Page 12 of Before the Fall
They’ll be enjoying a first-class trip to Italy that will keep them preoccupied and away from here for at least a month. I hope Ryker puts his plan into action in that time and gets rid of Victor. I can afford to keep them in Europe for longer than the next four weeks, but getting them to agree to it will be another thing entirely.
I stop at the foot of the bed and watch to see if Tia moves at all. Fuck. Cason told me this stuff would only last for a few hours. Did I give her too much? Damnit, she needs to wake the fuck up right now.
Another five minutes go by with no movement at all, so I walk around the bed and gently nudge her shoulder to move things along. At least that’s what I hope it will do. Since I’ve never used this stuff before, I have no idea what the hell is going to happen.
She doesn’t respond to the first nudge, so I give her shoulder another one. She’s breathing. I can see by how her chest rises and falls that she’s taking air in and letting it out.
So why the fuck isn’t she coming out of it?
I return to pacing, hoping at any minute she’ll wake up, but when ten more minutes go by, I can’t wait any longer. I sit down on the bed next to her and give her a little shake. Nothing too much but hopefully enough to get her out of it.
Her eyelids flutter ever-so-slightly, but she still doesn’t wake up. Christ, am I going to have to take her to the hospital? That’ll be fun. I’ll have to pretend some asshole at a club drugged her so they don’t arrest my damn ass right on the spot.
When I get my hands on Cason, I’m going to fucking smack the shit out of him.
I try again to shake Tia, this time a little rougher, and finally her eyes slowly open. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relieved in my life. My heart stops racing, and I sit back to take a deep breath.
“Where am I?” she quietly asks as she looks around the strange room we’re in.
“It’s okay. I’m here, Tia,” I say, leaning forward to kiss her softly on the lips.
I never get to because she slaps me across the face so hard I nearly see stars. Falling back onto the bed, I shake my head as I rub the spot she hit. I had no idea she had it in her.
“What did you do?” she angrily demands.
Sitting up, I smile at her. “You’re going to be fine. Are you hungry?”
Tia slowly lifts herself up and glares at me. “Am I hungry? You son of a bitch! You drugged me and kidnapped me, didn’t you?”
I tilt my head left and right as I try to find the right words to say. “Kidnapped is such an ugly word. Let’s say I did what needed to be done to make sure you were safe and leave it at that.”
Her eyes flash pure rage, and she kicks her feet against my side before swinging her legs off the bed. “The word is kidnapped, Jaxon. Don’t try to sugarcoat it. I can’t believe you did this! It wasn’t enough that you came back and turned my life upside down. For days, I was looking over my shoulder wondering when you would show up. Let me guess. You got in when I left my front door unlocked that day I was bringing in groceries. Jesus, Jaxon. You promised me you’d never do anything like this. Remember that, or is that not something you want to talk about?”
Her legs give out as soon as her feet hit the floor, so I quickly scoop her up into my arms and set her back down on the bed. “We can talk about anything you want. I just need you to take things slow for a few minutes. By the way, when someone like me tells you you’re in danger, leaving your front door open so anyone can walk in is exactly what you’re not supposed to do.”
She continues to glare angrily at me as she looks around the room. “Someone like you. A bad man is what you mean. Delightful.”
There’s no point in denying who I am. I’m a bad man. She’s not wrong about that.
Rubbing her eyes, she angrily asks, “What did you give me? Where are we? I need to get out of here to see my parents. Or did you kidnap them too?”
I smile, hoping to defuse the tension between us. “No, I didn’t kidnap them. They’re enjoying a vacation to Italy. I hired a tour guide to take them to all the best spots, and they’re going to be staying in first-class hotels all the way. Trust me. They’re going to have a great time. They loved the idea. I took a shot that Italy would be a great place to visit for them, so I guess I got lucky.”
Tia shakes her head and grimaces. “You should assume that’s the last time you’ll get lucky with anyone in my family. Now where the hell have you taken me? You know I have work. If I don’t show up, they’re going to fire me.”
“I took care of that too. You’re sick. Mono. Sucks, but you’re going to need about a month to recover.”
Confusion fills her expression, which is so much better than the pure anger she’s been giving me every second since she woke up. “How did you do that?”
“I have a doctor who?—”
Before I can answer, she shakes her head again and holds up her hand to stop me. “Don’t bother. I don’t want to know. I guess you figure since you have more money than God that you can just pull this kind of shit and everyone will be fine with it. So my parents are touring Italy for God knows how long, and I get to stay here in Chez Hostage with you. Well, forget it. Nope. Not happening.”
She stands up again, and this time she doesn’t fall straight to the floor, so she storms out of the bedroom. I follow and find her in the kitchen looking in the refrigerator. Good. I was thinking I might have to stop her from leaving the house.
“I can have something made for you. Just tell me and I’ll get the cook to whip it up. She’s quite good. My uncle found her in this tiny restaurant right outside of Baltimore slaving away for next to nothing and stole her away on the spot.”
Tia leans back and looks around the refrigerator door at me like I said something bizarre. Her eyes narrowed to furious slits, she asks, “So is this a family trait? Stealing people away from their happy lives to come stay with you people? You should try a dog and leave us all alone.”