by Nia Arthurs
He captured her wrist before she could smack him again. “I’m sorry. I should have been upfront.”
“Let me go!” Jewel tore her wrists from his grip and slanted him a look that made him shiver. “Don’t you dare come near me.”
“Jewel, if you’d calm down and listen to me, you’d know that we want the same thing. Kross behind bars.”
“You lied to me. This isn’t about Kross, Finn. This is about us, about honesty!”
“Would you have let me in if you’d known? When I met you Jewel, you could barely look me straight on. What was I supposed to do?”
Tears glistened in her eyes and the rising sun glinted against them. The sight of her in tears was a slice to the gut. He reached out to touch her but changed his mind and let his hands drop to his sides.
“Jewel, please… give me a chance to properly explain.”
“No, you’ve had enough chances and look what you did with them.” Jewel angrily swiped away a tear that coursed down her cheek. “I’m the fool for buying your lies. I was so busy falling for you that I didn’t see it was all a setup. It’s my loss, Finn. You got what you wanted so leave me alone.”
Finn threw caution to the wind and reached out, pleading with his outstretched hand for her to understand. For her to let him explain.
Jewel shirked back, eyeing that hand with a steely resolve.
“Jewel...”
“Please... just... don't,” she said softly.
Finn didn't let the volume of her voice fool him. Jewel was serious and she wanted nothing to do with him. His feet were glued to the sidewalk as he watched her leave.
Moments later, he got back to his senses and charged after her.
“Jewel!” he yelled, skidding around a corner and looking out into the street. “I get that you’re mad, but it’s dangerous!” He darted his gaze left and right. Houses lined the road.
A dog barked.
Jewel was gone.
25
As long as she remembered, Jewel had been abused and mistreated. It was almost par for the course by now. Once a man was involved, she prepared herself for a stab to the heart.
But that hadn’t been the case with Finn.
He’d been such a good actor that she genuinely believed he was looking out for her, catching feelings the way she was.
Oh, how wrong she’d been.
Pain exploded in her heart, ripping her chest to shreds. She could barely see past the tears and stumbled onto the next street, desperate to get away, to clear her head, to reel her heart back from that spiraling abyss that smelled eerily close to love.
“Idiot,” she mumbled, cursing herself out as she ran.
“Who? Me?” a voice rasped.
Jewel skidded to a stop and glanced at a man leaning against the wall of a grocery store. He was tall with golden skin, brown hair and a thick brown beard. His eyes were downcast, but something about him seemed familiar.
Then he looked up.
And she stared into the eyes of death.
Kross.
He’d done work on his face so he looked different and yet as handsome as he had in the past. But she would never forget that dark gaze.
Jewel’s pulse skittered.
She spun on her heels, her mind flooded with only one thought: run. But Kross caught up to her easily. He slapped an arm around her torso and violently dragged her back to his chest.
She flapped against him, the wind knocked out of her.
No. She couldn’t go through this again. Couldn’t live another moment at Kross’s mercy.
Her legs bucked and flailed. Her arms thrust against his chest. She was a wild animal with no coordination or strength, hopelessly engaging a predator that had seen and conquered far more skilled than her.
Something slapped against her mouth and nose.
She tasted an acidic flavor as her tongue darted out in a violent cry.
The world turned hazy. Her body went slowly limp. Her senses heightened. She could hear every roll of tires from the traffic in the far distance. Could feel the hit of Kross’s breath on her ear like tiny hammers. His fingers curling into her T-shirt. The scratchy prickle of his beard against her sensitive neck.
Someone save me.
Finn’s face came to mind, but she rejected it just as everything went black.
“I don’t want to see him again, Snake,” Jewel glared at Kross’s right-hand man. “Not after the last time.” Her eyes slid over the gifts Snake had brought, stopping on the expensive dresses before she rejected them with a flick of her wrists. “Go away.”
“He won’t take no for an answer.”
“Tell him if he touches me again, I’ll kill him and then I’ll kill myself.”
Kross’s guard laughed. “You don’t like to watch?”
She blinked at him. Kross’s people usually didn’t speak to her, much less admit that they knew what he was up to.
“You’re his favorite. He will do anything you say.”
Jewel stiffened, recalling the way Kross had pushed her on the bed and forced himself on her a few weeks ago. She’d been so grateful when he didn’t call again, but now he was trying to make things right?
No. She was done.
“Favorite, my backside. Kross only cares about himself. Now take everything back before you get robbed out here.” She started to close the door.
He shoved his hand into the gap without blinking. “I was told if you didn’t come willingly, to bring you by force.”
She cracked her eyes open.
Blinked once. Twice.
The haze cleared itself, but the darkness lingered like a stain on a piece of paper. She sat up slowly, feeling woozy and disoriented. Little by little, the shadows shifted so she could notice slight outlines in the grey.
Where was she?
Forcing herself to stand, Jewel ignored the waves of nausea that washed her gut and stumbled forward. She held her hands out in front of her, reaching for a door or exit and moving carefully.
The scent of wet earth filled the air.
It must have rained recently.
She slid a hand over her mouth, marveling at her intense thirst. Water. She needed something to drink.
