“No. I wasn’t aiming. Just purposely missed to annoy you.” She spoke the truth, but he assumed she was being facetious.
“You better watch your fucking mouth before I smack it. Don’t be sarcastic with me. It’s only twenty feet away. You should have hit it. A grandma could have hit that. Try again.”
Lifting the gun she aimed again.
“Take a deep breath.” He waited until she inhaled. “Now let it out slow and squeeze when all the air is gone.”
BOOM. A small hole appeared in the bottom left hand corner, right where she wanted. Frustrating him becoming her sole reason for existing.
“I did it!” Her smile took over her whole face, but Brax’s expression didn’t match hers. “What’s wrong? I hit it right?”
“You hit the paper. You’re supposed to be hitting the fucking target. Do it again.”
Over and over she shot, clearing four magazines. When Brax pulled back the target only two holes appeared near the center, another twenty or so scattered the edges. He growled loud enough to make the other four shooters in the room turn their way.
“How are you so bad at this?”
“Oh I’m sorry I haven’t been trained to shoot for the past twenty years.” His earlier remark about not making sarcastic comments didn’t faze her one bit.
He had her reload again while putting up another target and this time helped her pull the trigger. This was what she wanted all along. His arms wrapped around her, teaching her how it was done. BANG. BANG. BANG. She squeezed over and over until there were no bullets left to shoot and this time, eight holes marked the center of the target.
“Better. That’s what I want to see every time.”
They spent the rest of the afternoon shooting, even switched things up and rented different guns, and by the end, Annie’s finger had gone numb. Brax finished out the last fifteen minutes shooting on his own from a distance Annie couldn’t fathom, but unlike her targets, his had clean shots all in the center. Some right on top of the other. It was the sexiest thing she ever saw, witnessing firsthand how lethal he could be with a gun.
It was a quarter past five when they left the range and Bethany insisted on going back to the hotel to get her purse, but Braxton didn’t see the need, her fucking friends would be there and he wanted her to himself.
“I feel weird without it. I don’t have my phone, my ID, money. It’s kinda making me anxious.”
“Why? I don’t see why that matters. You don’t need your phone or your money. You’re with me. I’ll take care of you.”
“What if something comes up? Your work calls and there’s an emergency you have to leave for. I would rather you be able to leave without having to worry about me.”
“I’ll always worry about you. You come first now.”
She rolled her eyes and he could tell she didn’t believe him. He could have easily emptied his wallet and given her the money, could have used it to argue his point more, but that wasn’t really his style. No. When Braxton was going to bribe someone, he did it with an amount he knew they wouldn’t say no to.
Leaning forward he instructed his driver to take them to the Wall Street office of BNY Mellon. He needed to show her how influential and powerful he could be. How she truly didn’t need to worry about anything from there on out.
“What’s that? Where are we going?”
He held up a finger, halting her question and dialed his team manager. “Tom, it’s Cage. Are you still at the office? I need to stop by.” He waited for his response before continuing. “Good. I’ll be there in ten minutes. Draw up the paperwork for my private account. I have someone I need to add.” He hung up without saying goodbye and pocketed his phone.
“You’re adding me to your bank account?” she asked, full well knowing the answer.
“One of them.”
“I don’t want your money Brax.”
“You don’t have a choice. I’m serious B. I don’t want you ever thinking about money again.”
“I don’t have my ID. They’re not just going to add me.”
“You let me worry about that.”
They pulled up out front of the tall glass doors and Brax escorted her in. Tom met them in the lobby and showed them upstairs to an anonymous conference room boasting a large oval table and twelve, brown leather chairs.
“Tom, this is Bethany Andrews. My fiancée.”
Annie almost choked. What the fuck?
“I need her added to my account, but my forgetful girl here left her purse at the restaurant today during lunch and we haven’t been able to locate it. I’m going out of town on business for a while and I need her added to my account. What are our options?”
Tom seemed just as shocked as Annie. “Nice to meet you Ms. Andrews,” he held out a hand. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” she shook his hand and plastered a fake smile to her face.
Tom pulled out a chair to sit down and she and Brax followed. He opened a black, padded folder and began sifting through pages before he spun the folder to face them and pointed with a pen at the bottom of the page to a number that made Annie gasp.
“This is your balance as of now. In this case we don’t have many options as it’s federally regulated to have two forms of an ID to be added to an account. However, one option is to transfer some of these funds to an offshore, numbered account. You still need the primary account holder’s identification information, but we have yours already Mr. Cage and then we can add Bethany as a secondary account holder. No ID needed.”
“Great. Let’s do that. I want the funds at a separate bank from my other offshores though. Maybe Austria instead of Swiss and let’s keep it to twenty-five million. What’s the insurance policy like?”
Brax and Tom continued speaking back and forth about insurance, numbers, foreign banking and a bunch of other shit Annie didn’t understand. Her situation just became very real. She was being added to a foreign bank account using a secret identity. Could she get arrested for this? She was starting to have a minor panic attack when the conversation switched back to her.
