Chapter 34 #2
Even though I watch Cruz stride right past the bouncer on the video surveillance and shove his way back into the office, I still flinch when he bursts through the door. “We’re leaving now!” he calls in my direction, his eyes locked on me with an irrational psychotic stare that makes me tremble.
Asher is right behind him. He fakes a smile, I think, when he sees the horror written all over my face.
I’m not even going to hide that I was spying on them. If I can’t escape them, I want answers.
“Sorry we took so long, we can head back to the apartment now,” Asher says, trying to sound more friendly than Cruz. But I can’t tell anymore if it’s all just the Prince Charming act with him to lure me into a false sense of security.
“What were you doing?” I ask, trying to keep my voice light, not to show them how rattled I am.
Even as I do, I scan over their shoulders, looking to see if that security guard is still lurking outside and if I could slip past them and make a run for it now.
But the truth is, I know I wouldn’t get far in this place.
They know it well, and I have no idea where I’m going.
“Dealing with a mess,” Cruz answers for him cryptically.
Asher’s eyes narrow, a flash of something unhinged crossing his pretty face. And it’s as if he’s just worked out what I have seen. “Do you have something to tell us?”
I take a shaky step back, feeling overwhelmed by their closeness. “W-what is my brother doing here?” My eyes bounce between them, hoping to God my brother has this all wrong and one of them will tell me the truth. Because they feel it too, what we have is something, this isn’t a lie.
Asher moves through the room, closing the gap between us. I try to take another step back but hit the wall. He searches my face, concern etched into his features. He holds out a hand for me to take. “You shouldn’t be snooping, little princess.”
I stay where I am, not ready to just leave with them so easily when I have no clue what’s going on. “Answer me.” I plead with my eyes for him to give me any small snippet of information he can.
“We don’t have time for this shit. We need to leave now.
” Cruz’s voice is harsher than I’m used to hearing from him.
He looks deranged and on the edge of losing control completely.
Today, that look sends fear rocketing through me.
Until now, I never thought he would hurt me.
But I’m not sure I ever really knew him at all.
He was just showing me the side he thought I wanted to see, not the truth.
Jagger forced them to show me the truth today, but that in itself could have been a trick to isolate me and turn me against my family.
“Hard way it is.” Asher takes me by the waist and tosses me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing.
“Asher,” I growl out a warning. But if he hears me, he doesn’t care. He marches me past the security guard with me kicking and screaming for him to let me go. “Put me down.”
“What the fuck has gotten into you?” he mutters, trying to control my flailing limbs.
“I don’t want to go back to the apartment. Take me to The Raven’s Nest,” I cry as he hurries down a long corridor into the underground parking lot I came in through earlier.
Cruz opens doors for him, and he shoves me in the back seat of Jagger’s Range Rover, closing me inside.
Nope, not just closing me inside. When I try for the handle, I find, sure enough, I’m locked in.
Then Cruz gets in the front beside Asher.
He tosses a blanket at me. “Lie down and cover yourself with that,” he tells me.
I stare back at the two of them, tears streaming down my cheeks. “Not until one of you tell me what on earth is going on.”
Cruz’s eyes meet mine, and his face softens, seeming to remember he’s talking to me.
He reaches his hand out for me, holding it just far enough away that he’s not touching me.
“I don’t want to scare you, little darlin’, but right now, it’s important that you don’t ask questions and you listen to us.
” He keeps his hand out, waiting for me to take it.
I swallow the lump in my throat, not sure what to do. My brother says I should run. But the passion in Cruz’s eyes tells me he would burn the world for me alone.
“We need you to trust us, Daisy.” His fingertips brush my knee softly, like I’m a timid horse about to bolt.
I don’t flinch away. I can’t, because even though I’m scared, my body trusts him. “It’s hard after what I have seen today,” I whisper.
“All for you.” His fingers brush my knee again, then slowly he moves them higher. I let him intertwine our hands. Deep down inside, I know he’s telling me the truth. He was trying to keep me safe.
“I’m scared,” I admit.
“We’re doing everything we can to keep you safe, princess, please just trust us.” Asher’s voice is strained with almost a hint of pain.
Is this nice-guy act all just them playing a part so they can use me?
For what I don’t know, money from my family maybe?
Leverage with my papa? I have no clue, but right now I have no choice but to comply, and I need it to look like I still trust them because all my stuff is at their apartment, and I know I can’t go anywhere without it.
I nod and lie down. Taking the blanket from Cruz, I place it over myself.
Bide your time, Daisy, and as soon as their backs are turned, run like the fucking wind.