Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
PERILOUS
I have all the proof needed. But I’m not here to offer Annika a fucking presentation on her life. She either trusts me enough to appreciate my words or she faces death. It’s really that simple. There are no fucking games here.
I watch Annika drink. Her sweet, soft lips touching the bottle of vodka. Her eyes never leaving mine. She’s got this look in her eyes. I have to look away but I don’t.
Fuck.
Her lips pop off the bottle and she hands it back to me. I watch her writhe as the vodka works its way into her stomach.
“I’m ready,” she whispers. “I swear to you, Perilous . I. Am. Ready.”
“Your father is broke,” I say.
That’s confession number one.
“Broke,” Annika says, not questioning, just repeating.
“Broke,” I say. “He’s lost everything. You’re a finance person. You’ve studied it. He’s fucking broke. Worthless. He tied up chunks of assets into bad investments and used fake valuations to get loans from certain banks. When those banks dried up, he went elsewhere. He’s been dealing with some really shady people.”
Her eyes blink fast. She’s fighting that instinctive urge to question me. I shove her mouth full with her panties, so even if she wanted to, she can’t now.
“Everything is imploding around him right now,” I continue. “That’s why he’s such a fucking mess. Maybe. Or maybe it’s the rest of the shit I have to tell you.”
I gently stroke Annika’s jawline.
“Do you understand me?” I ask.
I pull the panties out of her mouth.
“Yes,” she whispers.
“Repeat it to me, doll.”
“My father… is broke…?”
My right hand slaps her face. “Did you just question me?”
“No. Perilous, no. My father is broke. My father is fucking broke! He has no money. He’s worth nothing!”
“That’s right,” I say. She looks me right in the eyes. “It’s been coming for a while. He’s been running with different sets of financials. Like a gambler at a casino trying to count cards, waiting for that one big payoff to justify everything else. Except in his case there is no payoff. Nothing is coming. Everything he thought he had built is done. It’s like a dead deer carcass on the side of the road…”
“The vultures are circling,” Annika whispers. “Everyone is waiting to pick him apart. Liquidate what is there, buy the rest for nothing, leverage the debt, control everything.”
“You’re as smart as you are beautiful,” I say. Her cheeks turn red. “But there’s one asset that could have bought him some more time. Do you know what that is?”
“No,” she says.
I lean down toward her and stuff her mouth with her panties again. My lips touch her right ear. And I destroy her reality even more.
“You’re father planned on selling you.”
* * *
Annika grabs at my shirt and starts to whimper. I see her fighting the urge to shake her head. She wants to refuse what I’ve said to her. She doesn’t want to believe. Who the fuck would believe it, right?
“How does it even work, right, doll?” I ask her.
I step away and peel her hands off my shirt. Her eyes fill with tears and she shakes her head. My hands ball up into fists.
“That’s why he wanted you returned to him alive and safe,” I say. “You were going to be kidnapped the night you went out. And not by me. There was a gentleman at the end of the bar, wasn’t there?”
Her eyes widen.
“That’s right. How the fuck would I know that? Am I part of this? Am I the big, bad kidnapper, Annika?”
She shakes her head.
I curl my lip. “Are you connecting the dots yet?”
She shrugs her shoulders. I grab her jaw and pluck the panties out of her mouth once again. My hand slides down to her throat.
“Take a drink, doll,” I whisper. “You’ll need it.”
I hand her the bottle of vodka and she drinks.
“For the record, whatever price your father put on your cunt, it wasn’t nearly high enough. Your sweet, seductive slit is worth trillions in my book.”
She blushes again. She’s digesting my words.
“That night you were going to be taken by that man,” I tell her. “Once confirmed through another channel of communication, money would have been given to your father. That money would have been enough to make some of the scariest lenders back off a little. See where this is going? Non-traditional lending, meaning non-traditional collateral. He used your body as collateral.”
She gasps for a breath and swallows hard. Her chin quivers. I can see it buried deep within her eyes that she not only believes me, but it some sick way this doesn’t completely surprise her. It hurts her, yes, but it doesn’t surprise her to the point of complete denial.
That means in some way she’s known her father is complete and total scum.
