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“Doc,” I whisper, curling my legs underneath me on the bed. I’m trying not to focus on the fact I’m in Elijah’s bedroom for the first time and his sheets smell like him. If I allow myself to focus too hard on that, I’m at risk of melting into a puddle and never moving again.
His eyes snap to mine, the intensity of the blackness almost makes me flinch, but I remain perfectly still.
“Elijah and I are dating. We have been for about a month,” the lie slips from my tongue with such ease that I almost believe it myself. It’s not as if I’ve spent much time practicing, but for some reason, the words are easy right now.
Doc doesn’t loosen his grip on Elijah’s neck, and I’m surprised to find my captor watching me closely. Not because he’s telling me to tell the lies he’s forcing me to live, but because he didn’t expect me to defend him.
“Doc, please,” I murmur.
He watches me for a moment, looking for the lie in my words, and I hold my breath. He’s going to see right through us. He’s going to realize I don’t want this, or at least, I didn’t want this. But tonight has me second-guessing myself and second-guessing everything I thought I knew.
Slowly, Doc releases his grip on Elijah, never tearing his eyes from me. Maybe he’s still looking for the lie, or perhaps there’s something else here that I don’t understand. One of the only things I know about the man is that he hates the Russo family with a burning passion, and I think it’s safe to say that hatred extends to Elijah.
“What happened?” he asks.
“A man held me at gunpoint and Elijah threw himself on me to protect me.” My eyes dart to the man in question, but he’s not wearing the smugness I expect. “I’m fine, but my overprotective boyfriend over there wanted to make sure.” I scoff more at the word I used to describe Elijah than anything else. The word boy and the ruthless man who took me from my life shouldn’t find themselves in the same sentence, but what else am I supposed to call him?
“How the fuck did a man with a gun get near you?” Doc snaps, his attention turning back to Elijah. “She shouldn’t be here if you can’t keep her safe.”
“Storm and I both had teams at the restaurant,” Elijah grinds out, barely containing the rage hovering beneath the surface. “He shouldn’t have got anywhere near her, but our current theory is he came through the kitchen.”
I reach for Doc’s arm, careful to make sure he sees the movement coming. I’ve made that mistake before and found myself pinned to a wall, winded from the force he slammed me into it with. Something in his past made him averse to unseen touches, and I’ve never been in a place to pry. “He saved me, Doc. He threw himself in front of a bullet for me. Cut him some slack.” I never thought I would defend Elijah Russo, but here we are.
He lets out an annoyed huff before turning his full attention on me, blocking the other man from his eye line. “Okay, let’s have a look at you.”
It’s an hour before Doc leaves, convinced I’m not badly hurt and that Elijah isn’t going to change that the moment he walks out the door. When the two men leave the room, heading for the front of the house, I push myself to my feet and pad across to the door. Now he knows I’m okay, I’m sure he’ll want me to go back to my room. He wouldn’t have decorated it exactly like my room at the estate if he didn’t intend for that to be my home while I’m here.
As soon as I step over the threshold and I’m no longer enveloped by his scent, I miss it. His masculine smell calms me, and when it no longer surrounds me, some of the panic returns. I could have been shot tonight. I could have died. I’ve been so worried about Elijah keeping me away from my family that it never occurred to me that my life has been in constant danger since the day I was born.
I’m distracted as I trudge back toward my lonely room, my prison, and more than ever before, I crave my siblings. I was never alone growing up, but that’s all I ever am now. All by myself in this huge house, and that’s the life that waits for me as well.
An arm hooks around my waist and tugs me back into a hard body. I let out a surprised squeak, but panic doesn’t grow as I expect it to.
“Where do you think you’re going, my little Snowflake?” Elijah breathes against the shell of my ear.
“Going back to my room,” I whisper into the dark hallway, the only light coming from his room behind us.
“Your room is back the way you came.”
My body stills. What the fuck is he talking about? Is he taking away the only refuge I have here? The only piece of home I have in the prison I’ll be locked in for the rest of my life?
24
Elijah
When her body stills in my arms, I know she’s about to fight me, but I don’t give her a chance, quickly scooping her up and carrying her back to my room before she can draw out her claws.
“I don’t understand, I thought…” Snow looks up at me with confusion and worry etched into her features.
“What did you think, Snow? Did you think I would have a wife who would sleep in another room?” I ask, placing her in the middle of the bed and tugging the tie of her robe open.
“I haven’t agreed to that,” she whispers.
I shake my head, making no attempt to hide the smile that tugs at the corners of my lips. “Didn’t you say in the bathroom it’s not really a choice at all?”
She glares at me. “I did. And then I had a man hold a gun on me, and now I’m kinda reevaluating things. That kind of thing happens when your life flashes before your eyes.” She crosses her arms across her chest to stop me from undressing her any further, but she should know if I want her naked, that’s exactly how I’m going to have her.
I sigh and massage the bridge of my nose. Every time I think we’ve made progress, she takes three steps backward, and it’s incredibly frustrating. “I know you’ve had a challenging evening, but I almost lost you tonight. You almost died right in front of me, and that’s moved up the timeline. You are my woman, and therefore, you will sleep in my bed.”
