Eleven
Oz
She hadn’t thought she was giving me useful information. Now that she knew exactly what she had told me, the fear for her brother was clear in those brown eyes of hers. He didn’t deserve it. All that tension and anxiety pouring off her in waves. He had to have known we had taken her, and he’d gotten on a goddamn plane and left anyway. Sorry-ass motherfucker didn’t even consider calling to check on her. He’d chosen his life over hers.
I watched her as I drank the whiskey in my glass.
She had started eating the tortilla soup slowly, as if she had no appetite. But once she had gotten a taste of it, her hunger had taken over. She’d had breakfast before five this morning because I couldn’t leave her down there a second more. Then, she slept through lunch because I couldn’t wake her up. She’d been sleeping too good, and she’d needed it.
This was her second bowl, along with a second serving of tortilla chips and guacamole. She had said very little, and honestly, I was enjoying watching her eat. It eased some of the shit in my chest over having to starve her. The fact that she didn’t have to sleep in the basement tonight came in right under the fact that I was almost positive Perry was in Marrakesh.
“Don’t get too full,” I told her. “There is strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cake in the fridge.”
Her eyes lit up at that information, and I grinned. I couldn’t help myself. She could go from messy-haired sex kitten to adorable in the blink of an eye. I was also one hundred percent sure she was clueless to the fact. She didn’t even attempt to use her feminine wiles to get her way. Not that it would work because although she was tempting, I had Blaise Hughes breathing down my neck. The idea of having her under me was one I was struggling to keep in check. But it wasn’t happening, and I knew it.
The tip of her pink tongue came out and swiped at her bottom lip. The concern was still marring her expression, and I really wished to hell she’d stop. I liked seeing her smile. Although it felt like it’d been a million years ago when I walked up to her in Hobby Lobby. The first and last time I’d seen her smile.
My eyes dropped to my phone. Seventy-two hours ago since I’d brought her here. Which meant it had been seventy-nine hours since I’d experienced that smile. Yeah, probably shouldn’t be thinking about the length of time since she’d smiled last.
“Chocolate.” She said the one word, and I wasn’t sure if it was a question or request.
I started to stand to go get it for her.
“I can get it,” she told me, shooting up out of her seat. “I was just repeating you because chocolate sounded almost as good as the shower and bed had.”
Not going to allow that to get to me.
“Do you want a drink? I have some red wines here. A port that would pair well with chocolate.”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t really drink often. I mean, I’m not against it. I just don’t really enjoy it that much, probably because of my mom.”
That was understandable.
I gave her a nod, and she turned, taking her bowl with her back to the kitchen. I, however, needed another two shots of whiskey, so I went to fill my glass. Since I had her up here, I intended to get her talking. To learn about her childhood, past, family—anything could help me. If I could get things from her without her even realizing it, that might be easier.
I walked over to stand in front of the windows that overlooked the east side of the house. The full moon lit up the darkness. Tonight was already more relaxing. Not having to sit up here and pace over the fact that an innocent female was being kept like an animal in the basement was one reason. The other was having a solid lead as to where Perry Gerard had fled. I wanted to go to fucking Morocco and find him myself, but until he was found, I was the jailer.
The bitterness that I was the one stuck here with her had changed in the past seventy-two hours though. Now, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to leave her with anyone else.
She’d protected Perry her entire life, but who the fuck had protected her? She’d started dating Alec as an adult—that was almost three years ago, so she’d been twenty by then.
“This is delicious,” her voice said, drawing me out of my thoughts.
I swung my gaze from the moonlit night to see her standing there in my Carver’s Bootleg Whiskey T-shirt that hit halfway down her thighs and a pair of black leggings that I’d found in a guest bedroom, along with the panties. There were tops, too, but they weren’t baggy, and the bras I’d found were too small to contain her tits. I’d decided one of my shirts would be big enough not to cling to her.
“Let’s go to the living room. It’s more comfortable,” I told her.
She seemed hesitant, but she nodded and then fell into step behind me. I wished she’d drink a little and loosen up. The more relaxed she was, the more she’d tell me. As it was, I had to use my charm to get information from her, and I wasn’t known for that. I might not be an asshole like Bane, but I didn’t talk much. Preferred the silence.
When I entered the most comfortable room out of the many like this one, I took the chair and motioned for Winslet to take a seat on the sofa. It was more plush and less fancy than the period pieces in this house. Her brown almond-shaped eyes studied me cautiously before dropping to her plate. She rested it in her lap after curling her legs up onto the sofa and tucking them in beside her.
“How old were you when your mom died?” I asked, not even leading into it.
This wouldn’t help me with finding her brother, but I was curious. I shouldn’t be. Our conversation should be all about Perry, but I wanted to know more about her.
She seemed surprised by that question. “I was fourteen,” she replied.
Damn. I hadn’t expected her to be that young.
“Were you sent to live with family?” Although I knew she had no other family.
