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“Wedding?” I held my breath, praying I was mistaken. But he nodded, looking just as grim as I felt. “Do you…” I couldn’t find the words. It couldn’t be happening. Did this guy seriously expect me to agree to this? “Not gonna happen!” I blurted. “I don’t even know you!”
He laughed again, just as humorlessly. “It will happen whether you want to or not,MissRemington.”
I shook my head, making my hair dance over my shoulders. How could he think that I’d do something so absurd? Why did he even want… I gasped as realization hit. He didn’t want it.Me. He even said so himself. I just didn’t listen. An icy cold lump settled in my belly, freezing me in place on the massive wooden chair. He was forced.
“Your father’s doing this?”
He nodded, adding, “And yours.”
No.No.My father sent me away to protect me. He would never allow this. If he knew… My eyes darted across the room, to the heavy crimson curtains pulled away from tall windows to the cropped lawn outside, then back to Alex.
“I need to call my father. He’ll come get me. This is crazy.”
He didn’t reply, and instead looked as if he waited for the other shoe to drop. I refused to let it. My father didn’t know. He couldn’t have. He wouldn’t have let me go if he did. I wanted to scream at him that he was wrong. I knew that look. He thought I was dumb. Naïve.
“But you don’t want to,” I said, grasping at straws.
“No! I don’t want to marryyou!” He put a huge emphasis on the wordyou, and for some reason, it offended me more than it should. I also didn’t want him, so why did his rejection sting?
“Why not me?” I heard myself saying, and with the knock-back came the bitter taste of insecurity. Of always looking from the outside. Of never belonging to anything—or anyone. Before I could stop myself, the emotion burst from my lips. “Why does no one want me?”
Alex looked taken aback by my sudden outburst, and I looked down at the table in shame. Damn Marc for messing with my mind. Him turning me down again and again broke me. Made me think there was something wrong with me. I did everything I could to catch his interest, but no. He pushed me away like I was made of poison.
“What’s wrong with me?” I challenged. “You don’t even know me!”
Irritation flared in his dark eyes. I could only imagine what he was thinking, and shame burned my cheeks. But the despair was stronger. The desperate need to feel anything other than misery and isolation. Wherever I went. It followed me. Marc’s coldness. And now Alex’s. What was so wrong that no guy could stand to be near me?
“Am I not pretty enough for you?” I snapped, overwhelmed by sudden anger and a sense of unfairness. I was going to die! Was it too much to ask for a little bit of affection before I kicked the bucket?
“I have a boyfriend,” he hissed, low enough for only me to hear. “That’s why!”
“You…what?”
He shook his head at my staring, giving me a cold sneer. “Please don’t tell me you’re a fucking homophobe, too.”
“No,” I stammered. “No, of course not. I’m just…” Relief twisted my lips into a smile. It wasn’t me. It was him. I’d never been happier about meeting a gay man. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Don’t tell anyone. Especially not my father. He’ll kill him. Or me.”
I gulped and nodded. “You have my word.”
“I still have to marry you, though,” he said, holding up a hand as I tried to speak. “Don’t argue this. You have no choice. Neither have I.”
“But—”
“You don’t know my father. What he’s capable of. Do you even know who he is? Where you are?”
I looked around, as if the answer was written on the walls or hidden behind gold-framed paintings displaying art I didn’t understand. Modern, I guessed. Probably worth millions.
I shook my head, trying not to let the fear spidering down my spine show on my face as I turned back to Alex.
If his own son was this terrified of him and what he’d do… I didn’t want to know. But I had to. “Who is he?”
Alex studied me for a long, heavy silence before speaking. “Some people refer to us as Cuban Mafia.”
I swallowed the giant lump lodging in my throat.Mafia? I read about them. Made-up characters with deadly intensions and even deadlierbusinesses. I saw them in movies. I never imagined I’d be trapped in the real-life version’s mansion.
Shit.
