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“Rumor, do you trust me?” he asked.
I blinked. Did I trust him? I wanted to. He’d saved me. He and his family had been more than generous to a complete stranger. Yes, I trusted him. I did. I had no reason not to. He’d proven himself trustworthy.
“Yes.”
He looked relieved. “Then, please stay in this truck. I have to make a phone call, and”—he pointed down the road, where I saw another vehicle and several people—“I have to go talk to Thatcher.”
My eyes stung. He was asking me to stay. I couldn’t do that. Didn’t he understand this? “I couldn’t live with myself if something happened to you or…or anyone.”
The corner of his lips quirked up. “It won’t.”
I threw my hands up in frustration. “We just got shot at!”
He leaned closer to me and grabbed my chin with his thumb and pointer finger. “It wasn’t the Mafia. I swear to you. What just happened had nothing to do with you. It was someone trying to sneak onto family—” He paused and clenched his jaw. “The ranch. It happens. There is security, and it was already moving into place. We just showed up in the middle of it. All is taken care of. Now, please, sit back. Let me handle this.”
It wasn’t like I could run off alone without any of my things. I had no choice. I’d let him go talk to Thatcher and then make him take me back to the cottage. I had to leave, and I was out of time to figure out a plan. I didn’t think there would ever be a successful one. That was impossible. I just had to go.
• twenty-seven •
“I was just another evil in her life.”
King
Shoving one hand into my hair in frustration, I held the phone to my ear with the other. This hadn’t been what Rumor needed to witness right now. She was convinced the Mafia was after her. I didn’t know who the fucker was that Thatcher had shot and tied up to take underground, but I knew the bastard wasn’t Mafia.
“King,” Blaise Hughes came over the line.
“Boss. Thatch said you wanted to talk to me,” I replied.
“Is she gonna bolt?” he asked me.
“Seems like it, but I’m going to watch her,” I assured him.
“Do more than that. She needs to stay put for a while, and I have other shit to deal with. Fuck her. Use that charm shit and charm her.”
My hand tightened on the phone. “Did you just say I was to fuck her?”
“Is there a problem? Thatcher seemed to think you were the one she’d want and that Sebastian would be the next choice. You rather I tell him to do it?”
Not what I’d expected to be told to do, and there was no way I was letting Sebastian do it. “I can do it, but is it necessary?”
“Are you questioning me?” he asked, his tone sounding as deadly as I knew he was.
“No, sir,” I replied.
“Good. Now, handle it.”
The call ended, and I stood there, staring back at the truck, making sure she wasn’t going to open the door and bolt.
How the hell had it gone from no one touch her to me being ordered to fuck her?
“You don’t look happy about it,” Thatcher drawled, and I turned my head to see him standing a few feet behind me with a cigarette in his mouth and a smirk on his face.
“He wants me to fuck her. To get her to stay.”
Thatcher chuckled. “Yeah, I know.”
This wasn’t funny. She had been abused. Emotionally and physically hurt. The thought of manipulating her with sex made my stomach knot up. She deserved more than that.
