AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I spend a minute fiddling with the console screen, but I can’t make the GPS work. A frustrated huff blows out of me. I tap my manicured nails against the wheel.
How bad could it be if I drive for a while? At least if I find a twenty-four-hour convenience store or gas station, I can figure out how to get back to the city.
It’s not like I’ll end up on a dead end road, ripe prey for a psycho axe murder if I pick a direction and drive.
Without a phone, ID, or money.
My eyes widen and I laugh off the preposterous worry that flits through my head.
Blowing out a breath, I glance in the rearview.
My heart stops and I nearly shriek, my brain leaping to the axe murderer I imagined. But no…my heart thuds because I recognize the lone figure.
Fuck.Cohen is standing behind the car, cast in a red glow from the tail lights and exhaust smoke.
The bleakness of the situation bleeds over me and my chest tightens as I stare at Cohen in the mirror.
Where can I really go?
If I make it back to the city, that doesn’t change things. My father’s threat is still hanging over my head no matter where I am. I know he’s friends with a judge or two who would do him a favor.
Dad controls everything and he’ll do whatever is in his power to keep me in line.
He loves his business and his money more than he loves me.
There’s no escaping, so I’m only making my life harder.
I squeeze the steering wheel until my knuckles turn white.
But does it mean I’m giving in if I go through with the wedding? My eyes lock on Cohen again. He hasn’t moved. A breeze blows through his dark hair.
Who’s worse, Annie, the devil you fear or the devil you know?
Swallowing, I take a deep breath. Cohen fucked me like I was something to be cherished and worshipped. If he can touch me like that, is he really going to make my life hell?
My nails dig into the wheel and I tear them away to cover my face. Everything is so confusing. I shouldn’t forgive him for what he did. He doesn’t deserve it.
How can I believe he had good intentions in his scheme tonight?
I guess in a way, beneath all the fucked up parts, I can see that Cohen thought it would be a sweet way for me to get to know him without my existing feelings in the way. He just went about it in the stupidest way possible.
Typical, impossible, wild Cohen.
A tired laugh rolls through me.
I have to admit, Cohen was free and more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him. That might be who Cohen has grown to be beneath the mask he wears. I’ve always known his cruel games, but if I didn’t fight him so hard maybe he would have shown me his charming side, too.
This is insane. I’m sitting here reasoning Cohen’s merits with myself. I slide my fingers into my hair and look once more at Cohen’s reflection in the rearview.
I have to decide what my heart wants. Will I accept the cage and resent it, or will I be granted more freedom and power by cooperating?
The moves I’ve always made have been because I was picking my own battles, thinking I had to choose what little freedoms were afforded to me.
All these years I have built Cohen up as the face of the true monster that haunts me, but that’s not right. In truth, it’s the anger that’s made me fight so hard. The rage I feel at my father. It was easier to filter my hatred and aggravation into Cohen.
But now that I’m being honest with myself? Deep down, past my hurt heart and the hate I built into a wall to protect me from Cohen, it’s always been him.
When he kissed me, my very first kiss, I wasn’t mad that he forced me. I had a crush on him back then. I was really mad because he did it first before I could.
My thoughts swirl in my head, a mass of confusion and a new hope.
All of it centers on Cohen.
If I believe him, then he wouldn’t want to cage me the same way Dad does.
He’s possessive of me and made his point about claiming me. But is that where it ends? If it is, I’ll fight him tooth and nail. I refuse to be a toy to another man after I’ve played my father’s puppet all my life.
I have to know for sure whether he thinks of me as property or his equal before I run away.
Movement behind the car catches my eye as Cohen takes a step closer. Heaving a defeated sigh, I shift the car in park.
