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“Excuse me?” My tone dips, an icy coldness surrounding each word.
He finally raises his head, staring at me head on. “Your father ordered you to come home, and if I don’t bring you, he’ll have me killed,” Vander says as some kind of explanation. Except he still isn’t making sense.
“We already decided to fucking leave and half of us have faked our deaths. My father thinks I’ve been killed in a bomb. So what the fuck does it matter that he called you right before the explosion? Did you inhale too much smoke? Did it fuck with your head?”
“You’re not understanding me—“
I cut him right the fuck off. “You’re damn straight I’m not understanding you. Because you aren’t making a lick of sense.” I’m practically yelling, but something about what he’s saying has me on edge. I know his true meaning hasn’t clicked yet, or maybe I don’t want it to…
Vander moves to kneel in front of me, and grasps my face in his palms. “Reginetta, please. This is hard enough without you interrupting me. I’ve told you all along, I don’t work for you, I work for your father. You just always assumed I meant Mr. Halston.”
He pauses and watches the truth sink in. He’s not talking about the man who found me and took me in as his very own. No, this is much worse. He’s talking about the man who apparently abandoned me. Who decided not to come after his daughter and instead left her to be raised by someone else. And now this motherfucker thinks he can come back in my life and dictate what I do?
I think fucking not!
Seeing the direction my thoughts have gone in written all over my face, Vander tightens his grip, refusing to let me rip myself from his hold. “Stop! Listen to me,” he begs. But it’s what he adds onto the end that twists my unwilling heart into giving in. “Reginetta, please.“ The aching desperation in his voice…
From the corner of my eye I see my other men listening just as closely, various expressions ranging from shock to irritation on their faces. I can’t quite see Jasper, but the hold he has on me says plenty. “Explain,” I bite out, not trusting myself to utter more than the one word.
He nods his head, knowing I’m reluctantly giving in to his plea. “Five years ago your father sent me to guard you. You’ve always had someone watching over you, but with you getting older he wanted someone who could remain by your side.” His gaze searches mine, a desperation for me to understand and forgive him hidden within the dark depths. The soft touch of his fingertips tucks a lock of hair around my ear before he continues.
“He’s always trusted me the most when it comes to your safety, and I’ve never let him down until I couldn’t keep my hands off you.” A soft smile pulls at his lips, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I’m fairly certain he knows, and that paired with discovering the hit taken out on you, he doesn’t think you’re safer in this life anymore.
“No, don’t give me that look, and I know what you’re about to say. Yes, we have to go. Your father will already know you faked your death. His network is far-reaching, a product of when you went missing. If we don’t go, he’ll kill me for defying orders. At least meet him this one time. You can leave afterward and never go back.” He glances down, fear evident of what my response will be.
“What do you mean I can leave? What, you don’t want to be with me anymore? Now that I know the truth, I’ll simply be thrown away?” I accuse, having picked up on him not leaving with me.
Vander’s eyes go wide with shock. “That’s not what I’m saying at all. Remi, it’s the fucking mafia. There’s no leaving. They’d kill me for trying. It doesn’t matter if I’m with the Don’s daughter or not. Without his orders, there’s no walking away for me. The only chance we have is if you play nice and he gives his permission.”
“So, basically my only option is to go, or kill you myself and say fuck it? Fuck you, Vander. You could have told me the truth long ago instead of using me as a toy to get off.” I push against his chest, and much to my disappointment, he doesn’t move an inch. Before I can try to hit him again, Jasper holds onto me.
“Calm down, Little Bird. Think about this clearly, you’re not one for emotions,” he soothes in my ear.
“I never used you, Reginetta. Fuck’s sake, why do you think I tried so fucking hard to not give in? Being with you has always been a death sentence for me, but I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. We’ve always been meant to be together. I never want to live a day without you. Please don’t think otherwise.“ His eyes plead with me, but I can tell deep down, he already thinks he’ll lose me. It’s been clear in all of his actions since the moment he found out I didn’t die in the fire.
“And what excuse do you have for not telling me?” I spit at him, unable to keep myself from feeling beyond irritated. How am I supposed to process all of this at once? The man I’ve let into my inner circle has been keeping secrets from me.
If Vander is capable of that, then who else is hiding things from me?
“I was ordered not to. And let’s face it, you never would have believed me anyway. At least not until the past couple of weeks, which there was never a good time to bring it up,” he defends, and if I was willing to admit the truth, then I’d agree with him.
“Fine. We can go. But I reserve the right to put a bullet through your heart,” I threaten before ripping myself from Jasper’s hold.
I’m halfway down the aisle before they shout after me. “Where are you going?” The smooth British accent caresses me, threatening to soften my mood.
“I need a moment to myself. Jasper accused me of being emotional,” I throw over my shoulder and wince at how I’m proving him right. Fuck.
Shoving the bedroom door open, I slam it shut behind me, and click the lock into place. It won’t hold them off if they really want to get in, but I’m hoping they’ll respect my need to be alone for a moment.
Without pausing to see if they’re coming after me, I dive for the bed, searching through the rumpled sheets to where I saw Vander’s phone sticking out earlier. The screen lights up, and after my face doesn’t unlock it, it asks for a password. On the off chance it works, I type in the nickname he always uses for me.
It shouldn’t surprise me that I guessed it correctly, but for some reason it does. Maybe he wasn’t lying about using me.
It’s been made abundantly clear that my stalker has been monitoring my phone, so while I know it’s a melted chunk of wreckage, I’m hoping a text will still go through and my stalker will see it.
Opening the message app, I bite my lip as I hit send.
Reginetta: I need to talk.
