Like what the fuck am I going to do with the girl? I told her brother I won’t hurt her, and I meant it.
I’m a man of my word, so I won’t touch her.
But what will I do with her?
I shove my hands in my pockets and finally walk to the window, the large window that faces the water. The waves crash against the shore. Each time one hits the rocks, white bubbles to the surface like small crystals. Beside that, the ocean looms in the distance. Dark and menacing. A perfect storm is brewing.
A minute passes as I look out into the dark abyss.
“Boss.” I hear Z’s voice. “What’s the plan?” he asks, and I shrug at his question. “Are you going to bring her here?”
That has me stop and look toward him. “No.”
I couldn’t. It’s not safe here. Not that Boris knows I have her yet, but he will.
He can come here all he wants. No one knows about the island. No one but Z and Maxwell and me. I trust them with my life, so there is nothing to worry about there.
“I know it’s not my place . . .” he starts to say, and I lift my hand to silence him.
“No. It’s not.”
When he doesn’t move, I shake my head, but then I let out a breath. The man has been with me since the beginning. His father worked for my father. He lived in my house; he was like a brother to me. He’s been with me since before I lost everything and then after I burned myself to the ground. He was still there with me when I rose from the ashes to build all this.
“If you have something to say, then please, by all means, talk.”
“What are you doing, boss? We can end this now. Call Boris, broker the trade. Saving her won’t—”
I was wrong. I don’t want to hear what he says.
“Enough.” My voice booms. “I saw her. I wanted her. That’s it.”
“Keeping her will ruin—”
“Stop,” I cut him off again. Z might be the closest person I have to a friend, but it is not his place to question my authority and rule.
A tense silence stretches out between us as he waits for me to say more, but I don’t. I don’t even know why I did this. Why this girl is stranded on my island.
When I saw her . . . there was so much about her that . . . I shake my head. “I couldn’t let her have that fate,” I answer because that’s the only thing I can say. “No one should have that.”
Many things about me are evil, but not that.
An hour later, Z and I are still sitting in my office when the phone rings on my desk. It’s one of the landlines from within the house, probably Maxwell.
“Speak,” I answer.
“Mariana wishes to speak with you, sir.”
“Send her in.” I hang up the phone and look up to see Z staring at me. “Mariana.”
He nods his head in understanding. Mariana works in my household, but she is also providing my little captive her food.
The sound of the door has both me and Z looking to the left.
Mariana walks in, timid as usual. She’s been with me for only a few years, but it doesn’t matter how long she’s been here, she still acts like a scared mouse when I’m around.
“Mariana.”
“Hello, Mr. Reed.”
“Cyrus, please,” I tell her. I might be a dick, but there is no reason to be one to her. She’s been through enough. “What can I do for you?”
She looks down at the floor, but it’s when she worries her lip that I know something is wrong.
“What’s going on, Mariana?” I speak softly so I don’t send her shaking with fear to the corner of the room.
“She won’t eat.”
My hands ball into fists, but instead of losing my shit, I inhale deeply. “What do you mean she won’t eat?”
Fear, stark and vivid, glitters in her eyes. “S-She . . .” She stops, probably petrified of me. Even trying to be calm, I’m still scaring this poor girl. “She said she won’t eat until you come.”
The room goes quiet. If a pin dropped on the floor, the sound would be as clear as day right now.
I give her a reassuring smile. “Did you speak to her?”
Mariana was given strict instruction not to engage. To pretend she didn’t speak English.
“No, sir. I did just as you asked. But even if I didn’t understand her, she made it quite clear.”
Interesting. A hunger strike. My parted lips spread farther. She is quite the conundrum, constantly refusing to do what the norm would do in her position.
I like it. Fuck that, I love it.
“And she is following through with this?”
“Yes, sir. I came back, and none of the food was touched.”