I don’t know, but Danny Black winding up dead would surely be the best thing to happen. But in that moment, it felt like the worst thing that could happen. I heard him threatening to kill his man if he called me a whore again. The whole scene played out just beyond the car door where I’d found myself while men fired guns left and right. That’s why I didn’t run. Because I was stunned by the words he roared at his man. And then when he found me, and then found a gun aimed square between his eyes, he pulled me back, covering my body with his.
No one has ever protected me before. I don’t want to like it. Liking something makes it more painful when you no longer have it, and protection isn’t something I can keep.
The entire flight, I sat there playing the whole scene on repeat in my head, searching for another logical explanation for Danny’s behavior. Of course, there is one. Maybe I’m that valuable to him. Maybe he really does need me. But I keep coming back to the words he yelled at his friend.
Call her a whore again, I’ll put a fucking bullet in your skull myself.
Does he see . . . me?
When we were guided from the helicopter to a private jet, the questions circled as Danny gathered his men in the next galley, most splattered with blood, one sporting a bullet wound to the shoulder. It was carnage, but nothing like what they left behind. I didn’t recognize any of the men that laid dead, but that wouldn’t be unusual. Nox has men everywhere. I heard Brad ask who would do this. And I’m afraid I know exactly who. He saw me with Black in the restaurant last night. I know he watched the whole dinner act play out. Nox knows me well enough. I may have fooled Perry that I find Black abhorrent, but I would never have fooled Nox.
When we land, we’re whisked away in a limo back to a mansion on the outskirts of Miami. Hidden behind a ten-foot wall that has guards stationed regularly, the building is like nothing I’ve seen before. We’re greeted by a woman. Esther. She’s an attractive lady, but completely stoic, giving me nothing as she takes me away from Danny the moment he barks the order at her. She shows me to a huge suite, and the whole way through the colossal mansion I remain dazed, confused, and worried.
Sitting on the edge of the bed twiddling my thumbs, I glance around, taking in the space. I rise to my feet and wander to the wall of wardrobes, finding them empty. I step into the elaborate bathroom but none of his cosmetics are here. This isn’t his room.
I go to the curtains and pull them across, revealing enormous French doors that lead to a terrace. There’s a jacuzzi, a couch, and a fire pit. It all looks over the most well-primped garden. Topiary trees cut into all kinds of weird and wonderful shapes are precisely placed between the dense flower beds, pillar lights line the cobbled paths, a gazebo dripping in lavender, and an impressive infinity pool is to the right. It looks like you could swim right off the edge and tumble down the cliff side. It’s beyond paradise. It’s heaven. Nothing like the hell I feel I’m in.
I pull the doors open and step out onto the balcony, closing my eyes and relishing the warm sun on my skin, catching a rare and peaceful moment. I cast my eyes right and spy another terrace separated from this one by a glass pane. It’s for the next room. Another guest room? Is that what I’m in?
I’m a guest, not a prisoner.
“Were you worried about me?”
I swing around, finding Black on the threshold of the terrace wearing a pair of gray shorts hanging low on his hips. Why? Why does he always feel the need to present himself to me half-naked? “No,” I answer with grit.
He wanders across to one of the glass panels, leaning his elbows on the metal balustrade and looking out across the garden. His bare feet cross at the ankles, his tall body bent at the stomach, enhancing the stupidly defined muscles of his back. “Why didn’t you run?”
My brain spasms. I’ve been asking myself that question repeatedly, but I never anticipated him asking. “Shock, I suppose.”
He turns a smile onto me. It’s that genuine smile. The rare one. “You? Shocked? Pull the other one, Rose. You’re steel.”
Shit.
“Where would I go?”
“Back to your lover,” he suggests, casting his eyes out to the landscape again “Not that you’ll have one once I’ve blown his brain out.”
He’s wrong. I’ll still have a lover. It might not be Perry Adams, but I’ll have a lover. I just don’t know who yet, or why I’ll be in his bed.