She shook her head. “We didn’t have anyone. But we were lucky. Marley Luneze had been our elementary school counselor. Neither Perry nor I were in elementary school anymore, but she kept tabs on us. She’d always tried to talk to me and get me to tell her that our mother was abusive. I knew better than that. I could take the hits for Perry, but I couldn’t keep him with me if we were put into the system. Anyway, she had connections and was able to take us both in instead of us going to a foster home or other home where we would be split up. Mom falling down those stairs was the best thing that happened to us.” She paused, and a small frown creased her forehead. “That sounds terrible.”
I was still stuck on the abusive comment and her taking hits for Perry. I knew the guy wasn’t big, and he was two years younger than her, but, damn, he was a guy. What guy let a girl take punches to protect himself? I didn’t care what age he was. I had thrown swings at seven years old. Our dads encouraged it inside the family. We dealt with our disagreements by fighting.
“Your mother hit you?” I needed clarification.
She bit her bottom lip, then took a deep breath. “She wasn’t well. But yes. If I didn’t step in, she’d do more than break Perry’s bones, like she did mine. He was fragile. She didn’t ever attack me unless I stopped her from going after him. I never understood what it was that made her hate him like she seemed to. He was a quiet kid. Smart. A people pleaser. Rule follower.” She stopped, and her gaze looked at me pleadingly. “It’s why I am struggling to believe he did all this. And if so, then I don’t think he was the actual one behind it. He was used by someone else. Possibly this Samson guy.”
It was the opening I needed to turn this discussion to Perry, and I could ask things to get more answers where he was concerned. Which was what I should have been doing because all I had learned had me hating a dead woman.
Focus on the problem, Oz.
“We will know when we find him,” I replied, not telling her that Perry had absolutely known what he was doing. He was brilliant at it. No one was using him as a puppet. “You both went to college. Got degrees. How did you get the loans, assuming that was how it was paid for?”
She smiled softly. “Marley. She cosigned with me. Perry, however, got a full ride. His IQ alone was impressive. He skipped his eight grade and tenth grade years. Stanford gave him a full ride—considering our financial situation, he fell under the need category, and they wanted him bad. He graduated from high school the year I did. He’d done college freshman classes online that year too. By the time he was seventeen, he already had a year of college hours completed. Instead of four years, he completed his bachelor’s in three. He graduated from Stanford a year before I did from Mississippi State.”
Yet she didn’t see how he would maybe need money to help fund that company and open it up? That, in two years, he had become a multimillionaire from a start-up company, and that was fucking unheard of.
I struggled at not pointing that shit out to her. I wanted her to open up more. If she thought this was an interrogation, she’d flee the room. Shut me out. That wouldn’t help things.
“Impressive,” I said, then took a drink from my glass.
She laughed softly, and the sound distracted me. It had some soothing power to it. One you wanted to listen to again, just to see if it always had that impact.
“Yeah, while my little brother was out changing the world, I was busy going to my boyfriend’s games and the parties he never wanted to miss.”
Alec Dart.
“What, dating the football star wasn’t a fairy tale?” I asked, smirking.
Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “How do you know who I dated?”
I gave her a smug look. “Mafia,” I replied. “We don’t abduct someone without knowing basic facts about the people closest to them that might get in the way.”
She leaned back against the sofa, setting her plate down on the table beside her as she watched me. “What all do you know? I mean, if you know I dated Alec.”
I shrugged. “Not as much as you think. Like I said, basic. The reason Alec was info we needed was because he might be a person who would track you. Notice you were missing.”
She let out a short laugh. “Alec and I haven’t spoken in ten months. I broke it off eleven months ago, and after one month of him calling, texting, sending flowers, he stopped apologizing and left me alone.”
She’d broken it off with him. I liked that. Not that it mattered, but I still fucking liked it.
“Why did you end things?”
She tilted her head to the side, and her dark locks fell over her shoulder. “If you know who Alec is, then you know he plays for the Saints now. When the fame came, faithfulness wasn’t his strong suit.”
He’d cheated. Stupid fucker.
“How’d you find out?” I asked. This had not one damn thing to do with Perry, yet here I was, continuing to go off course.
“I called him after he got to play in their second preseason game his first year with them. We had been dating two years almost to the day. But he didn’t answer. A woman did. They were…well…” She paused, and her cheeks turned a little pink. “His mouth was otherwise occupied between her legs, and she answered the phone, then told me where he was. He took the phone and started apologizing, and I told him it was over. Not to call me again.”
Fucking bastard. I might fuck different women, but I never cheated. I didn’t do relationships.
“Sorry. That was probably more information than you wanted.”
I shook my head, standing to pour myself another drink. “Not at all. Only confirmed my opinion of him.”
Another laugh. “Is that so?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I replied, my own lips tugging into a grin. “Never liked him, and he’s not NFL material.”
“Let me guess…you’re an Ole Miss fan,” she said.
I went to the cabinet with whiskey in it and pulled down a bottle, then glanced over my shoulder at her. “Go Rebels,” I replied, although that was a fucking lie.
She rolled her eyes, but she was smiling.
