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“Why?” he repeated, amused with my question. “I felt there was no need. I was found innocent.”
“No, the judge ordered a mistrial. There’s a significant difference. The prosecutor could have pressed the point a second time.” The bastard who’d sat behind the bench had acted like I was deranged. I’d believed then that he’d been bought off by Constantine or one of his disciples, even if I’d been made a fool of more than once.
He half laughed. “I guess I’ll need to keep that in mind as we forge a stronger bond.”
“Do you enjoy playing games? Is that another method of torture for you?”
“I never play games. You’ll learn that soon enough. And I never torture beautiful women.”
“I think you and I both know that’s not true.”
“You obviously know very little about me,” he said in passing.
And I didn’t want to learn any more either.
“Then why bring me here? Why allow me to roam the grounds freely?”
“I assure you that I’ve had you under surveillance from the moment you woke up this morning.”
“Oh, my God. You’re a pervert.”
His laugh sent a series of tremors through me. “Now you’re beginning to understand. I simply didn’t have an opportunity to explain the rules when we arrived, which is why you were allowed a sense of freedom. I assure you the requirements will change once we’ve returned to Kansas City.”
I loathed the thought of returning there, a place that hadn’t felt like home the minute I was depicted as some femme fatale by the local news. “Is it too hard to have a cage in the Bahamas? Would the steel bars rust from the infusion of salt in the air?”
He took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “I love the beach. When I was a kid, I used to beg my parents to take us. Living in the middle of the country has its advantages, but there are no weekend jaunts to the beach. I bought this place the moment it came on the market.”
As he tipped his head, I noticed he was finally smiling instead of smirking.
What did he want me to do, beg him to allow this to be our passionate home? To hell with him.
“We’re going into town for the day. I suggest you shower and change. We’re leaving in an hour.” He never removed his sunglasses but there was no doubt he was staring at me. Watching me.
Devouring me with his eyes.
“Fine. Or, I guess I should say yes. Sir.”
He remained exactly where he was for a full minute, the scent of his cedarwood and spice aftershave floating around me from the breeze. “I do have one question for you, and I want the truth.”
“Okay.”
“Why did you agree to testify? It is my understanding that you were offered a significant sum of money to disappear soon after the incident.”
“You mean from one of your… boys? Bribe money, which I refused. I thought your soldier would have told you exactly what I said to him to convey to you. I wasn’t very nice about it either.”
“If I remember correctly, you told him that the only way you’d accept the twenty thousand dollars was if you were able to shove the cash down my throat.”
Heat rushed to my face, enough so I eased my hand behind my damp hair, rubbing my tense muscles. “Yes, I did.”
“You see. I remember you as well. Answer me.”
“Because I’m a good little girl who always follows the rules. Believe it or not, I do have integrity even if you find that odd given how you found me in the first place.”
He said nothing in anger, nor did he act as if he was furious with me, but I sensed his growing discord, a level of impatience that would soon turn into something else I didn’t want to entertain.
“As I said to you before. You will never lie to me. Answer me. You obviously knew who I was, my family’s savage reputation, yet you sat in that courtroom and acted as if you had no fear whatsoever. But I was able to gather a whiff of it. Did you know terror has a distinctive smell of its own?”
The asshole was goading me. To hell with him.
