Who am I kidding? This place is a shit hole, I have to be careful not to draw attention to myself, and I’m on a budget.
How the hell am I supposed to live here? I should go back and just marry Kieran. My mother will be safe and he’ll… I don’t know. I know nothing about Kieran, but by the way my mother acted she seemed to.
Maybe I am safer here.LeonaA sound in the other room stirs me awake, and my hand instinctively slides under my pillow and grasps the gun I placed underneath it last night. I don’t move, instead I lay there listening for the noise again. My hand shaking, my breathing heavy. Have I been found? Is it Dominic?
Nothing.
Trying to be as quiet as I can, despite my heart beat rushing through my ears, the sound deafening, as I slide my sweaty legs out from under the scratchy sheets and sit up. I had a hard time sleeping last night. I’m not used to the mattress, or the lack of controlled temperature, so it’s possible in my sleep-deprived state I’m just hearing things. But to be safe I have both palms wrapped around the gun, my finger placed firmly on the trigger I aim at the open doorway. I know I heard something in the other room. I stand.
Lifting my bare foot, I very quietly take one step forward, and then another. A chill rushes up my damp back, reminding me I’m only wearing underwear. My breast bare, and nipples hard from the sudden nerves coursing through me.
“Such a small gun for the task at hand, don’t you think?” A low sexy voice from behind me has me scream and turn, my finger pressing down on the trigger and firing. A bullet lodges into the wall right beside Kieran’s head, he looks unfazed as he sits in a faded brown chair in the corner of the room beside the bed. The sudden ringing in my ears has me wincing and near dropping the gun to cup my head from the noise. My breathing becoming labored while I stare him down. The way he sits with one leg resting on the other, his hands steepled in his lap with bright green eyes staring at me with more depth than the ocean itself. The entire room charged with a sudden dark energy that I’ve never felt before. It was as if the cabin suddenly became hell, instead of a place of escape.
“Well that was unexpected,” he states calmly, standing up. The loud bang from the gun not affecting him any. He’s handsome, and intimidating. No one feature making him more attractive than the other. Tall, strong in the shoulders, lips so thick and plush you can’t help but look at them when he talks. Of course he’s in an immaculate sharp suit that makes him strikingly good looking. When the tabloids labeled him a devious playboy of New York, they were not kidding.
“What are you doing here?” I grit, trying to move my arms to cover my bare chest but still keep my gun on him. How did he find me? How did he know where I was?
He tilts his head to the side and buttons his fitted suit coat, a flash of a larger gun than my own in a holster just underneath.
“Oh sweet girl, I think we both know why I’m here.”
“If this is your way of proposing, let me save you the trouble. The answer is no,” I clip.
The left side of his lips curl just slightly as if he’s amused but pissed off at the same time.
Slowly, I lift my foot and take a step backward toward the bedroom door. I just need to get to the car. The keys are on the table in the kitchen. I can grab them and run before he catches me.
Sliding his hands into his slacks, his dark hair falling into his face, he carefully makes his way to me and I bolt out of the room. My feet pad against the dirty floor and just as I turn to the kitchen, my arm outstretched to grab the keys just feet away from me, I’m suddenly knocked to the ground looking at the grimy floorboards with Kieran sitting on my back. My eyes sweep to the gun that is now out of my reach from the fall knocking it out of my hand. The smell of moldy wood not just in my nose but in my mouth. He shifts on top of me, causing my chest to smash into the floor that much harder.
“Get off me!” I yell with the little bit of oxygen I have in my lungs, trying to pull out from underneath him. Having an advantage of being taller and closer to the table, he reaches forward and snatches the keys from the tabletop.