by CR Robertson
“Sorry, Maia, that position is filled.”
Her expression changed and all the flirtatious energy that drew men to her vanished. “You promised me.”
Technically, I hadn’t promised her anything. “Men say a lot of things when they want their dicks sucked.”
She turned on her heel and stormed back toward the house, muttering under her breath.
“Fuck my life.” I was on my feet in an instant when I realised she was on a direct route to the kitchen where Sofia was located.
The high-pitched screams made my walk turn into a run.
“Nic is mine, I’ve been sleeping in his bed for years!”
Sofia stood, watching the irate woman brandish a knife in her face.
“Funny, I haven’t seen you there the past few weeks. Being a fuck toy is not the same as being in a relationship.”
My eyebrows hit my hairline. Sofia rarely ever swore, and when she did, it was lesser curse words she used.
“Ugh!” Maia lunged forward, but Sofia dodged her easily, her foot coming up to kick Maia back. Rage was an ugly emotion that tainted the person experiencing it. Maia’s face distorted as she attacked Sofia again. I heard all about her facing Darius’ guy in the carpark, but I got to witness first-hand how she defended herself. She was light on her feet, and her movements demonstrated she trained a lot in the past. The heel of her palm hit Maia under the chin to force her head up at the same time her foot swiped Maia’s legs, so she landed on her ass on the floor.
“Have some self-respect,” Sofia said, glaring down at her. “Everyone is allowed to choose who they love and want to be with. If Nicklas doesn’t want you, then find someone who does.”
Who they love… Her words made me freeze.
“He always chose me,” Maia snarled. “Who do you think he turned to when he needed comfort?”
Sofia shook her head and gave the other woman a pitying smile. “There is a difference between using someone for sex and needing them in your bed.”
Her words felt like a kick to my solar plexus. My innocent little vixen possessed real wisdom. She was the only women who’d made it into my bed. Everyone before her had only got a piece of me. Nine inches, to be precise.
I did need Sofia in my bed. I woke up last night to find her gone and had experienced my first panic attack in years. They had tormented me for months after watching Doris die. My heart only steadied its beat when she wandered in half asleep from her trip to the toilet.
“I think you need to leave, Maia,” I said in a low tone. All attention moved to me in the doorway. “You know the rules—no drama.”
The girls were all well treated here and had access to free medical care for themselves and their family through our resident doctor. We tended to overlook most misdemeanours, but attacking my woman definitely crossed the line.
“Nic, please.” Maia clung to my leg and started stroking my dick. He wasn’t interested.
“I’ve had enough of this.” Sofia grabbed Maia by her long ponytail and trailed her outside with Maia frantically holding her head while she tried to free herself. Sofia flung Maia into the courtyard. “No means no! Keep your hands and your mouth off his cock or I’ll stick my favourite Louboutin heels up your ass.”
Maia screamed insults in Spanish, her face red with rage. Lumps of her hair laid on the ground beside her.
“I knew exactly who my mother was, and if you ever call her those names again, I’ll make sure your hair is donated to a children’s charity for wigs in recompense.”
Sofia kicked one of the clumps of hair away from her in disgust to prove her point.
My eyes widened. Sofia spoke Spanish? It should have occurred to me before, since she was Lucas’ daughter. She was fluent in Italian and English, why not another common language? There was so much to her that no one ever saw, and every day she left me reeling.
My men had gathered outside to watch the catfight, and my head started to throb at their expressions.
I didn’t fucking need this today.
“Theo, get Maia out of here. Don’t let her back.” Groans and disbelieving looks followed my order. She’d been a favourite with that mouth of hers and her willingness to open her legs. “Get over it. She attacked someone who lives here. There is no way that she’s staying after that.”
Maia stared up at me, her eyes wide and bottom lip trembling. “Nic, please. I was jealous because we had something special.”
“Get her out of here,” I snapped and lifted my furious gaze to everyone who gathered. “I’ve already made it plain that Sarah is off limits. No one touches her or goes near her except me. She’s mine and I expect you to treat her with the respect that goes with that.”
I hated calling her Sarah, but it was the name on her fake passport and how everyone referred to her now.
Maia tried to launch herself at Sofia, but her hand came up and she bitch slapped her. The sound of flesh smacking against flesh was so loud that I was sure they’d be able to hear it out in the tobacco fields. Maia slumped back, stunned, with her hand rubbing her cheek.
I was so angry that I thought my head would explode. It never occurred to me that Maia would get possessive since she only sucked my dick a half a dozen times. I grabbed Sofia’s arm and stomped off toward the entrance of the house, leaving my men to deal with the howling woman still lying on the ground. Sofia was nearly jogging beside me in her flip-flops in an attempt to catch up. Normally, I would stop to let her, but my temper was in full flight and if I didn’t walk away someone was going to get shot and I’d never lifted my gun to a woman before.
The image of that knife in Sofia’s face was imprinted in my head.
“Stop!” Her command halted me inside the building, the coolness of the bricks stopping the immense heat from the sun. Sofia’s hands grabbed my face. “Are you okay?”
