by Penelope Sky
“So…are you?”
My eyes narrowed in annoyance before I took a drink. “I’m not worried about something bad happening to Vanessa because of my job. But every time I leave her, it kills me inside. She’s worried about me the entire time, counting down the minutes until I’m safe again. I’ve decided to quit because I can’t put her through that every few weeks. I don’t want my woman staying with her parents every time I’m gone. She feels the safest with me…so I’ll be there every night.” Vanessa and I had discussed having a family. She gave me an ultimatum and said if I wanted to be with her, I had to become a father. I didn’t want to have kids, but since it was a requirement in order to be with her, I caved. And if that was in our future, then I definitely couldn’t have that kind of job anymore. I couldn’t leave my woman and my children unprotected for weeks at a time.
Crow didn’t hide the relief on his face. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“I have to help out with a few more things before I leave, so I have a couple more missions. But once they’re completed, it’ll be over.”
Crow didn’t hide his displeasure, but he also didn’t make an argument about it. “When did you get into that line of work?”
“In my early twenties. I met Max and the rest of the boys on the streets. We needed money, so our operation started small, like stealing cars and robbing houses. It slowly grew into the business it is now.”
Crow nodded but didn’t pass judgment on my career choice. “Is it something you enjoy?”
“Yes.” I wasn’t ashamed to say that. “The men we hit aren’t good men. From sex trafficking to murder, these men are guilty of a lot of terrible things. Men pay us to destroy their enemies, but enemies like that are usually the bad guys.”
Crow swished his drink. “When I was your age, I lived for that sort of thing. Since I wasn’t responsible for anyone else, my life wasn’t valuable. Therefore, it didn’t matter whether I lived or died. There was no risk. I traded arms with all kinds of men, giving them weapons of mass destruction. Knowing full well those guns would kill other people, I sold them for a profit. I was exactly as you are now when I was your age…until I met my wife. At that moment, everything changed. I didn’t like who she turned me into. I didn’t like how she changed my priorities. I didn’t like how she made me feel. Eventually, the changes became so drastic that I couldn’t remember who I used to be.”
That was exactly how I felt about myself. “I know what you mean.”
“My wife told me we’re a lot alike… She was right.” He chuckled before he took a drink. “That woman is always right.”
“So is Vanessa.”
“That doesn’t surprise me. She got her mother’s strength and intelligence. She got my stubbornness.”
“And your punch, your aim, and your reflexes.” Vanessa was a strong woman, born of two remarkable parents. She wasn’t the weak damsel-in-distress I met time after time. Most women I met just wanted someone to tell them what to do, to have someone look after them because they didn’t know how to look after themselves. Vanessa was nothing like that.
Crow smiled slightly. “Yes, she did.”
“I still don’t like you, but I admire you for raising her. I don’t think I would have fallen in love with anyone else but her.” I’d paid whores to fulfill my fantasies, and I’d picked up women at the bar purely for sex. Women were sexual objects. They weren’t people I could actually relate to. But then I’d met a woman who shook the ground underneath my feet.
“Thank you,” he said, showing a hint of pride in his eyes.
“What was she like? Growing up?”
Crow played with the glass between his fingertips as he reflected on her younger years. “Pretty much the same as she is now. She constantly questioned the world around her. If a teacher told her to do an assignment one way, she would question it and do it a different way. When she got a bad mark for the assignment, she wouldn’t get angry about it. She understood marks didn’t really matter, that understanding there were better ways of doing things was what really mattered. She was very wise for her age. But she always had an attitude. She always had sass. And one time, she beat up a kid at school because he lifted her dress.”
I smiled, immensely proud of the younger version of Vanessa that I never knew. “How old was she?”
Crow paused as he thought about it. “Nine or so.”
“Good.”
He chuckled. “She got in trouble for it. She received a much harder punishment for the violence than the boy did for lifting her dress. Of course, that made her angry, so she asked us to challenge the school’s policy. Her punishment had already been served, but that didn’t matter to her. She wanted justice for what happened, but she also wanted to change the protocol for the future. In her eyes, she was being discouraged from standing up for herself. The only other possibility would be to allow the boy to keep doing it until someone heard her screams and came to help her. She said that wasn’t the way girls should be taught, to scream and wait for someone to help them. They should be taught to fight, to protect themselves and not be submissive for fear of punishment.”
I set my glass down, my mind numb from what I’d just heard. “She said all of this when she was nine?”
He nodded, the pride on his face undeniable. “Yes.”
I shook my head, a smile on my lips. “Fucking badass.”
“I know. She was always a smart girl. Always a champion. Her personality and morals never changed as she got older. I was always protective of her when it came to boys, always present and rarely allowing her to be alone with one.”
“You don’t say…”
He gave a guilty shrug. “But Vanessa was so smart I never really had to worry about it. When she went off to college on her own, I knew she was a grown woman and I didn’t need to worry about her anymore. She had good instincts, and she would explore romantic relationships with men…because that’s what she was supposed to do. But then she brought you home…and I forgot all the credibility she’d previously established with me. I didn’t trust her at all, blind to my own hatred. I forgot how smart and strong my daughter was…and I never really listened to her. That was my fault.”
