Chapter 9
BERNADETTE CRENSHAW
The large elevator door makes a ding, echoing through the penthouse office just as lightning crashes outside, lighting up the room ominously.
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” I squeak, the sound high-pitched and awful. How does this even happen? How did he even override me again?
I watch in perturbed fascination as my life attempts to flash before my eyes, but I’m too busy trying to figure out how this asshole bested me. I can’t for the life of me figure out how the fucking elevator is still making its way up here, when I cut the freaking power to it.
“I hope you enjoyed that,” the gigantic man says as he makes his way inside.
He levels me with that flat gray gaze of his and my heart leaps into my throat.
My brain is stuttering like it can’t quite believe what is happening, but I grab all of the balls I can muster. “Oh, but I did enjoy it. Taking over your company is like a cake walk,” I reply, trying to act like this was all part of my plan.
“Good, now tell me how you’re going to get me my money back,” Frank says.
I scoff as he strides closer, but inwardly flinch, wanting to shy away from his anger.
“Secure the rest of the building,” he mutters to the men, all shorter in comparison but armed to the teeth.
Even though every one of them is dressed like something between Rambo and a Robocop cosplay, Frank Stein in a business suit is ten times more terrifying than the rest of them.
The men file back, moving to do their master’s bidding.
“But sir,” one says, his accent unrecognizable.
“Now. Miss Crenshaw and I are going to have a little chat, and then we will meet you downstairs,” he says, his voice odd.
As soon as the men exit back through the elevator that shouldn’t have electricity, Frank does the unthinkable.
He bends down, pulling at the gray fabric of his pants legs, that I’m almost certain are the exact color of his eyes. He squats, the move showcasing his crotch, and it’s all I can do to keep my jaw from dropping at the bulge there.
Holy Toledo am I in trouble.
His dick is Goliath, and I want to slingshot it into my mouth.
My stomach bottoms, landing somewhere around the area of my feet when I notice his full attention is on Edgar’s carrier, who’s currently purring and rubbing himself all over the man, regardless of the head cone.
“Edgar,” I whisper-hiss, wondering what in the hell I am going to have to do to get my cat back this time. And why in the hell is he acting like Frank is his new bestie?
I stiffen as he gets to his feet, my cat still in his arms. “This is how things are going to go,” he starts.
“Oh, and who died and left you in charge then?” I ask, with as much snark as I can muster, cutting him off and tossing my arms over my chest.
“You talk big for someone who got caught. Twenty million?” he tuts, not even bothering to look at me, but says all this to Edgar, who is eating it up like caviar. My cat is doing his darndest to show my new archenemy affection.
“How did you do that earlier?” I ask, admitting that he did catch me, and now I want to know how he did it, how did he keep the elevator moving through my override. There's no way he anticipated what I would do.
I glance around, up at the high cream-colored ceilings and my gaze catches on something shiny, glinting in the corner, but very small. A camera, but I most definitely turned those off first. But what if…
“Did you watch me the whole time?” I ask, when he doesn’t bother to answer me.
“Since you like to toy and play with your existence by testing me repeatedly the way you do, I now own you,” he says, his gravelly British accent doing things to my middle that I refuse to identify.
“Bullshit, you don’t own me, and you most definitely have some issues if you think I’m going to listen to anything you say. You. Kidnapped. Me.” I bite out between clenched teeth.
“After you hacked my company, which caused an entire breach resulted in thousands of man hours lost and more money than you can fathom,” he replies calmly.
I avert my gaze, unable to hold his scornful stare when I did do that, and we both know I did.
“To pay for what you have done and your new multi-million-dollar debt to me, you are going to track down every shipment that I have ever shipped from this company. If it left any of the walls I own, I want to know about it,” he says, a new seriousness to his tone that hasn’t been there until now.
“Or I will alert the authorities and tell every news channel about the pathetic woman who was so desperate she stole millions from a children’s cancer fund. ”
My jaw hits the floor and my arms fall. “I did not.”
“DB 2917 subsidiaries that you pulled from, was in transition to being allocated for the children’s research fund, and you took it,” he says, a furious light in his gaze.
The blood rushes from my face at the implication and the leather seat squeaks loudly as I move in place. Whether it was for a humanitarian effort or not, I would never steal from kids.
Not only that, but the media would also eat me alive, and I would most certainly go to jail. Oh my god. I quickly think back. He’s lying.
I recall seeing the children’s fund he’s talking about, and it wasn’t under the DB whatever the hell he’s talking about. “You’re lying. I know I didn’t touch a kid’s fund, I even remember seeing it,” I say.
“Who’s going to prove me wrong?” he replies, lifting his brow.
I go still.
“You’re going to come with me, to be on hand when Mikael needs you, and you will follow my every order. You will eat and sleep when I say, you will dress as I say, and you will work when I say,” he continues.
“What? Hold on, you can’t be serious?” I sputter. This dude is completely off his rocker.
I force out a fake laugh and practically lie back in the chair, tossing my legs over one arm and smile up at him. “You’ve got jokes,” I tell him, even as my pulse skitters, my heartbeat outdoing even a hummingbird at this point.