Escape first. Worry about water later.
Jewel traveled the entire length of the room in thirty seconds. Wasn’t that hard to do since it was about the size of a broom closet. The walls were made of brick and there were no windows.
She stumbled on a door. The knob turned, but the slab of wood didn’t budge. It was locked from the outside.
Discouraged, Jewel sank against the door and pulled her knees up to her chest. Where had Kross taken her?
And what was he planning to do to her now?
Something rumbled in the distance.
Footsteps.
She scrambled to her feet.
Kross was coming.
The footsteps grew louder. Then stopped entirely. If she listened closely, she could hear Kross breathing, shallow, hasty sounds. Then the shriek of metal clanged through the air.
Jewel ducked and shrieked in fright.
Light flooded the room from outside. She glanced up and saw a cup standing on a square shelf. It was attached to a small grill window in the door. She’d felt it, the jutting square and the unshaven sides, but she hadn’t known what it was before.
“Jewel, I’m not going to hurt you,” Kross said.
She rose slowly. “Yeah, right.”
“Here. You should be thirsty by now. Drink this.”
Jewel slowly approached the cup and slid her fingers around it. The plastic was cold. Rolls of condensation slid down the surface. She steadied her hand, raised it and then tossed the contents at Kross’s face.
It landed. Right in his eye. He hurled out a bitter curse and wielded away from the window to wipe his face dry with his T-shirt.
She was still trapped in Kross’s clutches with no way out, but Jewel counted that moment a victory. Courage swelled in her heart. He was no god, no mast
er. He was a man with weaknesses.
She could get out of this.
Kross dropped the edge of his now stretched-out shirt and wiped his face with an elegant hand. “That wasn’t very nice, Jewel.”
“Go to hell.”
“I see you’ve regained a bit of your fire since we last met.”
“There’s nothing more you could possibly take from me.” She glared at him, staring straight into his cold eyes. “Do your worst.”
“What exactly is my worst?”
Images of him naked and holding women’s throats exploded in her mind. She shuddered but tried not to let it show.
Kross’s dark chuckle made goosebumps clamor over her skin. “You’re scared.”
“I’m tired.” She bit out. “Tired of running from you. Tired of having nightmares. Even when I got away, you were still there, tormenting me. At this point, death would be a gift.”
“Oh, baby. I’m not going to kill you.”
Her heart stuttered. “W-what?”
“When father bit the dust last year and all his people turned against me, I had a lot of time to think about loyalty. About family. About what I wanted in life. I used the money I’d squared away to find a new face, but when I tried to find a new girl… it didn’t work out.”
“Why? Did you kill her?”
“I had to.” His voice broke. “She wasn’t you.”
Her breath hitched. Kross was insane, but he wasn’t this crazy. Had he really fallen in love with her?
The maniac.
Jewel had lost her mind on more than one occasion, but she’d never fallen so low that she’d want to be with her rapist. Kross was just one man in a long line of them that had used her body to gain satisfaction, but he would be the last.
“You think I’m stupid?” Jewel surged closer to the window and pressed against it so he could see her face. “I will never want you.”
“I know you feel that way now,” he said quietly.
The injustice of it all washed over Jewel. “You could have anyone.” She grabbed the bars and tugged, but the door didn’t budge. “Let me go, Kross!”
“Where’s our baby, Jewel?” Kross said calmly.
She froze, her entire body seizing. “I-it died.”
“I know it didn’t.” He stepped closer to the window and peered at her, sending shockwaves of fear through every nerve when he whispered, “I know you lied.”
Jewel blinked rapidly, the past sucking her away from the present.
“You’re pregnant, young lady.” The doctor stared at her with sober eyes. “You can retake the test or go for a second opinion, but the diagnosis will remain the same.” She turned to the clipboard. “You’re six weeks along.”
“Six weeks?” Jewel breathed. She hadn’t been with a man since…
Bile rose in her gut. The sensation of a million ants crawling up her leg intensified. She mindlessly stomped her feet against the ground.
Kross.
She was having Kross’s baby.
That night, after she saved the girl, he’d yanked her to the bed. Was he wearing a condom? He was usually so meticulous, but she’d gotten him angry.
He’d impregnated her.
Her mind crashed. She curled into a ball and burst into tears. Fear, hopelessness, and rage smothered her. What would she do with a baby at seventeen? What would she do with Kross’s baby?
“I can’t have it. I can’t.”
The doctor sat on the bed and stared kindly at her. “There are options—”
“No.” She looked up, fire in her eyes. “I’m not having this kid.”
“I didn’t know you were pregnant,” Kross said, his voice low and contemplative. “Things were shaking up in father’s business. I was distracted and you’d always had a habit of wearing baggy clothes.”
“H-how did you find out?”
“Snake told me. Just before he died in my arms. He said you begged him not to say anything.”
Jewel winced. She hadn’t just begged him. Snake had threatened to tell Kross if she didn’t sleep with him. So she did. Jewel let him use her body to buy his silence.
She’d thought it was the only way.
I was such a fool.
“At first I was pissed.” She heard the grit in Kross’s voice and instinctively moved away from the window before he shot his hands through it and grabbed her by the throat.
