I open my mouth to ask, then I stop. She responds to orders, not requests. Especially from me. I was too fucking nice to her. Mia doesn’t respect nice.
“Get on the bed,” I say coolly.
I watch her swallow, her cautious gaze moving from me to the bed. Mia used to look at me with trust in her eyes a long time ago. I fucking miss that. Now it’s all mistrust and caution. Now where I once saw trust and acceptance, I see dread and fear—not just traces, but healthy doses. It fucking sucks. Maybe Mateo gets off on that, but I don’t like it one bit. I can guess what’s going through her mind as she shuffles closer to the bed. She doesn’t want to obey me, but she does anyway. Of course she does. I could probably fuck her right now if I wanted to.
I don’t though. I’m tired and sick of her shit; I just want to sleep. I lie face-down on the bed and tell her, “Rub my back.”
She scowls at me like she can’t believe I even imagine she’d do that. “Give me my ring,” she shoots back.
I glance back at her. “I’ll consider giving your ring back eventually, unless you piss me off. Then I’m going to flush it down a fucking toilet.”
Her scowl drifts to an outright glare, but she climbs up on her knees and starts half-heartedly rubbing my back.
“Nope, do better,” I tell her.
Sighing like I’m the most exasperating person in the whole world, she moves, straddling my lower back, and starts really working my muscles.
That’s better.
“You’re being an asshole,” she informs me, using her palm to knead.
“You like assholes,” I remind her.
“I don’t like you as an asshole.”
“Don’t care,” I tell her.
Since her little burst of aggression isn’t getting her where she wants to go, she switches tacks. Still kneading my back, her voice softens. There’s almost tenderness in her touch, like she’s trying to remind me of a time when I was nice to her. Thing is, I remember when I was nice to her perfectly; she wasn’t nice to me.
Her gentle hands work my shoulders, then move down my back. “We can still turn around and go back, you know. I can get us out of this right now. It’s not too late yet, Vince. I can fix this if you take me home now. I promise.”
“Mia, stop trying to convince me to go back. It is too late, we both know that. You’re never going to convince me. Maybe you remember fucking manipulating me when we were together before, but that’s not how it’s going to be this time.”
Her hands abruptly stop working my back. “We are not together,” she states.
I shrug, twisting so she knows she can climb off me now. I snatch the handcuffs off the desk and sit up, grabbing her wrist and closing one around it.
“What are you doing?” she demands, watching with dismay as I close the other one around my wrist.
“Making sure you don’t do anything stupid,” I tell her. “I need to get some sleep so I can drive the rest of the way when I wake up. Just close your eyes and try to get some rest. It’s going to be a long-ass day.”
She stares at me like her anger can move me, but it doesn’t. Finally she scoots down and settles into the spot beside me, her arm shackled to mine at our sides.
“You’ve changed,” she finally says, quietly, like I’ve disappointed her.
“No shit,” I shoot back.
“I don’t like it,” she tells me.
“I don’t care.”
Chapter Eight
Mia
I can’t sleep. Vince has no problem falling asleep, but I remain shackled to his side, thinking and crying and getting not a single wink of sleep.
I’m so used to sleeping beside Mateo, I also constantly think I’m going to wake him up. Mateo wakes up if you breathe too hard in his direction; Vince does not.
I have an idea, but it makes my stomach hurt to imagine trying. The way he has our arms locked together at the wrist, I don’t think I can move without waking him up, but I can see the keys on the desk beside the bed. I’d have to literally climb over him without moving his wrist, without waking him up, to get the keys. If I could get the handcuff off me, then grab his car keys and slip out, I could drive off and leave him here. I could call for help. I could call Mateo.
And I fucking will. I don’t want Vince to die, but I’m not about to let him take me off to God knows where to keep him alive, either. He should’ve known better than this. This was incredibly stupid. He had to know he couldn’t just grab me right out from under Mateo’s nose and whisk me away. It’s going to be hard enough to manage Mateo’s temper after I tell him Vince kissed me, but I need to get home before he’s able to do more than that.