When another insult came to my lips, I swallowed it back. Listening to him describe his daughter with such pride softened my anger. I knew he always tried to do the best thing for her, tried to protect her but strengthen her at the same time. So I swallowed back the retort and let it go.
“It seems like the best thing we have in common is Vanessa—we both love her.”
I nodded. “True.”
“What is your favorite thing about her?”
My answer changed depending on what time of day it was. If it was early in the morning or late at night, my favorite thing about her was her naked body, the beautiful slit between her legs. Her gorgeous tits as they pointed at the ceiling while she lay on her back. That was my favorite thing about her, having her pinned against my mattress while I enjoyed her like I owned her—which I did. I told Vanessa she had to pay the price for the sacrifice I’d made by becoming mine forever. She could never leave even if she stopped loving me. She was a possession now, not just my lover. “It’s hard to narrow it down just to one thing. But when I think of the moment when I fell for her, it has to be her fierceness. I’m three times her size and terrifying enough to make grown men shit their pants. But she didn’t hesitate to fight me, to outsmart me whenever the opportunity presented itself. She didn’t think twice before she grabbed that gun, pointed it right at my heart, and pulled the trigger. She meant to kill me. I saw it in her eyes.” When I thought of that night, I felt the coldness against my fingertips, the frozen air as it entered my lungs. I could still hear the crunch of the snow underneath my boots. I could even see the vapor escape my mouth when I breathed. I remembered that night with clarity because it was the night that changed my life forever.
“Isn’t that the night you met her?” he asked.
“Yes.” I wasn’t a romantic guy
. I had no experience with love, not even when I was young. But when I met Vanessa on that winter night, the feeling in my chest was undeniable. I thought I just wanted to fuck her, but when I looked back over our relationship, I knew that was the beginning of something much deeper. “I fell in love with her the night I met her. I just didn’t realize it at the time.”
Crow watched my expression as he held on to his glass, surveying the different emotions that danced across my gaze. “I’m going to tell you something that only my brother knows. I’ll share it with you if you keep it a secret, especially from Vanessa. I know I can trust you.”
I gave a slight nod.
“Pearl had been your father’s prisoner for a long time, about three months. Cane and I only stole her because she seemed to be the one thing your father cared about. At the time, I had no idea about your mom. He must have kept her a secret on purpose. So, I stole Pearl to get revenge. I intended to rape her and kill her.” He spoke about his horrible intentions without skipping a beat.
I didn’t react at all, not surprised.
“When she was in my possession, she fought my men with a kind of battle rage I’ve never seen. She punched, stabbed, did everything she could to get away. I cornered her like a wild animal, and she was about to turn the knife on herself. She was willing to kill herself because being a prisoner for another moment was unbearable. I respected her for it, respected her for fighting as hard as she could until she realized there was no way out.”
I imagined a younger version of Pearl holding the point of a knife against her stomach. I imagined the moment they met each other, not seeing a hint of romance there.
“I got the knife from her, and instead of being cruel to her like I should have been, I asked her permission to put a syringe in her neck and put her to sleep. Instead of leaving her at the base, I took her back to my house…where we both live now. Long story short, I couldn’t rape her like I planned. I couldn’t beat her like I planned. I respected her way too much…admired her way too much. I wished that my sister had that same kind of fight, that she hadn’t given up. So I bargained with Pearl for her freedom. I told her if she worked off a jar of buttons by pleasing me, I would let her go. It’s not any better than raping her, not when I leveraged her freedom against her in exchange for fucking.”
I listened to every word, transfixed by the story. He really was the biggest hypocrite I’d ever heard of.
“I think I fell in love with her that first time we interacted, when she killed one of my men and fought until the very end. When she was in my captivity, she still fought me constantly, not just with her fists, but her words. I respected her…she forced me to respect her…and that made me love her. Our stories are very similar…”
“Identical.”
He nodded.
“You’re the biggest hypocrite on the planet.”
He shrugged. “I won’t deny it. And I won’t apologize for wanting more for my daughter. Now that you know this, you can run off to Vanessa and tell her. You can turn her against me. You can drive a wedge between us so you don’t have to deal with me all the time. I’m giving you power over me…just as I had so much power over you.”
It was tempting. I’d been punished for committing the same crimes he committed. He kept me away from the woman I loved for months, put me in mortal agony. But the idea of getting my revenge wasn’t appealing…not this time. He confided something to me that he didn’t have to tell me. Just as I gave him a loaded shotgun when we first met, he gave me a loaded gun in return. But these bullets could really destroy him.
He stared at me as he waited for a response.
“There’s nothing I could ever say to Vanessa to turn her against you.”
His eyes softened.
“She loves you. She loves all of you more than anything else in the world…even me. So you never have to worry about your daughter turning her back on you. Her love is unconditional. I never hear her say anything bad about any of you, and when I say I think you’re the biggest asshole on the planet, she tells me not to talk about you that way.”
His eyes softened even more, turning emotional in a way he only did for his daughter.