When he steps closer to his chair, hedging me in, I have never been more scared or turned on in my life.
He looks down at me, with a deadened stare, as he pets my fluffy gray kitty.
“Obey me now, or I will destroy you and everyone and everything you’ve ever loved,” he says, the words like a nail to a coffin of my soul, wrapping around me like a vice.
A bolt of lightning strikes outside the window, causing me to fairly jump right out of my skin.
The light crashes, throwing Frank into a silhouette, making him look even larger and more ominous than ever before.
“I don’t do well with being locked up, sorry. And no matter how pretty a room is, a prison is still a prison,” I say, rising up to my feet to reach for Edgar.
Frank doesn’t have to move much to pull him just out of my reach.
“Just so we are clear, you will pay for what you’ve done, and that means working for me for as long as I deem it necessary,” he says, “You see, I don’t need to put you in a room, or a prison, Miss Crenshaw, because if you’re not where I need you to be when I need it— well consider your life and your employment one and the same. ”
He turns and heads for the door, my mind still reeling.
“So, what’s it going to be, Miss Crenshaw?” he asks.
Defeat is a hard pill to swallow. As I don’t want to, I’m definitely going to use my get out of jail free card, no matter what it looks like. “Where to boss?” I ask.
I follow him silently into the elevator on our way down, inwardly wondering if perhaps he had different protocols in place to keep the building going.
A frown pulls between my brows at the rainbow color display, the fountain in front of Talbot Global, working like its business as usual.
The lights cascade around the room, entering from the glass walls and front lobby doors.
Once we reach the silver-inlaid front lobby doors, I want to fall onto the ground like a child having a tantrum at the sight of my cat being loaded in a car.
“Hey,” I shout, when I’m quickly penned in behind Frank and his goons. I try to beeline for where they’re taking Edgar, but the big man himself stops me. It appears I’m to ride with the asshole whether I like it or not.
I freeze like a deer in the headlights when cameras begin to flash. Brightness floods my gaze as I try and fail to locate where it’s all coming from as people start to shout, and the craziest most hairbrained scheme ever barrels into my mind. This is fucking nuts.
A thrill of anticipation goes up my spine. On impulse, I make my move.
I grab at Frank Stein’s suit where it stops at his hips and tug with all of my might.
Just as I had anticipated, he stumbles just before righting himself, and I take advantage, throwing myself into his arms. I fling my arms around his neck before planting my lips against his and slamming my eyes shut.
Cameras go wild as voices raise into shrieks and yells.
He makes a garbled sound, and I raise my head, giving him a soft smile and a wink as confusion overtakes his expression.
“We’re getting married,” I scream, throwing my arms above my head as Frank grips my thighs, for all intents and purposes ensuring that the photos will look the picture-perfect pose of a couple in love.
He is so going to kill me.
Excitement and an indescribable wave of happiness crashes through me with the realization that I’ve had my retribution, and my heart races as my limbs tremble with adrenaline.
He is really, really, going to want to before this is all over with. Frank Stein signed up for his very own nightmare when he thought to take me.
I move to hug him to me again, sensing he’s still in mortified shock with how stiff his arms are around me, as if he can’t quite believe what is happening.
I lean in to whisper into his ear, “You can’t kill me now.”
A giggle breaks free from me as I lay it on thick for the tabloids, like a truly infatuated women would, enamored with her new fiancée.
I want my face plastered on every fucking tabloid from here to Antarctica, all over the world.
I press myself closer to him, actually letting myself enjoy for a second how big he is, and how good it feels to press my body against his massive one. God, I love big boys.
I can see the headlines now: Frank Stein, bad boy billionaire, who has never once been spotted or photographed with a woman is about to tie the knot—or me in knots.
Either way. Checkmate, bitch.
I pull back enough to dart my gaze over his face, and he could totally double as a statue at the moment with how still he’s being as the cameras continue to explode with flashes.
A laugh breaks free at how ridiculous the media is and with my arms still wrapped around his neck, I thrust my fingers into his hair and kiss him again, this time slipping my tongue between his lips. Peppermint explodes in my mouth, and I moan, which seems to break him out of his stupor.
I swear he kisses me back for a split second before he gives me a look that says ‘I am so dead.’
I smirk in return, biting my bottom lip and batting my lashes at him in response, unsure on whether it’s him or the whole charade I just played out that’s making my heart beat so hard.
He scowls even harder and tugs me off of him, his hand biting into the soft flesh of my arm.
If anyone happened to look in that moment, they would see a couple making their way to the car and not notice how my body is off the ground, my feet an inch from the pavement as he pulls me toward the waiting limo.
I beam a smile and wave to the crowds, setting off the cameras again.
Someone whistles loudly, and I blow kisses to the camera, giving one cute reporter a wink over my shoulder.
A throat clears and my gaze clashes with Frank. My eyes widen, my brows tugging toward my hairline as warmth spreads across my cheeks, because for the first time, his face is no longer devoid of emotion—not even a little bit.
Frank Stein is fucking pissed.