“So, you’re telling me you’ve never cheated on a girl?” she asked.
“Never been in a relationship, darlin’. So, no, I haven’t,” I told her as I poured my drink, running the ball on the top of my tongue ring over my lip.
“Like, never?” she asked incredulously. “How have you never been in a serious relationship? You’re, like, what, twenty-six, twenty-seven?”
I turned back around to look at her. “Twenty-seven.” Although I’d only been twenty-seven for three months now.
“And not one time in all those years have you been in a relationship?” she asked me again as if she didn’t believe me.
“If we aren’t counting my hand,” I drawled.
She frowned, and when the realization hit her, she went from looking shocked to flushed.
“That makes your cheeks turn pink? Me mentioning the fact that I’ve been jerking off since before puberty at least once a day? You dated Alec Dart. You can’t tell me he didn’t talk about shit like that.”
She bit her bottom lip and looked so damn shy that it made me want to grab her and kiss that innocent look off her face. Dirty her up a little.
Stop. Easy with the imagination.
The thickening in my cock wasn’t a good thing. Not here and not with her.
“No. I mean, he would get a little crude when he was with his friends and drinking, but he didn’t say that much around me. I just hadn’t expected you to say something like that.”
I grinned into my glass. I wanted to say a lot more to her. See her get all flustered, but I didn’t.
“Did you just never fall in love?” she asked me.
That got a laugh from me. I shook my head. “Darlin’, why would I fall in love with one woman when there is a vast array of tight little cunts to be sampled?”
Her body tensed up as her shoulders went straight. That only made her tits press against the cotton of my shirt. I needed to get the woman a bra. Jesus.
“Oh,” she breathed. “I guess maybe all men think that way. It took the NFL and distance from me for Alec to realize that was what he wanted too.”
Now, she looked…defeated. As if I had just dashed all her dreams. That wasn’t what I’d meant to do. Fuck. I was not good at talking to females who weren’t trying to suck my cock or ride it.
“That’s not necessarily true,” I told her. “My best friend is so pussy-whipped by his wife that he can’t stand being away from her for a goddamn minute. Before Halo, I would have thought that I’d never see the day one woman would be enough for him. But he worships the ground she walks on.”
A dreamy, almost-envious expression crossed her face. “Wow. That sounds…very fairy tale–like.” She let out a small laugh. “I used to love fairy tales. Cinderella was my favorite book when I was younger. But I grew up and realized that was in fact fiction and not real life.”
Part of me wanted to reassure her that was possible, but it was hard to do when I wasn’t sure I believed that shit myself. Bane and Halo were that once-in-a-lifetime thing, which was rare. Until them, I’d never seen anything like it.
“Cinderella needed a man to save her, if I’m remembering the correct fairy tale. She had a shit life and a stepmother that treated her like a slave. Instead of her standing up to the woman and beating her ass, a man had to take her away from it all,” I said. “That bitch was weak. From what I’ve seen and heard, you’re pretty damn tough.”
She dropped her gaze to her lap, and her lips tugged up at the corners. “I don’t see her that way. She was an abused kid who did what she had to in order to survive. She carried all the weight on her shoulders, having no one to share it with. No one to share anything with. She was basically alone. Then, a prince came along, and they fell in love—although it was a little too instalove.” She lets out a musical trickle of laughter. “But she didn’t ask him for help. She faced her problems and remained brave. Then, one day, he found her. He’d never stopped searching. She was his other half. The one that completed him. And together, they faced life. Fought their battles side by side.”
When she lifted her eyes back to meet mine, she seemed wistful.
I found myself seeing the entire fucking story differently. I mean, I wasn’t going to go read the book or anything, but I did see Cinderella in a new light.
She covered her mouth as she yawned. Although I’d let her sleep most of the day, she was still deprived from the nights spent downstairs. I hadn’t gotten any answers from her tonight that would help me locate her brother, but I didn’t seem to mind. It was the most enjoyable evening I’d ever spent with a female without my cock filling a mouth or cunt. Interesting.
“Go on up and get some sleep,” I told her.
She scrunched her nose. “I’m sorry for yawning. It wasn’t from boredom, I swear.”
No, it was because I left your ass in the basement for three nights.
A sour burn appeared in my throat as I thought about it. We had to find her bastard brother so I could let her go free, and then she could go find her fucking prince.
“You’ve not had a bed in three nights. It’s expected.”
The relieved look on her face hit me in my gut. Fucking hell. Maybe the lack of sleep was getting to me too. Something had to be messing with me because the way I was reacting to her was odd. Different. I didn’t like it.
“Thanks,” she said, looking so damn grateful when I was the one who had abducted her and put her in a basement.
“Good night, darlin’,” I replied.
Her smile was so fucking sweet that I had to look somewhere else. With a nod, I turned my back to her and went to the bookshelf to see if there was anything that might keep my attention. My ears, however, were trained on her every move, like those almost-silent footsteps of hers as she walked. I had become attuned to her so quickly.