My hand thumped the wall, but she never reacted, peering up at me the entire time. “No.”
“Come on.” She threaded her fingers through mine and lead me to her room. Mine was hidden in the house far from the main rooms and was secluded and dark. Her room was filled with light. Our rooms depicted our personalities. She chased the darkness from my world with her light and now that I had basked in that sunshine, I didn’t want to survive without it.
She pushed me onto the bed and straddled my lap, pushing her forehead to mine. “Talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to tell you, Princess. Maia wanted to be a permanent resident here and share her body with only one man, I can’t give her that.”
“I’m not talking about that nasty little bitch with wandering hands. What’s going on with you?”
I pretended not to know what she was talking about, frowning and not meeting her eyes.
“You were pre-occupied when you came into the kitchen earlier to make sure I was still there. Your anger is not about that woman. So, I’m asking again, what’s up?”
My hands curved around her ass on my lap to tug her tighter into me. “It’s one month since you arrived. Your father phoned to check in this morning.” She stiffened but continued to stare at me. I sighed and flopped back onto the bed, taking her with me.
Her voice was barely a whisper. “Do I have to go home?”
“No. The situation is still volatile.” I paused and studied the ceiling. “And I don’t want you to go.”
Her lips skimmed my throat. “Then keep me here.”
My laugh sounded forced even to my own ears. “Have you ever tried saying no to Lucas Black?”
“Yeah.” Her breath puffed against my skin when she laughed. “It didn’t end well.”
“What happened?”
“I was sent to a university at the far reaches of the world when I’d been accepted into Oxford.” She paused. “Papa thinks he’s doing what is right, but he needs to realise we’re not little girls anymore.”
“Hmmm.” My hands tightened on her ass and I ground my hips to hers.
“Did he phone before or after you stole the cookie?”
“Before.” I was too busy nuzzling her neck to realise I just walked on a landmine.
“So, what’s the rest of the story behind today’s temper tantrum?”
Fuck…
I glared up at her and she never once looked away. “If this is a relationship, then it only works if we’re honest.”
Mario had been her closest friend and confidante for years. Sofia had already been through too much. I didn’t want to add to that distress.
“Secrets have a tendency to come out, Nicklas. Nothing remains buried forever, not even the dead.”
I rolled her onto her back. Her hair was every-fucking-where, but I’d gotten used to waking up with it covering me. “Some secrets are there to keep someone safe.”
“Am I in danger?”
“I don’t know.” It was the truth. Mario wanted her for himself. Would he hurt her if he couldn’t have her?
The tip of her right forefinger traced my bottom lip. “Are you going to keep me safe?”
My hands circled her wrists to pin them on either side of her head. “No one will ever touch you but me,” I snarled, my temper rising again at the thought of that asshole anywhere near her.
Her left leg wrapped around my waist. “I don’t want anyone else touching me, Nicklas.”
She’d alluded that Mario had turned her drunken advances down in the past. The fact that she’d been attracted to him made me want to beat the shit out of him before blowing his perverted brains out. If he wanted her, would she go to him willingly?
“You’re thinking too hard.” She sucked my earlobe, her tongue flicking the end.
“Mario is here.”
I waited for her to plead with me to take her to him, for her to be concerned and ask if he was okay. I didn’t want to see how much she cared for the man who’d been by her side for years.
She stilled. “Do you think he was involved in my attempted abduction?”
What? My attention snapped to her.
She chewed the side of her mouth. “You said before that you wouldn’t believe he was dead until you saw a body. Looks like you were right.”
“You father has asked me to take care of the situation.”
Her eyes fluttered closed for several seconds. “Are you going to throw him off a cliff?”
“Probably not.” It was torturing me, and I had to know. “Would you care if I did?”
Her hands strained against my hold on them, so I released her. She wrapped her arms around my chest and held onto me like a koala bear. “Mario fights dirty and he has no problem eliminating any threat in his path. It’s the reason Papa hired him. I heard some of the other guards talk about him.”
I settled us back on the bed since Sofia was in full cuddle mode. It was her default when she was stressed or feeling insecure.
“You didn’t answer my question.” I tilted her head back so I could read the emotions in her eyes.
“I thought he was my friend, but a friend wouldn’t leave those men to assault me. He kept me isolated from the world until he was my world. It’s only since I came here that I realised that isn’t healthy. No. I’m more concerned about what he’ll do since he followed me here. He must have known what my alias was since I covered my trail carefully.”
Sofia Black was her father’s daughter. Her mind strategizing the same way his did. I relaxed as her finger created a trail on my chest. It stopped and tapped a beat for several seconds.
“Why is he here? I have nothing of value with me, and Papa would rather kill him than pay a ransom.”
“My guess is that he’s here for you.”
Her face was a mask of confusion with her wrinkled brow. “I don’t understand.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Mario arrived about a week ago. He’s staying in a house that Kris has surveillance in. That tech wizard has access to all their phones and Mario’s is filled with pictures of you.”
She froze before sitting upright. “What photos?”