“There’s another piece to this, Annika,” I tell her. “You haven’t figured it out yet. Do you understand yet why I had to protect you? Why I did what I did when I arrived here?”
She licks her lips. “I don’t… I’m sorry…”
I cup her face with my right hand.
Am I feeling things for her? Am I feeling a sense of sorrow for her?
Am I… connecting my pain to her pain…?
That can’t be true. Not for a second. That would imply things between us are real. That’s not possible. I only claimed her for my own redemption. For the awful sins I’ve committed, hoping to maybe not completely wash them away but at least rinse them off for a little bit.
“He didn’t act alone,” I say. “It was a setup. Do you understand?”
“I…”
I growl deep in my throat.
“This may seem like an odd question to you, but was your best friend wearing panties when she was here?”
I really don’t expect much of a reaction other than confusion. But when Annika’s face lights up and twists with sickening anger, I realize she’s starting to get it.
“How would you…”
“Your best friend and your father have been fucking each other,” I say. “They’ve been having an affair or whatever you want to call it for about six months now. She always had a crush on him, right?”
“Fuck,” Annika groans.
“That’s right. And he saw opportunity. He pulled her into his darkness. Some fresh, young pussy to enjoy.”
“Stop.”
“No,” I growl. “Fuck no, Annika. You need to know everything. All of this happening behind your back. Here you are, studying and planning your future. You wanted to leave the country and travel the world. Yet behind the scenes your father arranged for you to be sold. To cover some of his debt. And your best friend was sucking his cock, fucking him and planning the same thing for you.”
“I’m going to throw up,” Annika says.
“No, you’re not, doll.”
“My stomach is sick.”
“Good. Let it be sick.”
“Peri, I swear that—”
I drop my mouth to hers and kiss her. I dare her to throw up. Go for it. She’s not going to vomit, she’s just facing reality.
I break the kiss. “I found her panties on the floor of your father’s bedroom. I found everything, Annika. That’s why I went to his place. I drugged him and went through his laptop, his bedroom, everything. I had to find out the truth. I had to know everything. Your best friend pointed the guy out at the end of the bar, didn’t she?”
Annika heaves a little, turning her face away from me.
“Peri…”
Oh, fuck.
I quickly grab for the panties tied tightly around her ankles. I work the knots free and throw her legs from the bed. She stands and tries to run but falls to the floor. Her feet and ankles must be completely numb from the knots I made.
I scoop her up like a suitcase with a broken wheel and I carry her to the bathroom. We make it just in time for her to lean over the bathroom sink and vomit.
She holds the edges of the sink with a white knuckle grip and I have a handful of her hair to keep it out of her face. She’s blushing as she gets sick, not wanting me to see her like this.
“Told you to get drunk,” I growl at her. “To lessen the blow of all this.”
The bathroom sink smells like vodka and bile. Her last empty heave is followed by a sobbing sound. I turn on the water, cup my left hand and offer it to her.
“It’s the hardest truths, doll. But it’s not the last one.”
“What the fuck?” Annika whimpers.
“You need to hear it all. What your father did. What your best friend did. They were going to sell you. That man at the end of the bar was going to kidnap you. Your best friend was part of it. All because your father is broke. Okay? So now you have that part of the story. You running out of the club that night and interrupting me was the best decision you ever made in your life, Annika. But also the worst.”
I offer her more water and gently clean her lips and mouth. She stands up, taking deep breaths.
“I need to brush my teeth,” she says, reaching for her dark purple toothbrush.
“Hold off on that, doll,” I say as I take her wrist and place it behind her back. I stand behind her, towering over her, pressing my body against hers. “You’re not done puking yet.”
Her lips quiver and she gently sobs. “Peri…”
“I know. I fucking know. But you need to know everything.”
“What more is there to know?” Annika asks, staring at me in the reflection of the mirror.
This next one might hit her the hardest. I know I claimed her. I know I own her. But this really cuts deep.
I don’t want to feel a connection to Annika, but it’s far too late now for that. I can’t tell if I’m trapped or catching feelings. But right now I have to destroy the rest of Annika’s reality.
I spin her around so I can look into her eyes.
So that I can tell her that her mother is actually still alive.