“Ms. Andrews, a card for you to debit the account will be sent to Mr. Cage’s residency. Being as it’s after hours today, it won’t arrive until Saturday. I hope that will be sufficient.”
Annie nodded with her mouth parted, still in shock at what was happening.
“In the interim, if you need cash, you can come back here and speak with me direct,” he handed her one of his business cards. “We can have it wired to Mr. Cage’s account with our bank, located on the first floor, but until you bring in your ID or unless Mr. Cage is with you, you can’t access any of the wired funds unless you work through me, and even then, it’s not something I’m supposed to do, but we value Mr. Cage as a client, and since he’s here with you today we’ll go ahead and take his word on your credibility to access his accounts.”
“Thank you Tom,” Brax held out a hand to shake. “I won’t forget this. If you ever need anything let me know.”
“Not needed sir. Happy to be of service.”
Brax walked Annie back out to the SUV where the driver was already waiting with the door held open. With a hand to her back he ushered her in and then climbed in after.
She had stayed quiet the entire walk out, but couldn’t keep her thoughts inside any longer. “Your fiancé? This is probably the fastest moving relationship in all of history.”
“It made it more believable why I was adding you to my account without identification.”
“You could have given me a head’s up you know.”
“I could have, but then I would have missed your expression. Adding your girl to your bank account, twenty-five million dollars. Seeing the blood drain from her face when you refer to her as your fiancé, priceless.”
“The blood didn’t drain from my face,” she protested and rolled her eyes.
“Pretty damn close.”
“Are you upset?”
“That you don’t want to marry me after a few days
of knowing each other? Nah. I think I’ll let that one go.”
Brax seemed to be joking, but Annie wasn’t quite sure, and didn’t have time to clarify before the driver was handing back a black gift bag.
“It’s for you,” Brax passed it her way.
She looked up at him with a confused expression before reaching in to pull out what was inside; the newest iPhone and a white Chanel purse with a metal chain; the diamonds of the Chanel symbol glittering bright in the evening sun.
“You see, you don’t need to worry about anything when you’re with me. Minus the ID I believe that was all you were missing. Purse, phone, money. Anything else?”
“You didn’t have to do this.”
“Yes I did. You’re mine now. I’m going to take care of you.”
Annie didn’t know what to say. She was in too deep.
The driver dropped them off at a tall building that screamed elegance with its six-foot green awning and black suited doorman. Walking in they stopped at security and Brax informed the guard she was to be let up at any time, without his voiced permission. He told her during the elevator ride she and his housecleaner were the only ones with that clearance, and Annie wondered how he could trust her so extensively after only a couple days. She of course was trustworthy, but how could he be so sure?
The elevator opened into the loft. A circular foyer met their entrance with a cliché round table and flowers in the center. “I didn’t take you for a flowers type of guy.”
“Ugh, I’m not,” he groaned. “My fucking decorator put it there. I just didn’t care enough to get rid of it.” Picking up the tall vase he walked with it toward the kitchen, placing it on the counter and leaving the entry table barren. “Do you want something to drink?” he called over his shoulder from the fridge.
“Sure. Whatever you’re having.”
He pulled out two sparkling waters, twisted the caps off and slid one to her across the counter. It was good, expensive water she didn’t normally drink, and the bubbles sizzled her throat as she gulped it down. He watched her, smiling at her reaction as he set his gun, still in the holster, on the counter top.
Walking over toward the intercom, a small white box embedded into the wall, he pressed a button and voiced his request to the man who answered as the front desk. “Hey Ronald. Can you send out for a large pepperoni pizza and whatever movie just came out for rent?”
The voice echoed back confirming the request.
Annie toed off her flip-flops and walked over to him, wrapping her arms around from behind. “Pizza and a movie huh?”
“You said you wanted to do something normal. That’s as normal as I can think of.”
“Yep. It’s pretty fucking normal Mr. Cage.”
The look in his eye had her take off running, she knew what calling him by his last name did to him. He caught up quick, tackling her to the cold tiled floor. A rough, calloused hand held her wrists above her head while he straddled her waist. Squirming beneath him, she tried to get free until he used one hand to tickle up her side and all she could focus on was getting him to stop and not peeing her pants in the process.
He finally halted of his own accord, and leaned down to cover her body with his. “I love the way you smell,” he said, inhaling deep at her neck. “Smells like maple or vanilla or some shit like that.”
It was her Bath & Body Works lotion he smelled.
“I want you. Tonight. Right now.” He kissed her neck, trailing up toward her ear. She could feel his warm breath as he spoke. “And then we’re going to cuddle all night, and in the morning I want to come down stairs to find you making breakfast while wearing one of my shirts and I won’t have enough restraint to stop myself from having you again. You’ll burn breakfast, but it will be okay because we’ll have just fucked on the kitchen floor.” He lifted his head and placed a soft kiss on her lips. “I want normal with you. I’ve never had normal before.”
She couldn’t do this. Came close before, but no matter her excuses, it was wrong. She should never have let them get as far as they did, at least not sexually. “I want normal too. You know I do, but we can’t. I can’t be with you like that.”
