“Hardly seems like a fair deal,” he said.
I looked at him and met his laughing eyes with a glare. “I’m worth it.”
He grinned. “I’ll be the judge of that.”
Jesus. What the hell was I thinking? He was toying with me and wasn’t going to accept any deal. “Let me go.” I struggled when he cupped my chin, fingers harsh.
“Shh, I’m merely teasing.” His grip lessened when I stilled, but his brows were drawn low over his eyes, all amusement gone. “One week. And he’ll get his two months.”
“And you won’t hurt him.”
“He won’t be harmed.” He paused, frowning. “But let’s be clear here. This is your choice.”
Oh, God. How could I be with this man when he was threatening my father? Maybe I should’ve let him drive away. How did I even know anything he said was true? I had nothing except his word.
But there was something more to Kai. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was the same feeling I had when I first smelled his cologne while in the closet. “How do I know you’re telling the truth and you won’t kill us both?”
He leaned forward until his mouth was so close to mine I could taste the scent of him on the tip of my tongue. A scent I recognized from a night I’d nearly died.
“I’ll always look out for you, braveheart,” he whispered.
I gasped, eyes widening, fingers tightening in his shirt, heart racing. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It was him. He’d called me that.
It was like my mind was on rewind as the memory came whirling back. I’d been lying on the cool damp grass coughing and sucking in fresh gulps of air. My mind a fog, vision even foggier as I struggled to breathe. A shadow of a man leaned over me as he swept my hair away from my face with the tip of his finger. My eyes flitted open for a brief second, but everything was hazy and dark.
It was him.
I stared up at Kai, my mouth gaping. “It was you.” He scowled and started to draw back, but my fingers held onto his shirt. “It was you that night. You pulled me from the fire.”
He grabbed my wrists and clamped down on them so hard I was forced to let his shirt go. He pushed away from me.
I darted upright. “You called me braveheart. I remember.” The smell of his cologne. The sound of his voice. But it was him calling me braveheart that triggered the connection. “You said…. Oh, my God, you’d said you’d always come for me.” What had he meant? Come for me when? Why?
My mind spun out of control as the memory continued to replay. The fire was in the house I shared with five other students during my second year of university. It was deemed an accident, faulty wiring in an old house. We all got out in time, except I should’ve been dead. I’d passed out from all the smoke in my bedroom upstairs. All I remember was waking up on the neighbor’s grass with a man on his knees beside me. It was pitch dark and I couldn’t see his face, but I remembered the scent of his cologne mixed with smoke. And then his words when he said, “I’ll always come for you, braveheart.”
I thought I’d imagined him. The smell. Those words.
I’d dreamed about those words for months. I’d dreamed about this man—Kai. Holy Jesus.
I stared at him, my heart racing, emotions sparking off in every direction. He terrified me, threatened my father, was not a good man and yet… he was. He’d saved my life. Why would he do that? Why had he been watching me? “I don’t understand.”
“There is nothing to understand. Go home, London.” The air around him was dangerous, as if the moment you stepped close enough there was no escape from him and what he wanted.
He strode back to the driver’s door and opened it, his form elegant and at ease again. Casually, he took off his suit jacket and tossed it inside his car. “I’d advise keeping our little meeting from your father and the police. I’ll be in touch.”
“Our… our deal?”
He didn’t turn around as he said, “Anything for you, braveheart.” He bent his tall frame into the luxury car and shut the door and then, while I stood to the side of the path, he drove away.
I watched until the car turned onto the road and disappeared before I dove into my car and found my cell between the console and the seat. I tapped my code then dialed the police, his license plate embedded in my mind.
“Nine one one. What’s your emergency? … Hello?”
Shit.
“Sorry, I hit the emergency button by mistake.”
I hung up.I JERKED UPRIGHT, the pale green sheet slipping from my shoulders and pooling at my waist. My heart raced and my skin was flushed from the vivid dream—of him. Kai.