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Thea is glaring at me with those big, blue eyes when I walk in, but she lights up when she smells the food. I close the door with my foot and set everything on the bed. Some napkins, some plates, some metal forks—I do despise the plastic sporks that come with the Chinese food. A fork and a spoon should never be combined, under any circumstance.
Once the food is divvied out, she sits near the headboard, as far away from me as she can get, and I sit at the foot of the bed, off the edge, my plate on my lap.
“So,” I start, “this was all about the money. Money so you and your brother could move out of the city and get a life started, so that when your mother gets out, she’ll have somewhere to go.”
Thea bares her teeth at me as she chews. Very unladylike, but I only find it amusing. “Yeah.”
“I read into your mother’s many run-ins with law enforcement. It doesn’t sound like she was ever a very good mother to you and your brother, so why bother pulling all of this off for her?” I’d really like to dig into Thea’s mind a bit, try to understand her more. If family is truly such an important thing to her… I’ll have to be careful with Max.
If he dies in my care or gets hurt too much, well, she might not ever forgive me, and call me crazy, but I just can’t stand the thought.
I can tell by the look on Thea’s face she doesn’t want to talk about it. Not to me, and probably not to anybody. In her mind, no one could possibly understand except her brother, which I suppose is true enough. No one has lived their lives, therefore they share things no one else possibly could.
After a while, she must realize she has no choice. I’m not going to let it go. She stabs a piece of sweet and sour chicken with her fork. “She wasn’t the best mom, but she’s still our mom. She still loves us. She’s just… weak when it comes to certain things.”
“Many times children who grow up seeing their parents like that fall into the same trap. Why aren’t you and your brother more like her?”
Thea shrugs as she brings that chicken to her mouth, and she talks with her mouth full, “I don’t know. We saw what it was like, we knew how hard everything was. We wanted to be better? If it wasn’t for me and Max, we would’ve lost the house years ago.” The sigh she lets out after that is record-breaking. “None of that matters now.”
“Don’t worry about the house.”
With a huff, she frowns. “Yeah, yeah. I know. I have bigger problems now than keeping a roof over my head.” As if I don’t know what she’s getting at, she adds, “You.”
All I can do is smirk to myself as I eat. I should’ve known this girl would amuse me to no end given how we first met, but there was no way to tell just how much fun this would be. And it’s only day one. We have so many more days to go.
The room quiets as we both focus on eating for a while. I can sense she wants to speak, but she’s probably a little anxious, perhaps even nervous to say what’s on her mind. She knows I’m the one with the power here and I’m not afraid to use it against her to make her do what I want.
Hey, I never claimed to be a hero. Men like me, in my profession, are often the opposite of the squeaky-clean, white knight type.
It gets to the point where Thea stops eating. About half the food remains on her plate, which she absentmindedly pushes around with her fork. Finally, she breaks her silence: “So, can I see Max or what?”
I set my empty plate down on the bed beside me. Unlike her, I wolfed down the food. My gaze meets hers, and the desperation inside her is plain. Instead of playing games with her, I tell her the truth: “Yes. I’ll take you to your brother tomorrow morning.”
This time her sigh is full of relief, and she actually begrudgingly says, “Thank you.” It’s obvious she doesn’t want to thank me for anything, and I can’t blame her for that, given the fact that she’s now under my roof and therefore living under my rules as my lovely prisoner.
I stand and gather the plates and the cups from our dinner. “I know you must believe me a monster, Thea, and I suppose I am one, but I am not a monster who lies. When I tell you I will take you to see your brother, I mean it, and when I tell you that I will let you go after you give me the time you owe me, I mean that as well.”
I stop near the door, glancing back at her. Everything is stacked, and I hold the plates and the cups in one hand, balancing them, while my other hand goes for the door handle. “This might look like a prison now, but it doesn’t have to be. If you prove yourself to me, love, I would be glad to let you wander the condo.”
Thea doesn’t say anything, but she does frown at me, like she’s unsure if she can trust me or not.
She’ll learn. She and I… we have nothing but time.
Later that night, after the other delivery came with her sheets and some clothes, after I let her shower and get ready for bed, I don’t force myself into that room again. I let her first night here be one she spends alone.
It’s just as well. If I go into that room again, especially with it being so late an hour, I can only imagine the things I’d do, what I’d want from her, what I’d take from her.
My desire to have her completely is strong. It’s the strongest feeling I’ve had in a long, long time. These past few years, ever since Roark and I took over for our father after his death, life has been… odd, boring. Not boring in the sense that I didn’t have anything to do—there are always things to do when you’re basically running half the city in one way or another—but boring as in nothing ever really changes.
People come, people go, people make mistakes, and people die. Sometimes I’m the reason they die. My life lately has been a revolving door, and no matter how many times I go around, nothing changes. It’s all the same.
It’s dull.
So, yeah, when Thea came up to me in the club and asked me to pretend to be her boyfriend while somehow not knowing who I was, it was new. Different. Exciting, even. And when I woke up tied to a chair in an unfamiliar house, the night turned even more interesting.
Thea, albeit unwittingly, brought an air of exhilaration to my life, something I’ve been missing these past few years. If you would have asked me a week ago if I thought I’d have a girl I just met, a girl who drugged me and helped kidnap me, living in my place, I might’ve laughed, but now… I can’t imagine anything else.
I get ready for bed just after ten. It’s been a long day. The moment my head hits my pillow, I thought I’d fall asleep, but I don’t. I lay there, wide awake, staring at the dark ceiling and wondering if Thea is awake in the other room as well.
