Page 13 of Before the Fall
“You know what I mean. The woman was working in a crappy job, so he offered her a job as a cook for him.”
“Then what is she doing here? By the way, where is here? I need to know when I decide to leave.”
I can’t help smiling at how feisty she is right now. It’s one of the million things I love about Tia.
“She’s here because he didn’t think I’d want to cook. He was right.”
As she slams the refrigerator door shut, she mumbles, “How nice. Wealthy psychos.”
“As for where here is, we’re outside of Philly. It’s a house that’s in my family that they don’t mind me using for my purposes.”
Tia shakes her head in disgust. “Your money never bothered me before today, but I think it’s pissing me off. You have houses at your disposal where you can take someone you kidnap and a cook who comes with the deal. How nice for you. If you don’t mind, though, I’ll be leaving. I have a life to get back to.”
When she moves to step around me, I stop her by gently grabbing her wrist. I don’t want to hurt her, but I can’t let her leave. Not until I know it’s safe.
She looks down at where my hand holds her arm and then up at me, her eyes full of rage again. “Let go of me. Now.”
With a shake of my head, I give her my answer. “You’ll stay here until you’re no longer in danger.”
“From the part of your family that doesn’t have money to burn and chefs to steal.”
I don’t know why her attack on my family bothers me, but I snap back, “You wouldn’t be in this position if you hadn’t dated my cousin first, Tia. Don’t blame me for your bad choices.”
Her shoulders sag as I finish speaking, and she sighs. “Nice. How long have you been waiting to bring that up, Jaxon? Like anyone ever asks to be kidnapped twice.”
“You weren’t kidnapped the first time,” I say, needing to correct her for some reason.
What the hell does it matter what she calls it? The end result is the same.
Once again, she’s forced to stay with me, only this time it’s because I can’t bear the thought of her getting hurt because Victor wants to be an asshole to the rest of the family.
Tia frowns and sighs again. “Right. I was just tricked. This time is the kidnapping. Do any of the people in your family simply have normal relationships? Have any of you tried just meeting women in bars instead of spiriting them off and drugging them?”
I think about how Ryker got together with Kaia and Cason got with Lily and shake my head. “Not really. Occupational hazard, I guess.”
She tugs her arm away and walks toward the living room mumbling, “I guess bad men don’t do things like the rest of us. How lucky for me.”
Once again, I follow her and hope we can move past this angry part of our time together. I know she still loves me. I just need to make her remember that.
“So you’re not hungry?”
Spinning around to face me, she laughs. “I don’t believe for a second you have a chef here to cook for us. I looked around that kitchen, Jaxon. Gorgeous, to say the least, with all the stainless steel appliances and that gas range that’s definitely chef level, but there’s no food in the damn refrigerator. Why do you feel you have to lie to me? Is it to make me think you’re a nice guy? Because that ship sailed the moment you took me from my apartment and kidnapped me!”
So much for getting past the anger.
“She’s at the store. You’ll see when she gets back.”
“Then why did you say she could whip up something for me if she’s not here? You must think I’m a total idiot. I bet this kind of thing works with people who don’t pay much attention to what’s said around them. I’m not one of those people, you know.”
I take a step toward her and stop when she throws me the nastiest look I’ve ever seen. “I know you’re not. I promise I’m not lying. You’ll see. And for what it’s worth, I love that you’re smart. I just think you could believe in me a little more. We were together for a long time.”
Of course, she doesn’t miss a beat before saying, “Until you broke up with me.”
Jesus, I can’t deal with this for the next month.
Throwing my hands up in the air, I say, “Fine. I broke up with you. Yes, I did that. I told you why, and whether you believe me or not, that’s the truth. I’m not going to keep trying to make you understand. It happened and that’s it.”
As I talk, her expression gets angrier and angrier until I’m pretty sure she wants to hit me. Marching over to where I stand, she pokes her finger hard into my chest as she shakes her head.