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She lifted her head, and the unshed tears in her eyes made my chest ache.
“Merce has been texting and calling me,” she told me.
I’d already known that, but I didn’t tell her so. She’d had enough truth for one day.
“I haven’t responded, but was that why? Was he trying to … to blame something on me?”
No. He’d realized what he’d lost, and he was trying to get her back.
She reached into her pocket then, as if just remembering she had a phone, and found nothing. The flash of panic on her face as she scanned the area, as if it had fallen out, was brief. “My phone.”
“It’s gone, along with mine. They can be traced.”
Her shoulders dropped defeatedly.
If she’d just let me hold her …
She took a deep breath and let it out. “Why go to all this trouble to protect me?”
Because you’re mine.
I stilled, as surprised by the words that had immediately run through my head.
The possessiveness she’d drawn out of me had morphed into this. Me claiming her.
“Like I said, I’m the same guy, just a different name. The guy who made sure you got your money the first night he saw you, the guy who protected you from the professor, the guy who took you to the apple orchard. The one who kept showing up because he couldn’t stay away. Even the one who lost his shit when your father laid a hand on you. You’ve had my attention from day one. The more I was around you, the more I wanted to be. Until you were all I wanted.”
•Twenty-Six •
Leave it to me to go and catch feelings for a man in the freaking Mafia.
Royal
How long had he planned this? It couldn’t have been a last-minute decision.
The pale pink satin pajama shorts and matching camisole, along with a pair of lacy white panties, which I had found folded up on the bed when I came upstairs, told me he had been prepared. Unless he’d brought other women here and they were my exact same size. Even knowing he’d lied to me about who he was and that he’d basically abducted me, I didn’t like the idea of him buying this for some other female.
What did that say about me or my mental health?
The bedroom with a connected bathroom were the only rooms in the loft area. In the bathroom, fluffy, large white towels had been rolled up neatly and placed in a tall basket near the shower and bathtub. Expensive-smelling body wash, shampoo, and conditioner were already in the shower when I took one. The lock on the bathroom door gave me a little peace so I could attempt to relax while standing under the hot spray.
I doubted he’d allow me to sleep on the sofa. He’d do it instead and give me the bed. But if I was going to escape this house and find a way back to Athens and Grams, he couldn’t be so close to the door. If he would just tell me where we were, that would help.
Not having a phone was an even bigger obstacle. I could get lost out there. Starve to death. Staying here while knowing nothing about my Grams or dad wasn’t an option.
My dad had decided to leave us. Fine. Maybe I wouldn’t check on him. But Grams needed me. There were bills to pay. Our house couldn’t just sit there, empty.
There were papers I owed people. They’d realize I was missing.
Anya would start getting concerned when I didn’t answer my phone. In fact, by this time tomorrow, she would go to the police. Rodney would wonder why I hadn’t come into the pool hall. Milo would notice when I didn’t respond to his texts about games. If I found some civilization, then I could ask for a police station. They’d have been alerted that I was a missing person.
When I stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in the satin pajamas, the smell of food met me. He was cooking. The kitchen was stocked then. Just like the bathroom had been. Maybe there were protein bars or nuts I could put in a bag and take with me. Or maybe I could find where he’d put the keys to the Hummer. It would wake him when I started it up, but he would be on foot, and I could get ahead of him easily enough.
Leaving him stranded out here bothered me though. I knew it shouldn’t. He’d done this to me. This had been his decision. He’d find a way to get out. It wasn’t as if I’d be leaving him here to die. Besides, from the smell of basil, oregano, and garlic, it seemed he had plenty of supplies to keep himself fed.
With my mind made up, I headed down the spiral staircase. Sharing a bed with him, even for a little while, would be a struggle. It wasn’t that I couldn’t control myself because, after today’s truths, having sex with him again wasn’t happening.
Now, would I be taunted by the memory of it? Yes. That had been a level of nirvana—
