"I've been protecting you." A shiver runs down my spine from the edge of danger in his tone. He takes another step closer to me, engulfing my hay-wired senses with his delicious spicy scent. "I'm trying to keep you safe, Kitten, but this is as far as I can go. You either come back with me to Vegas or die. The choice is yours."
"What type of choice is that? I either go with a murderer or be murdered," I blubber out before I can stop my hurtful words.
When Rico’s face lines with anger, I wish I could ram my callousness back down my throat.
“I’m sorry,” I apologize, my tone sincere. “But you have to understand, this is all a little bit crazy. I'm a kindergarten teacher, and you're a. . .” My words trail off when I fail to find a word to explain who he is.
“If you want to live, as far as anyone is concerned, I'm your husband.”
My stomach flips. I can’t tell if it's from concern or because he's still my husband. I can barely breathe, let alone work out my body’s crazy prompts.
“Are you sure there's no other viable option?” I ask, refusing to acknowledge the absurdity of my excitement.
Despair clouds his eyes before he shakes his head. Leaning against a stack of lockers on my right, I gulp in large breaths of air. My nostrils flare as they fight to fill my burning lungs.If I don’t secure a full breath soon, I'm going to pass out.
I spread my hands across my hips and bend over. After saying something to the gentlemen standing at the end of the hall in Russian, Rico places his hand on the curve of my back and crouches down in front of me, meeting me eye to eye. Any chance of regaining my composure is lost when I look into his beautiful, yet dangerous eyes.
"If I had any other choice, Kitten, I’d take it. I don't have any other option." His words are gruff, but his eyes relay the truth of his statement.
After sucking in a deep breath, I quickly mumble, “I understand, but I can’t just pack up my life and leave with you. I have obligations, an apartment, my students.”
“Everything has been taken care of.” He removes a handkerchief from his pocket and hands it to me. I use it to soak up the tears on my cheeks as he continues speaking, “Mr. Rodchester was happy to grant you an extended leave of absence. The rent for your apartment has been paid in full for a year, and your parents just discovered they were the fortunate winners of an all-expenses paid three-month tour of Europe.”
My jaw muscle slackens as my heart rate skyrockets. “How did you get Mr. Rodchester to give me time off?”
The rest of his statement makes sense. They seem like an easy fix. But Mr. Rodchester governs Ravenshoe Primary with an iron fist. When I called in sick with the flu last semester, he couriered a mountainload of papers to my apartment for me to grade. He does not believe in sick days and never approves time off outside of the standard school vacation schedule. He's such a stiff, I was only given a measly two hours off to attend my great aunt’s funeral last year.
The swirling of my squishy stomach escalates when Rico replies, "My men are very persuasive."
I straighten my spine when he shifts his gaze sideways. The man standing at the end of the hall doesn’t speak a peep, but his eyes must be forthcoming as Rico nods before turning his dark gaze back to me. I inhale a sharp breath, unnerved by the blackness filling his eyes.
“We have to leave now,” he instructs, his monotone voice conveying the urgency of his statement.
I nod, giving in to the fact there's no other option. If I want to stay alive, I have to place my trust in a man who equally intrigues and intimidates me.
“Can I say goodbye to my class?” I ask Rico, my chin quivering.
His eyes drift between mine for several heart-clutching seconds before he nods. A grateful sigh spills from my lips as I run my hands across my blemished cheeks. I don’t want my students to see me upset.
The hum of young voices dulls to a slight buzz when I swing open my class door. My strides into the room fumble when my eyes lock in on Mr. Rodchester standing at the back of the room. His eyes are wide, his pupils massive, and his entire composure screams of nothing but fear. I would not normally condone an act of violence, but I'm glad to see karma finally caught up to Mr. Rodchester.
Overlooking the fact a man who typically shows no emotion looks like a frightened child, I lower my eyes to my students sitting on the carpet in front of my desk. Twenty-three tiny faces peer up at me, gawking and shocked. Like they can sense a change in my composure, they stand from their seated position and swarm around me.
A barrage of emotions slam into me as I bid farewell to each member of my class with a brief cuddle and an assuring word that I’ll be back as soon as I can. My last embrace with a little boy named Jeremiah goes a bit longer than the ones before him. Jeremiah holds a special place in my heart after the rough start he has endured this year. His mom was arrested for conspiracy to commit a crime just before Christmas. Although her day in court has not yet happened, the events leading to her arrest have taken their toll on him.
“I’ll be back soon, Jeremiah.” I peer into his ocean blue eyes.
“Okay, Ms. Williams.”
After running my finger over the dimple in the middle of his chin to remove a smudge of dirt, I stand from my crouched position. Rico has gathered my handbag and book satchel from the bottom drawer of my desk, so there's nothing left for me to do but walk out of my classroom.
Why does the simplest act have the greatest impact to my already pained heart?
Chapter 7
The twenty-minute trip to my apartment is made in silence. The mask Rico wears in front of the members of his crew slipped into place the instant we entered the back of a black Escalade. The mood is somber, but there's still a weird crackling of energy in the air adding to the confusion of my pained heart.
The only good thing about the lack of ambiance is that it gives me plenty of time to study the man seated next to me. Taken out of the life and death situation I've been placed in, I can wholeheartedly understand my attraction to Rico. He has gloriously thick hair, a straight and defined nose, and lips that are too beautiful to ever spill the vicious words he has no doubt spoken in his short twenty-four years. And his eyes…my goodness!They are dark and beautiful but look like they are guarding a lifetime of secrets. He's night and day rolled into one strikingly handsome and complicated man.
