Chapter 14
DANIKA
I give myself over to the tears for the first time since my life careened off the tracks and detoured straight into a ravine. I haven’t had the luxury of letting myself fall apart. With Tommy gone and my mother in danger, I can’t fight back the emotions any longer.
I cry deep, uncontrollable sobs that leave me exhausted on the sofa, which is where Tommy finds me fast asleep when he returns home.
“Wake up, Danika. You have some explaining to do.”
The words slowly filter into my consciousness. “Huh? What are you talking about?” I sit up and rub my eyes, trying to get my bearings.
Tommy stands over me, arms crossed stiffly. “I’ve done some digging, and it doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots.”
“What do you mean?” I’m finally feeling awake but still clueless.
“I’m talking about you. Danika Dobrev. That’s your mother’s maiden name.
It’s what’s on your birth certificate because your father is listed as John Doe.
” He cocks his head to the side. “You said you stole something, but after seeing your birth certificate, there’s another much more plausible explanation for Biba’s willingness to pay such a huge amount of money for you, but I don’t want to believe it.
Tell me I’m wrong, Danika. Tell me you’re not Biba’s daughter. ”
His words are eerily calm like the glassy surface of a dark lake concealing a terrible monster below. Tommy’s not a monster, is he? He said he wanted to keep me safe. Would his opinion change if he knew the truth? I’m terrified to find out.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I pull my knees to my chest as if they’re a shield. It’s laughable because I’m at this man’s mercy in every way.
He stalks closer, eyes narrowing as he towers over me. “I’ll ask you one more fucking time.” His savage words slash at me as he holds his phone out. “And I want the truth, or I’ll call Biba myself right goddamn now. Are you his fucking daughter?”
Desperation is quicksand tugging at my body, its unrelenting weight pressing against my lungs and blurring my vision.
I’m terrified to tell him the truth, yet I have no choice.
I see it in his eyes. He’ll do it. He’ll hand me over in a heartbeat if he thinks I’m lying to him.
My only hope is that telling the truth doesn’t end in the same fate.
“Yes.” The single word is nothing but a whisp of air. A shameful, ugly exhalation.
Tommy waits as I collect myself to explain.
“Biba’s technically my father, but he’s never played any role in my life.
As you probably know, he has two sons with his wife.
My mom and I were his dirty little secret.
He walked away not long after I was born, refusing to acknowledge us even in private.
And now?” Tears burn the back of my eyes.
“Now that he’s found a use for me, he seems to think he owns me. ”
“A use for you?” Tommy asks with a sneer.
“He summoned me five days ago to inform me he’d arranged my marriage to some terrifying man named The Reaper.” I shake my head. “I can’t let that happen, Tommy. I won’t do it. Please, please , don’t turn me over to him.” My voice is reed-thin, emotion clogging my throat.
Tommy takes an unsteady step backward. “When you said you stole something from him, you meant yourself.” The words are a soft realization.
“At first, it was the easiest way to explain why I was hiding, but once I realized you knew him, I was scared you’d turn me over … or worse.”
“Worse?”
I bite my bottom lip, hoping I don’t anger him. “If you were his enemy, I wasn’t sure what you might do to me thinking you were hurting him.” The possibilities are too horrific to even think about.
I take a risk and go stand in front of Tommy, my gaze hesitantly lifting to his. “I’m not his to give away. Please don’t tell him where I am. If you want me to leave, I’ll go. No one ever has to know I was here—”
Tommy’s hand gently but firmly fists in the back of my hair, cutting off my plea.
His grip is secure but not painful, as though his purpose is purely to claim my attention.
His eyes glint with a primal savagery I’ve never seen before, and I can’t make sense of it because he doesn’t know me well enough to elicit such emotion, does he?
“Is there someone else?” His snarled question catches me off guard.
“What do you mean? Someone else after me?”
“No, is there a man in your life? Is there … someone … else?” He says each word as if it tastes worse than the one before.
“No. I’m not seeing anyone.” I’m so confused as to what that has to do with anything.
“Look at me,” he demands, waiting to continue until my searching gaze meets his. “You’re right. You can’t be his to give away if you’re already mine.”
“What?” It’s more of a shocked exhale than an actual question. “What does that mean?”
“It means you’re going to marry me.”
Words escape me.
He can’t be serious. I can’t marry him. Biba would be furious, and I know what happens when Biba is angry. And that’s not even taking into account that I hardly know Tommy. “No, I … I can’t do that.”
His hands cup either side of my face before he brings his lips close to mine but not to kiss me.
The intoxicating uncertainty of what he might do next has me entranced.
My breathing quickens to shallow pants as he slowly nips my bottom lip between his teeth, then allows his tongue to drift languidly over the heated flesh.
My core warms and pulses with need so intensely that my body instinctively sways toward his.
“You can, and you will, and not just for your protection.” His hand slips under my shirt, then down inside my shorts and beneath my panties.
He keeps me rooted in place with the intensity of his stare.
Not that I want to flee. His touch feels incredible as he cups my sex, his thick middle finger easing itself deep inside me.
I gasp for air, my hands clinging to his shirt for support.
“You’ll agree to be mine because that’s what your body wants.
” His finger glides in and out of me a couple of times before he retracts the hand and brings it up between us, displaying the shameful degree of arousal coating his finger.
Eyes locked on mine, he inserts the finger into his mouth and sucks it clean.
It’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. My lips part as I watch him, enthralled.
“Want to know what you taste like, little thief?” His voice is worn leather and the smoldering embers of a fire. The scent and sound and texture invade my senses to demand my allegiance.
I nod because I have to. He wants me to say yes, and at that moment, I want to give him anything and everything he wants.
He brings his finger to my lips as though to give me a taste, then detours at the last second, his hand dropping to cuff my neck. He brings his lips a breath away from my ear and whispers, “ Mine . You taste like mine, little thief.”
Oh, holy hell, I’m in trouble.
It’s the most combustible, delicious thing I’ve ever heard a man say, real or fictional. How does logic stand a chance when up against that sort of temptation?
What’s to say marrying him doesn’t make sense?
And that’s exactly why a man like Tommy is so dangerous. He’s everything I shouldn’t want and everything I desperately need.
“Being yours and getting married are two different things.” I try to carve my way through the haze of desire and think rationally, though I’m not sure I’ve accomplished my goal. I’m not even sure what I’m trying to say. I just know I need to think this through.
Tommy’s chin lifts the tiniest fraction. Is that an acknowledgment that I’m right, or a recoil out of irritation? I can’t tell. He’s too hard to read.
“Where Biba is concerned, there can’t be any wiggle room. You have to be mine in every way.” His voice has an edge. A wariness. Or is it a warning?
“What does that mean, Tommy?” Is he talking forever? Or does he mean for us to put on a convincing show? It seems so presumptive to think he’s pushing for a real marriage. He wouldn’t want that, would he?
“Everything, Danika. It means you bind yourself to me—give me every piece of yourself—and in return, I’ll give you your life back.
As my wife, you’ll have not only my protection but the strength of the entire Moretti family as well.
” His voice is cool and clinical, and the heat in his stare from seconds ago is now shuttered behind an impenetrable wall.
“But what I’m offering is all or nothing.
I’m not a man who deals in concessions. Think carefully before you make your choice, but remember, time is ticking. ”
Tommy walks away, leaving me dumbstruck in the living room, my entire life teetering in the balance.