“But I will take your secret to the grave, Crow. I don’t want to rip her family apart. I’ve never wanted that. I love her too damn much to ever cause her pain. She needs you to be happy.”
“She needs you too,” he whispered. “I’m sorry it took me so long to realize that.”
I didn’t accept his apology. It would be a while before I was ready. “Are you going to tell her I screamed at you?” I stormed to his front door and practically broke it down when I knocked. When I yelled at him, I didn’t give him a chance to say anything. I just told him he was lower than trash and I didn’t care whether he lived or died. I meant every single word I said, and even now I hadn’t apologized for it. If he told Vanessa, she wouldn’t leave me, but I knew she wouldn’t be happy about it.
He leaned forward with his elbows resting on the table, his glass cupped between both of his hands. He considered my question for nearly a minute, his eyes flicking back and forth between me and his glass. “I’ll take it to the grave.”
Twenty-One
Mia
He said he would never let me go.
Never.
After everything I’d been through, settling for living in a beautiful mansion near Verona didn’t sound so bad. After being cruelly treated for so long, I was exhausted. I didn’t have faith in people anymore.
That belief died a long time ago.
It would be easy to give up, to hang myself from the bedpost in the bedroom.
It was very tempting.
But I had one thing to live for, one thing I couldn’t give up on.
Never.
So I had to come up with a plan. I either had to kill him or run away.
Even though he said he would never let me go, the idea of killing him didn’t seem right. He said I could eat whenever I wanted, and as long as I didn’t provoke him, he never laid a hand on me. He was attracted to me, wanted a reason to get between my legs, but he never acted on it.
This guy was a god compared to the devil I used to live with.
Egor deserved death, not Carter.
That gave me one alternative.
To run.
I had a tracker in my ankle, and I was stuck in a mansion with an alarm system and a wall that surrounded the property. The wall wasn’t an issue. With adrenaline pumping in my veins, climbing over that thing wouldn’t slow me down. Even the alarm system wouldn’t stop me, not if I timed it right. If I did it in the dead of night when he was asleep, I could make it out the front door and over the wall before he could catch up. In the darkness, I could run or hide somewhere. With the countryside on either side of us, I had a good chance.
Or better yet, I could take one of his cars. I could dismantle all the others so he couldn’t come after me.
It was an elaborate plan, but I could pull it off if I took my time.
I had to make sure this worked. If I didn’t, Carter would make good on his threat.
He would hurt me and fuck me—like he promised.
It would be nothing like being with Egor, that was obvious. Egor was just cruel. Carter was a good-looking man, a man so confident that he could subdue me without hurting me. His words were enough. He was the king of this palace, and he ruled so effortlessly. Fucking him wouldn’t be the worst, not when he had the body of a god and the face of a model. If we’d met under different circumstances, I would gladly get under him.
That lowered the risk significantly.
Because if I didn’t make it out…I could deal with the consequences.
I walked into the kitchen that morning and found Carter sitting at the dining table, the sunlight filtering through the windows and bringing heat into the room. Shirtless and in just his sweatpants, he looked the same as he did every morning. With messy hair, a beard growing in, and lazy eyes, he sat with the newspaper in his hands. A cup of cof
fee was beside him.
He didn’t have any breakfast because he expected me to cook for him—every morning.
I stepped out of the kitchen, my arms crossed over my chest. I wore the jeans and t-shirt he’d provided for me, my hair pulled into a braid over one shoulder. “Do you ever wear a shirt?” Unless he left the house, he always paraded around half naked. His body was perfect, and he obviously wasn’t ashamed of the chiseled muscles of his chest and torso. With his strength and tanned skin, he possessed the kind of fitness that suggested he worked out on a regular basis. I had no idea when those sessions occurred because I’d never seen them.
He wasn’t startled by my unannounced presence. His eyes kept scanning his paper. “Too distracting for you?”
I rolled my eyes.
He grinned like he knew what I’d just done. “My door is always open, sweetheart. Just let me know.” He looked up from his paper, wearing the most arrogant grin I’d ever seen. “You can hop on my lap right now.”
I rolled my eyes again, exaggerating my movements so he could see how sincere it was. “What do you want for breakfast?”
“You.” He set the paper down and dropped his smile, looking at me with an intensity that would frighten anyone.
I’d have been more scared if I didn’t know he wouldn’t rush me and pin me against the wall.
He kept up his stare, not blinking or even moving. His broad shoulders covered the back of the chair, and even without a crown, he still possessed the kind of power only a member of the nobility would have. When he looked at me like that, his stare was even more invasive than Egor’s bare touch. Carter could touch me without placing a hand on my skin. He could invade me easily, getting inside my mind with just his confidence.
I refused to let him believe he could get under my skin, so I turned around and walked into the kitchen. “The usual, it is.” Once the wall separated us, I finally took a deep breath and dropped my stern expression. This man made me walk on eggshells without actually doing anything to me. It was a different kind of presence. When Egor didn’t get his way, he resorted to torture to make me cooperate. But this man didn’t need to resort to such measures.
