Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54589 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 218(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
“Do I really want to hear this?” Dash growls.
“Yes. You need to hear it. She came to my apartment the day of my father’s memorial.”
“Do I really want to hear this?” Dash asks again. “She’s my sister.”
I push onward as if he hasn’t spoken. “Not even then, with her there, in my own domain, in the middle of hell burning me alive, did I touch her. I treated her like shit that night to make her hate me. To protect her.”
“And yet you still ended up together,” Dash comments. “How?”
“After that night at my apartment, the tension between us was off the charts. Something had shifted. One of our clients hit on her, I got protective, we fought, and you know where this ends. Here. Right here, with her in the line of fire because I couldn’t keep my hands to myself. I did this to her.” The words wrench from deep inside me.
“I’ve never seen Bella as happy as she is with you, Tyler. You didn’t do this to her. The Allen family did this to her.” The traffic starts to move, and he accelerates.
The Allen family did this to her.
The words radiate through me and scream of a lie.
Bella is only on their radar because I put her there.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Bella
Take whatever you have on under your skirt off. Hose, panties, whatever. Take it off…
I’m gaping at Oliver’s command, on my feet and ready to fight, my heart beating so fast I think I might have a heart attack. This is my biggest fear, the nightmare I knew would come true when I entered this room.
“I swear,” I declare, my voice trembling, “at a minimum, you lose an eye trying to undress me.”
He levels a cold, gray stare on me. “I don’t have to rape a woman to get a woman.” He motions toward me. “I’m going to tape your hands to ensure you can’t leave the room, and because I’m a nice guy, I’m trying to spare you peeing all over yourself when you have to go to the bathroom. You’ll be here for hours.” He pushes to his feet, his expression foul as he steps closer. “Keep your panties on for all I care.” He motions for me to hurry up. “Put your damn hands out in front of you.”
I blink. What is happening right now? He just wants me to be able to go to the bathroom. Who thinks of something like that? And do I dare believe the answer is him because he’s that considerate? If I let him tie my hands…
“Decision time,” he announces. “Either I stay here and babysit you to ensure you don’t leave, or I tie you up, and go to the meeting Tyler is having with my client right now. But I stress here, that if I’m in that meeting, I can try to influence the outcome. I can tell him I believe your claim that Tyler does not have the file. In other words, my client should back the fuck off and leave you both alone.”
“You don’t need to babysit me or tie me up. I’ll stay. I swear. I want you to go help end this.
“Leaving you here, without typing you up, is never going to happen. You’re tied up or I stay.”
“If you trust me about the file—”
“If you leave before it’s approved, I could be the one who ends up dead.”
My lips purse. “I find that hard to believe.”
His brow arches. “Is it?”
I swallow the cotton in my throat, my belly clenching. These people kidnapped me. They’re willing to go pretty far to make a point. Maybe it’s not so impossible to believe. “How do I know you’ll leave after you tie me up?”
His expression is pure irritation, his eyes glinting steel. “Make a decision. Am I staying or going?”
I’m as unsteady in my decision as a boat on choppy waters, but for reasons I can’t explain, I don’t believe he means me harm. On the other hand, I do believe he wants to put an end to this struggle. “How many hours will I have to stay?”
“Depends on how much they buy into what I’m selling.”
“The truth isn’t long and drawn out. We don’t have anything to give them.”
“Hands.”
I hesitate but I lift my arms in front of me. Now, he’s the one hesitating. “Sure you don’t want to take off your panties? It’s going to be a long few hours.”
I purse my lips. “Fine. Turn around.”
“Are you going to hit me?” he asks.
I laugh without humor. “It’s not like I could do much damage.”
“So don’t try.” He turns around.
I pull off my panties and toss them away because I don’t want them between us. “Okay.”
He rotates to face me again. “Hands,” he orders again.
Once again, I hold them out and he starts wrapping me up and boy does he. Even my fingers are covered. I look like I have on the world’s largest boxing gloves. “This sucks,” I say. “What if I’m thirsty?”