Cross My Tigress Face the Wrath (Stella) novel Chapter 961

When Hull finally stepped out, Derek Murray’s expression hardened, his face turning stormy the moment their eyes met.

What was that look Hull gave him? Was that how a man should look at his future father-in-law?

Caden, clutching his bruised side, forced himself up from the floor and came to stand behind Derek. “Sir,” he managed, voice taut with pain.

Locking eyes with Hull’s cold, murderous stare, Derek drew a slow, tense breath and spoke, his voice laced with frost. “What’s the meaning of this, Mr. Miguel?”

Hull’s mouth twisted in a harsh smirk. “The meaning? I might ask you the same, Mr. Murray. Is this how you act when you’re visiting someone?”

“Oh? So you think my attitude is bad?” Derek’s tone turned even colder. Derek hadn’t even started interrogating him, and this man was already flipping the script.

Hull merely glared back, then pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit up, and took a long drag. He stared at Derek through the smoke, silent but radiating a tension that pressed down on everyone in the room.

Derek forced the air from his lungs. “Who decided to go after Black Gate? Was it you?” For weeks now, Hull, Xander Schultz, and Ronald Quinn had all been taking Black Gate apart, relentless and merciless. Xander and Yvonne Quinn had struck first—and Derek had to wonder if Yvonne’s actions meant the Quinn family was involved as a whole. But Hull… Hull had always been Ronald’s right hand. Caught in the maelstrom, Derek struggled to make sense of whose will was really behind Black Gate’s undoing.

He had to know the truth: was this Hull’s doing, or Ronald’s?

“Does it matter?” Hull retorted coolly.

“I seem to recall there’s no bad blood between Black Gate and Mr. Quinn,” Derek pressed, though his voice wavered for a moment. Black Gate was no saintly outfit—they’d done plenty of dirty work over the years. Out in the open, they’d never dare move against Ronald. But who could say what had happened in the shadows?

Hull didn’t bother with pretense. With a single, cutting remark, he erased any room for doubt. “Whatever you and Mr. Quinn might have between you, I couldn’t care less. And you can stop guessing who’s behind it. This takedown of Black Gate? That’s on me.”

Derek felt his breath catch. “You?” he hissed, his eyes clouding with a dangerous intensity as his voice dripped with venom.

“I just got sick of them. Is that so hard to understand?” Hull’s voice was casual yet unmistakably arrogant, the answer digging at Derek’s raw nerves. When their eyes met, Derek finally saw it—behind the mockery, in the deepest part of Hull’s stare, was a hatred so fierce, so personal, it was as if he wanted nothing more than to rip Derek apart.

This wasn’t simple “disapproval.” This was something primal, seething, carved into his very bones.

Derek felt his heart thud, his chest tightening under that searing, hate-filled gaze.

“Have we… met before?” The words slipped out, uncertain, almost desperate.

Those eyes—they were too familiar. That look of ferocity and animosity… Someone had once looked at him just like that. But where? When? His mind swirled in chaos, memories blurring, nothing clear enough to grasp.

Yet at this moment, Derek was certain of one thing: he had seen that particular look of loathing in Hull’s eyes somewhere before.