AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My scalp screams for mercy when he fists my hair tighter and yanks me out of the car and to my knees. The handsome face I dreamt about for years is contorted into a mask of rage I don't recognize.
“You’re coming with me,” he demands.
“No.”
He bends down, until his blue eyes are an eyelash width from mine. “Rhi,” he whispers. “I won't show you any mercy.”
“I don't want your mercy, Xavier,” I whisper back.
His warm lips brush against my ear. “What if I take you back to Ian?”
My heart races at the mention of my forced fiancé. For two years, I've endured the impending nuptials, biding my time until I could escape, only to be thwarted by this.
Like vultures, his suited men watch in the darkened parking lot, waiting to see who comes out the victor.
“Let me go.”
“No.” He pulls me to standing. “Haven't you learned yet I mean what I say?”
“Like leaving me?” I taunt. A muscle ticks in his jaw.
He releases my hair and turns away. “Put her in the car,” he orders.
His henchmen get no resistance from me as they lead me to the black sedan.
I'll figure a way out of this. Just like when we were kids and played rescue the princess. Except, this time, Xavier isn’t smiling and laughing. And this time I'm not the princess of some imaginary land. I'm a different kind of a princess. Something I want no part of. A Mafia princess. And Xavier isn't my white knight coming to rescue me. He's willing to kill me to get what he wants.
“What areyou doing in my room?” I wrap the plush, white towel tighter around me, trying to shield myself from the insanity of this situation.
“This house belongs to me. Why wouldn't I be here?” Xavier’s eyes flit over me.
“What's the matter, Rhiannon?” He crosses the distance between us. “Still shy around boys?”
“You’re so mean now.” I whisper, looking up at him. And Istillcan't believe I'm actually looking at him after all this time. When the car cut me off on the outskirts of the city, I figured it was one of my father’s men. That maybe Delilah had sold me out. Never did I expect to see Xavier step from the car. I've had zero time to process what's happening. Zero time to come to grips with the fact the boy who left is standing in this room a man with obvious wealth and a vendetta the size of Texas. Or hatred the size of Wyoming. Or both.
“You've changed since I saw you last,” he says, ignoring my question.
So, has he—the model perfect chiseled angles and masculine planes of his face are still beautiful, but it's his eyes. The warmth is gone. He’s colder now.
“Well, ten years makes a lot of difference,” I tell him. “I'm not a naive seventeen-year-old anymore.”
“I'll say,” he murmurs, his gaze lingering on my breasts. He crosses his suited arms. “I brought you more clothes.” He nods to the platform bed now filled with designer shopping bags alongside my suitcase.
“You can't keep me here in this cell.”
“Sure, I can,” he says. “It’s a nicer cell than your father keeps you in.”
I rummage through my suitcase, looking around for my phone and wallet. Oh God, all the cash I’d saved to start over with—gone.
“You won’t find it,” he says, knowing full well what I’m after.
“What do you want with me?” I ask.
“Everything you’ll need is in the bathroom drawers.”
“You know, no one ever seems to answer me. It's as if I never asked the question. Is this a mob thing?”
“Mob? Is that what you think I am?”
