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“You have a high regard for yourself, Cassian Thorne. I didn’t sit around and wait for you to come and save me,” I bite out, the anger at how he used to push me away just because he declared me too young for him takes hold. Granted, I was sixteen, and I knew he would get into trouble if we took it a step too far, but I was all grown-up, I could choose what I wanted, and I ached for him.
But he never lost control.
Until now.
“You see,” Cassian says, dragging me out of the thoughts racing through my mind, bringing me back to the present. “I thought that’s what was happening. You had moved on to something better. I figured you were all grown-up and ready to take on the world,” he announces with a flourish. “But then I had my men look into this little charade you’re playing.”
He stops moving and just stares at me. The truth in his gaze burns right through me. He knows. I don’t know what he’s found out, but he knows something more is going on between Paulo and me; that much is clear.
“What do you mean?” I cross my arms over my chest, needing to hold myself together. Cassian cannot know about what happened to me. He couldn’t have learned about Paulo’s hold over me. In the silence of the night, I pray he doesn’t know everything.
But when he steps closer to me, there’s a glint of rage in his eyes that wasn’t there earlier. And in that moment, I realize Cassian knows everything. I want to break down, to fall to my knees and cry, but I swallow back the pain, the heartbreak taking hold of me, and I focus on keeping my tears at bay.
“You’re not going back to that house tonight,” Cassian declares, causing my attention to snap to his. “I’m not allowing you to spend another night in a house with that bastard. And if he wants a fight, I’m ready for him.”
“I don’t understand,” I whisper hoarsely, my voice cracking with emotion. “If I don’t go back, if I anger him, he’ll stop paying—”
“For your father’s treatment,” Cassian finishes my sentence. “I know what he’s doing, and I’ve already taken care of it.”
My mouth pops open in shock. “What?” The word comes out as a squeak of surprise. That is most definitely not what I expected him to say.
“I’m not letting you go near him again, Kalyn. If anyone is going to hurt you and make you cry, it will be me, and trust me when I say that when I do, it will not be from pain, but from pleasure.”
“Cassian, you’re not making sense. You cannot keep me hostage here,” I answer, but my head is spinning with confusion. The man in front of me hates me, with good reason. He shouldn’t be stepping into my life as a hero because I don’t need that. All I wanted was forgiveness.
He steps up to me once more, closing the distance between us. Our bodies flush as he captures my chin between his finger and thumb. “I’ve been angry at you for a long time, Kaly,” he tells me earnestly, his eyes shimmering as he looks into mine. “I’ve spent my life wanting revenge, to make you pay for your lie, for telling your parents I would ever get you into this sick addiction of yours.”
“When your father spoke to them, told them the truth, they—”
“I know they believed him,” he interrupts me. “But it was your lie that sparked my anger. That you could even say something like that about me, that’s what shattered me, little liar.”
“I’m sorry, Cassian, I truly am.” This time, my voice breaks, and the tears I’d been keeping at bay slip from my lashes and trickle down my cheeks. A smile dances on Cassian’s mouth as he takes in my broken expression. I know he’ll enjoy my tears because he’s spent years wanting to cause them, wanting to make me beg and cry.
“Oh, you will be,” he warns. “But as I said, you’re not going back to that bastard.” He pulls me closer by my chin, so there’s nowhere else to go. Our mouths are a hairsbreadth away, and his warmth consumes me as he whispers along my lips, “You’re mine now, and I’m not letting you out of my sight until I’ve extracted my pound of flesh. Once you’re paid up, you’ll be begging me to keep you, just like you did all those years ago.”
“I don’t understand.” My words come out as a breathy whisper, one that I admonish myself for because I don’t want Cassian to know just how much his words have affected me.
“You’ll live at Thorne Manor until the Narro house is sold. While you’re at the manor, you’ll pay me back for that lie, for those words that fell from your lips.”