“You don’t need to see them.” They creeped me out and he hadn’t invaded my privacy.
“I do need to see them,” she insisted. “Right now!”
“Sofia, baby. Can you just leave it?”
She shook her head emphatically. “I need to see them.”
Her reaction to the news perplexed me and was out of character for her. I lifted my phone and dialled Kris.
“Hey, man. Can you send the feed from Mario’s phone to my laptop?”
“Heard I missed an awesome catfight,” he chuckled.
“Maia should learn not to touch what doesn’t belong to her.”
“Julio says there were panties on display and hair pulled out.”
Julio was going to get a kick up the ass from me.
“Can you forward the feed to my laptop?” I repeated.
“Sure thing, Boss. Since you won’t divulge all the details, I’ll watch the catfight myself via the modern wonders of CCTV.”
“You do that.”
My laptop was still on her desk from when I’d been using it earlier. I logged in and handed it to Sofia. She sat cross-legged on the bed, her full attention on the screen, her finger pressing the button to move the images forward. Her face fell the moment she found what she was looking for.
Her lips pursed and sadness crept into her soulful eyes.
“What?”
She shook her head, and a tear slipped down her cheek. That bastard had made my princess cry. I watched helplessly as her fingers covered her trembling lips.
“You need to tell me, Sofia.”
She hiccupped and buried her face in her hands. “I used to live in the other apartment, but after a few weeks Mario insisted we swap in case anyone tracked me down. He said it would protect me.”
The slimy bastard.
“Strange things kept happening. Silly occurrences that made me think I was going mad. Items moving or disappearing.” She swallowed hard and looked out the window. “There was a time that I stopped drinking bottled water because I had these weird nightmares where I was paralysed but felt someone climbing into bed with me.”
I was going to kill him.
“There were bruises on my body that I couldn’t explain, and I woke up one morning wearing different clothes. I never found the ones I went to bed in. I was sore between my legs with bruises on my thighs. Mario told me it was the stress from living away from home.”
She’d been a virgin when she got here, but that obviously didn’t stop him from touching her when she was knocked out. He was a sick fucker who was breathing on borrowed time. If I had to guess, he had a problem with his dick and couldn’t get it up. He abused her when she was unconscious because he didn’t want her to know that he was incapable of anything else.
I saw the image she stopped at. She was sleeping in red silk pyjama shorts and matching vest.
“Are they the missing bed wear?” I asked softly.
She nodded and continued to stare out the window. “In the end, I doubted they existed.”
He emotionally and sexually abused her. Waves of molten hot rage erupted inside me, and I hurtled my laptop through the air. It crashed against the wall and fell broken on the floor.
“He was supposed to be my friend,” Sofia whispered.
“I’ll fucking kill him,” I promised. “He won’t be hurting anyone else.”
Her eyes were huge and filled with tears. All I wanted to do was hold her and hide her away from the rest of the world. Ten years ago, I accepted the comfort from Lucas’ housekeeper after I watched my foster parents be murdered. I swore I’d never fall into that emotional trap again. Yet this woman had stripped me bare.
I held my arms out, and she flung herself at me with a squeak. She burrowed deep into my chest. “Don’t let him hurt you,” she whispered.
“Don’t worry, Princess. By the time I’m finished with him, he’ll be begging me to send him to hell.”
Hell was too good for someone like Mario, but I’d make sure to pay the ferryman to take his wo
rthless soul away.
***
Chapter Twenty-Three
Sofia
When I arrived a month ago, I’d been desperate to hear Papa’s voice. Now I dreaded it because he would insist that I return home with him. My home was here now, I was completely sure of that fact.
The rage on Nicklas’ face when he saw me hurting, convinced me that he felt the same as me. He held me securely, never once letting me go. His arms were the only place I felt safe. The false sense of security I felt the past few years was crumbling around me.
The betrayal was what hurt the most and cut the deepest. Mario had become an integral part of my life, so much so that I convinced myself that I was in love with him. He shaped my world until he was the centre of it, and that made me nauseous even thinking about it.
Right now, I couldn’t even think about the bruises on my body. Nicklas and I had had sex so many times that I lost count. I’d never woken up with bruises like that on my body, even after he let his beast loose in his office.
What the hell had Mario done to me?
There was a meeting in Nicklas’ office and I was back to being locked in my room. I wanted to escape and run until I had everything sorted in my head. I needed the freedom of the open road.
Me: I need to get away for a few hours…
My phone pinged a few seconds later.
Nicklas: No, stay in your room.
I was tempted to send a rude emoji. Right now, I was sick of people telling me what to do. Last time I checked; I wasn’t a child anymore.
Me: I’m losing my mind.
No reply. Papa tended to ignore me as well when he didn’t want to deal with a problem. I paced the floor, my muscles tight and ready to either fight or run. The balcony doors were locked and only the window was open. Nicklas was taking no chances. I should be grateful, but instead I felt like I was trapped with no escape routes available.
The key sounded in the lock and Nicklas stood watching me with his eyebrows raised in question.
