A Debt Owed (The Debt Duet 1)

“Everything,” he says. “You’re my last hope.”

“Really? What about your wife then? Can’t she pitch in?” I snort.

“She’s left me.” He swallows as if he didn’t see it coming from a mile away.

I raise a brow. “Let me guess, she ran away with all your money?”

He narrows his eyes at me, but it’s all I need.

“Figured.” I sigh. “I tried to warn you.”

“Charlotte,” he says in a condescending tone. “You’re my daughter.”

“So?” I suck on my bottom lip. He can’t play on my emotions, not now.

“A loan always needs to be repaid. And part of the agreement was that you—”

“No,” I interrupt, my heart palpitating. “Tell me you didn’t.”

He closes his lips and stares me down, which tells me he really did do it.

“No, not happening,” I say, shaking my head. “How dare you try this on me again?”

“It’s too late. The deal has already been made,” he replies.

My heart stops. “What?!”

I get up, and with a flat hand, I slap his face. The whole place has gone quiet, and everybody’s looking at us, but I don’t care. “I am not an object you can trade for money! I’m your daughter!”

I refuse to become that woman who belongs to someone like some sort of pet. I want to be independent, someone with her own business and her own life. No man will ever make that happen, and no man can make me as happy as my independence does.

Father reaches for my hand, but I pull it away before he can grab it. “Charlotte, you’ll be happy with this man. I promise you.”

My father has always tried to control me by telling me what school to go to, how to dress, and what to say. When I didn’t listen, he scolded me … sometimes, he even hit me.

And now, he’s gone and traded me to some man in exchange for a loan.

“No. You can’t say that. You can’t do this to me.” I shake him off and try to walk away.

Right then, the door to the establishment opens and in walks a handsome, suited-up man with wavy dark hair, a cleft chin … and an insufferably arrogant grin on his face.

My eyes widen, and I begin to stutter. “Easton …”

Easton Van Buren … once a simple waiter in my father’s restaurant with big dreams, he’s now a notorious business mogul who opens clubs all around the world. We first met at my father’s second wedding when we were still kids, and now we meet again … at what seems to be mine.

“Hello, Charlotte,” he muses, his voice still as salacious as I remember. “How nice of you to be here too. Right on time.”

No, this can’t be happening. Not here … and not with him. Even though he sure looks like James freaking Bond when he walks and talks, I know he has an ulterior motive, and it’s anything but good.

He walks toward me and briefly grazes my arm, but the implications are huge.

“You,” I mutter in complete shock. “Why are you …?”

He licks his lips, and a wicked smile forms on his face. But those eyes … those dazzling blue eyes only show contempt and vengeance.

“No,” I mutter.

“Yes,” he murmurs. “I’m the one who lent money to your father, and I want you as payment for that debt.”

For a few seconds, all I can do is stare. Then my palm instinctively comes up to slap him. However, he grabs my wrist before I can even come close.

“Ah-ah, Charlotte. That’s not nice. Hasn’t your father taught you manners?”

I spit in his face. “Asshole.”

He wipes off the spit with one hand. “Now, now … it seems I’ll have to teach you to behave.”

My father clears his throat as if to grab his attention. “I take it you’ll accept this agreement then?”

“Oh, yes.” The way Easton says it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

“What?” I mutter. I can’t believe this. He honestly sold me to a rich asshole just to get rid of his loan? “I’m not a bargaining chip!” I exclaim. “How dare you?”

Easton grabs my chin, and says, “I dare because I’ve wanted nothing more than to own you, and now I do.” The smirk that follows makes me want to smack him, but I don’t think he’d let me.

“I’m not an object. I’m a person, and I don’t fucking agree with any of this,” I hiss, glaring right back at him, so he knows I mean it.

“Tsk … we’ll have to do something about that dirty mouth of yours,” he growls, licking his lips. “And I know just the thing.”

He grabs my wrist and drags me toward the door.

“Let go of me!” I yell, punching his arm, but he’s too strong for me.

“No, Charlotte,” he says. “You’re mine now to do with as I please.”

“Are you insane? Do you think you’ll get away with this?” I stare him down. “You don’t scare me.”