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“When I caught them on my bed, her with the wedding gown I was going to wear hiked up to her hips as he fucked her from behind, I was happy. I saw the exit plan before they did. Reina thought she won that day when she went to Grandpa with some cocked-up story that she was pregnant and in love with Benji. He’d already heard my side by then. But he needed the wedding to still take place.”

“What better way than to have her marry him.”

“Exactly. He gets the connections he wants, and I get to escape the picture altogether.”

“Wouldn’t someone have said something? I’m assuming you and he had a wedding announcement.”

“Sure, but other than the inner circle who saw us together, no one knew what I looked like. And Grandfather clarified that no one was to speak of me, not even my name, from that moment forward. For the world, they saw a Takahashi marrying a Tanaka. They didn’t need to know it was the wrong girl. They just needed to know it was the only girl.”

“Okay, that explains how you got out. Now tell me the rest.”

“The rest.” I shrug. “I don’t know it all. I was kept out of it for a reason. I’m an outsider to many, not just because of my blood but because I’m a woman.”

“But you’re clever.”

I smile at his words, matching his grin with my own. “Yes. Grandfather ran the Takahashi family, of the most powerful families in the Yakuza.”

“He doesn’t anymore?”

“He’s getting old. Even before I left, I saw my uncle and other men take over certain sections. I don’t know it all, but most of the money goes through him and the rest goes through, I think, my uncle.”

“Why does he want you to marry?”

I shake my head and stand. “I don’t know. Maybe he’s tired of Reina’s actions. She might think she gets away with most things because her mother allows it, but Grandfather barely tolerates her. When she took the marriage with Benji, he only seemed to be happy that she was gone from the home.”

“Would you really marry someone if he asked you to?”

I turn and give him half a smirk. “I can’t marry someone else when I’m married to you, now can I?”

“So, this dinner.”

“Yeah?”

“He can’t marry you off, so what do you think is his next play?”

“I don’t know. I wish I did. I’ve always hated mind games. And I really don’t like to be used as a bargaining chip.”

I hear him move off the bed and come closer.

“My real name is Cole Mercer. I dropped out of high school because I got into too many fights to keep going. Dad was a thief and died in a riot at the prison one day. Mom ran off, no clue where she is. I like cats because I was bitten by a dog as a kid and still fear them a bit. The club calls me Atom, like the bomb, because no one expects me to make a big impact till I get pissed, and then no one is left standing when I fight. I like the color green but hate peas. And I thought you were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen the first day I met you.”

He spins me fast in his arms and picks me up just as quickly, holding me against the wall with ease as my mouth falls open in shock.

“And if we’re getting out of here alive, we need to make sure your family knows just how much you and I are together.”

I’m ready for his kiss this time. I all but welcome it.

My mouth parts for his tongue and my hands roam his hair, gripping and holding on as he dominates my lips.

I’ve tried to fight this man. I still want to fight him, but not to be away. The need to find my freedom is like a tangible thing for me. He said he saved me by claiming me as his, but there are still walls around me. Still an invisible cage that I feel tightening, closing in.

But… fuck. What’s a girl supposed to do when a man talks like that? When he says so many things to you that no one has ever said? Speaking words your soul and heart have cried out for someone to say to you for years.

That, despite it all, they picked you. Wanted you. Chose to be with you.

I know this is more than just a man biding his time with a woman. Like an undercover cop who has to blend in and find a girl to hook up with, and maybe kids, but always knowing that one day they’d be able to walk away.

But that’s not Atom. That’s not what this is.