“We’re back to that again?” he snapped.
“We never left that.”
“Oh really? My cock would beg to differ when your mouth was on it last night.”
A red flush covered Annie from head to toe and she couldn’t meet his eyes.
“I shouldn’t have said that. I just don’t understand. Is it because you’re leaving? Cause I won’t let you. Christ, I just added you to my fucking bank account. You’re staying here. With me.” He gazed down at her, begging her to agree.
“I can’t stay with you Brax. I have a job, a life, friends. I can’t just leave everything behind. What would everyone think?”
Rolling off her in frustration he cursed. “God! You’re always so damn worried about what people will think. Fuck them. Who cares? Can you honestly say you don’t want this? You don’t want me? I would give you everything, anything you ever wanted.”
“You seem pretty sure about things for someone you just met.”
“Well when you spend your whole life with all the wrong people, you know it when you find the right one.”
“Wow. Did you pull that out of a Nicholas Sparks novel?”
Her sarcasm was really starting to aggravate him. Why wasn’t she taking him seriously? “Do you want me to backhand you right now? Because I’m really debating it.”
“Yeah, maybe I do. The way you’re talking I doubt you have the balls to do it anymore.”
He never had the balls to do it to begin with otherwise she wouldn’t have made such a daring statement. A sudden irritation coursed through him, urging him to prove her wrong, and then all of a sudden, everything clicked into place, just like it always did. He finally started to understand. “You don’t want normal do you? You want to want normal, but you don’t. I think I’m finally starting to get you. Is that why you like it with me? Because I’m the only one you know who doesn’t mind you’re completely fucked up?”
She didn’t answer, he was hitting the nail on the head.
“Don’t worry B, I can do fucked up too. It’s my fucking specialty. Just tell me what you want.”
Annie wasn’t one hundred percent stable, spent her whole life trying to keep it hidden. She played the June Cleaver part perfect for years without anyone ever suspecting and he figured it out in days. It made her uncomfortable, that or more comfortable than she’d been in her whole life, and wasn’t sure which option bothered her more. “Just because I don’t want to sleep with you, doesn’t mean I’m fucked up. That’s a big ego you have.”
“I’m not even talking about that. It’s everything else. Not being with me is the only sane thing you’ve done. I’ve told you everything. You know who I am, yet here you are, all alone, urging me to hurt you. Is that what you want? Last night in the club, I almost killed you. I wanted to. Seeing you with him like that, I snapped.” Caressing the light bruising on her neck he continued. “And you just let me. Encouraged me. No fight what so ever. You gave your whole life to me, to someone you just met, and now when I’m sweet-talking you, you say no. Always so worried about what people will think. Well what would they think if they knew about last night? Huh? How is that okay and what we’re doing now isn’t? You practically forced me to kill him. You knew exactly what you were doing and then you blew me next to the body and you fucking loved it. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it too, but you, little miss perfect, should not have loved it. You should never have done it in the first place. So that leaves me at one conclusion. You are a fucking whack job and I am so hard for you right now.” Reaching over he took her hand, placing it over his cock so she could feel exactly how much he wanted her. “No one has to know. We can do every fucked up thing you want. It’ll be our secret. Just me and you.”
Hearing him explain it from his perspective made it all the much harder to continue lying. How could she believably explain
why they couldn’t be together after all the shit they already did; at the club, in his office. It was impossible.
Sitting up she ran her hands backward down her hair, nervous to tell him, afraid of what he would say, or do for that matter. “Do you want to know the truth?”
“Always.”
“I don’t think you do. You don’t understand. It will change everything.”
“No it won’t. Nothing you could say could change us.”
Annie got up from the floor, pacing, and then headed toward the kitchen.
“Where the fuck are you going?”
“To get your gun. I’m just going to hold on to it while I tell you.”
“That bad huh? Are you holding it to shoot me with or so I don’t shoot you?”
“Both.”
“Cause I gotta say,” he called out as she walked away. “If you’re close enough to be able to hit me, you’re close enough for me to take it from you.”
Rolling her eyes, she picked up the gun from the counter, wiping the sweat from her hands before taking it out of the holster. When she walked back to the living area, Brax was standing, propped on the arm of the couch. How could she tell him? He was going to hate her. “Brax, I.” She stopped and went another direction. “I don’t know how to say this.”
“It’s easy. You tell me the truth. That was our deal. Remember? It’s what I’ve always given you and I don’t expect anything less.”
“Okay.” She took a big breath. “I have only been with two guys before.”
He looked up at her in confusion. “Ever?”
She nodded.
“Is that what the big deal is? You’re nervous then? Why couldn’t you have just told me?”
“No. That’s not exactly it.”
“Then what? Just fucking tell me!”
She couldn’t get the words out. The gun shook in her hand as she tried.
“Okay, well I know what happened to the first. So why don’t you start with what happened with the second.”
“Nothing happened.” Here we go, she let out the breath she was holding and ripped the bandage from the wound. “I’m married to him.”
Caged Page 16