He didn’t, of course.
And he couldn’t since the bars were too narrow for anyone’s hand to pierce through.
Still, she watched him fearfully as he raged. “I wanted to kill you at first. How dare a slave keep secrets from her master? But the more I thought about it, the more right it felt. You, me and a baby. We’ll start over, Jewel. We’ll build our own empire. And you will be my queen.”
“I don’t want you,” she said. It was probably stupid to anger him when he clearly had the upper hand, but Jewel was done.
Done with the begging and the pleading and the torture. She wanted nothing to do with Kross and if death was the only way to protect her baby, well, then she’d just have to beg her Maker for mercy.
Kross chuckled dryly. “I know what you’re doing.”
“You’re ugly,” she hissed. “All those surgeries you’ve done to look perfect, they just make you look fake.”
“Shut up.”
“And you’re a horrible lover. Don’t think I haven’t seen the way women fake their pleasure, the way they pack up quickly so they can leave after it’s over.”
Kross banged a hand against the door.
Jewel jumped but kept going. “I knew it from that night. I understood you, Kross. Why you lure women into your bed, why you forced me to watch. You know you’re worth nothing, you know no one would want you when they saw who you really were, that’s why—”
An inhuman roar tumbled from his lips. He banged his fists against the door and it bent in.
Jewel’s eyes bugged.
Kross swiveled away from the window so all she could see was the back of his hair. Her breathing thickened. She tasted fear.
Finally, he turned back around, an eerie smirk on his lips. “That was dangerous, Jewel. I almost lost it.”
She blinked, her bones shaking. “Let me go or kill me, Kross. Pick one.”
“You’ll find a mat in the box at the far right. Get comfortable. You’re not leaving this room until you come to me. Willingly.” Kross wiped his face with the back of his hand and left her.
Jewel sank into a shriveling ball.
She was back in Kross’s clutches.
Again.
26
Finn gave up on chasing Jewel and reluctantly headed back to Sweet Treats. When he stepped inside, he saw that Carrie had arrived. Nolan was in the corner stuffing his face with pastries and smiling from ear to ear.
“You’re back,” Nolan said when he saw Finn. He scrambled to his feet and brushed his shirt down. “Everything okay? You took a while.”
Joana glanced past him, her eyebrows crinkled. “Where’s Jewel?”
“She…”
Carrie wielded the spatula she’d been holding and pointed it in his direction. “Why do you look so guilty?”
“We had a misunderstanding.”
“I told you she wouldn’t react well if you told her the truth,” Nolan hissed.
Finn rubbed his temple. He didn’t need Nolan’s ‘I told you so’. Finn knew he’d messed things up with Jewel. Big time.
“Where the hell is my friend, Finn?” Carrie approached, thrusting the spatula like a sword. “I’m not going to ask twice.”
“She disappeared.”
“What does that mean?” Joana gasped.
Carrie flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Joana, call my cell phone. Jewel should still have it.” She set the spatula beneath his chin, dark eyes aflame. “I swear if she doesn’t pick up I’ll act first and ask questions later.”
“Whoa, whoa.” Nolan inched toward Carrie and her spatula. “Let’s not overreact here
.”
She shot Nolan a scathing glare. “Don’t touch me.”
“Sorry, ma’am.” Nolan threw his hands up. Leaning over, he whispered, “Are all Belizean women this scary?”
Joana’s footsteps thudded toward them. Her eyes were filled with worry. “She’s not picking up.”
“Someone better start talking!” Carrie yelled.
Nolan trembled and blurted, “Finn was using Jewel to look for Kross!”
“Really?” Finn grunted.
“Sorry, man. That spatula looks hella sharp.”
Carrie dropped her arm and stared at him. “Is that true?”
“My intentions aren’t the priority right now.” Finn gritted his teeth. “We need to find Jewel before Kross does.”
“Don’t try to change the subject.” Joana glared at him.
“I know you have questions, but I’m not the bad guy here.”
“How are we supposed to know that, Finn?” Carrie frowned. “If that’s even your real name.”
“It is,” Nolan said.
Carrie’s sharp gaze slid to him. “And who are you?”
“I’m Nolan Waight, a hooker,” Nolan murmured nervously.
“A what?”
“You said hooker,” Finn mumbled.
His friend’s eyes widened. “I meant hacker. I’m a hacker. Not a hooker. Whoa, I don’t even know where that came from.”
Carrie and Joana blinked warily.
Finn stepped forward and they both crouched into defensive positions. He sighed. “We’re wasting time. Nolan can find Jewel’s phone signal and get a ping on her location.”
Carrie raised her chin. “How can we trust you?”
“Because,” Finn held their gazes, “you don’t have a choice.”
Carrie glanced at Joana and seemed to share an invisible message before she turned to him. “Find Jewel and then we can talk.”
Nolan licked his fingers. “After that amazing meal, I’m ready to get to work. He stretched his hands and pulled his laptop from his backpack. When the girls gave him quizzical looks, he chuckled. “I never go anywhere without this baby.”
“While he’s doing that,” Joana swiveled on her heels, “let’s have a chat.”
