrion moved the gun, momentarily bringing some relief to Zane, only for him to be surprised by Tyrion shooting him in his chest.
This news of someone paying Zane would have been useful before Tyrion married Penelope.
Tyrion was currently married to Penelope, so what Zane was paid to do failed, yet Zane still had Penelope on his mind and thought of approaching her.
There was no doubt in Tyrion’s mind that if he had not come after Zane, Zane would have tried to get closer and closer to Penelope to seduce her. Zane wouldn’t have succeeded, but his actions to seduce Penelope would start gossip.
Zane had his right hand pressed against his chest. The wound in his chest ached far more than the ones in his legs, or maybe the pain was all hitting him at once now.
"You bastard! I’m trying to help you. Your court was against you."
"I know this," Tyrion said, aiming for Zane’s head once more.
Zane could only look up at Tyrion and tried to think of a way to get out of this.
"It’s a man named Arthur. He’s gone but-"
Zane was silenced after a single shot was fired, aiming directly between his eyes.
Zane collapsed on the floor, his eyes wide open and his mouth moving for a few seconds.
There was no chance for Zane to survive this, but Tyrion released another shot.
Hearing what Arthur wanted to do added to the anger he felt tonight.
Penelope hadn’t done anything to any of the men in the court, yet they plotted something awful for her.
The court liked to go on and on about a woman’s virtue. They spoke on how a woman should be modest until their final breath, but those same men would plot something so evil, all because they didn’t want her to be queen.
Elijah returned with necklaces, rings, and earrings in his hands. He wasn’t surprised to see Zane dead on the floor after the gunshots he heard. Zane was lucky Tyrion hadn’t come in firing shots.
Tyrion found it peculiar that Elijah wanted to take the jewellery. "What are you doing? None of them will look good on you."
"I don’t want them for myself. Doesn’t this necklace look familiar to you? There were drawings of it around the town," Elijah said, handing a necklace with rubies to Tyrion.
"No. Was it missing?" Tyrion asked, holding it up to get a better look.
"It was missing, and I am willing to bet that the others might have been stolen. Not only does he make a living out of sleeping with women, but he also steals from them. If these women welcomed him into their homes, they would have suspected him."
Tyrion handed the necklace back to Elijah. "That would only expose their dealings with him. What if they are married?"
"She is. Lady Dorothy is married to a man fifteen years her senior, and she is quite older than Zane. How could he do it?" Elijah wondered.
Elijah couldn’t fathom how Zane would go after women far older than him.
"He is not the only one to bed older women. Put them all back," Tyrion said, having no use for the necklaces. "They had their night of fun, and he stole from them. It’s a match made in heaven."
"Or hell," Elijah replied. "We have to move fast to clean this up and get out of here. I should have told my father. He could have cleaned this up for us."
"Do you plan to let your father do everything for you? No wonder he speaks of you as he does. You’re a leech," Tyrion said, setting his gun down to get started wrapping Zane up.
"No. He has people to do the cleaning up for him, and there’s no harm in using those people. I should have brought someone with me. Where are the men you use? Like Damien?" Elijah asked.
"He’s protecting Penelope. What’s funny?" Tyrion asked, missing the joke which made Elijah laugh.
"You have a big mansion protected by your knights and will soon be protected by the men my father is sending you. Damien could have joined you. I hate to admit it, but Penelope is far better than the two of us with a gun. Leave one with her and she’s fine," Elijah suggested.
"You don’t want me to leave my most loyal knight to protect your sister so you don’t have to clean up blood? What kind of brother are you?" Tyrion asked, growing worried about the relationship Elijah had with his sisters.
"The kind who has seen his sister accurately hit targets when she practised with my father. She’s fine," Elijah said, certain of it. "Only our mother doesn’t know how good she is with guns, and it must stay that way."