Chapter 4
REIGN
My father hadn’t been exaggerating when he said I had no time to waste. His assistant, Giles, was at my door two minutes before my father had promised. We were really doing this—and I hated it. I never expected any less, but I had sure wished for it.
I didn’t speak to Giles the entire ride home. There was no reason for him to be there in the first place. The driver was more than capable of getting me home. He sat up front where I wanted Giles to be.
But no, my father’s assistant had to sit in the back with me, probably under my father’s orders.
Like I would bolt from the moving vehicle or somehow miss my ride entirely.
I had nowhere to go, nowhere safe anyway.
If I had, I sure wouldn’t be in the car with them of my own free will.
Not that I’d exactly call it free will, but on the outside, it could appear as such.
The truth was, I was trapped.
We went straight to my father’s mansion, the place I had once called home.
“You need to go straight to your father.”
“Understood.” As if he was giving me some instruction I didn’t already know. When I was beckoned, the expectation was that I would report to him immediately.
My father was staring at his computer screen when I stepped inside his office. I knew better than to interrupt him. He knew I was there. He’d left the door open intentionally. If he wanted a warning, he’d have left it closed, forcing me to knock and beg entrance.
I stood there for what felt like hours but was less than fifteen minutes, before he turned in my direction, looked me up and down, told me I was a mess and that I needed to shower and change.
Tonight, I was going to meet my future husband.
Fuck.
I did as he said, refusing to make the situation worse than it already was. But when I came out, he was gone. Something must’ve happened from the time he sent me upstairs to the time that we were supposed to leave. Not only was my father gone, but so was Giles and the driver.
I asked the cook if they knew where he’d gone, and he gave me a half shrug and said, “Business,” which was always the answer. Either they knew nothing or they were instructed not to share. In any case, there was no use prying further. I’d gain nothing from it.
What I should have done at that point was go straight back to my room and wait for him to come home. But what I should’ve done and what I did do were two very different things.
At first, I stayed by his office, just in case he was coming straight back. One hour turned into two, and I realized that wasn’t happening. Whatever this was must have been pretty big if he was leaving me here alone after dragging my ass all the way here from school.
So I decided on enacting one last rebellion. There might not be a way out of this marriage and getting stuck with this mafia boss, this horrible dangerous criminal, but at least I could have some fun before I did.
Once upon a time, I had friends in the area, but they too had gone to school and were either now married with children or living their best life somewhere else. I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
I went to my favorite drinking hole. I could get drunk, maybe meet someone to hang out with, or possibly play with. I didn’t know exactly what, but something. Anything was better than waiting here, waiting to be handed to someone, passed off like a piece of property.
At the last second, I switched which bar I was heading to and picked the one that had my favorite dart setup.
I was glad that I had a twenty in my wallet.
Depending upon who was there, I could easily multiply it ten fold.
I didn’t need the money, but there was something really rewarding about taking the money of all the people who underestimated me.
In that way, I was more like my father than I cared to think about.
Other people tended to see me as a nerdy omega and assumed I didn’t know how to throw a dart.
In fact, more often than not, my betting for the night would start with someone telling me that they’d like to show me how to play.
But between my marksmanship and my archery, I was really good at aiming, and darts came naturally.
I wouldn’t say I was as great at them as I was at my sports, but I was pretty close.
I walked into the bar and scoped the area, wondering where to start. One last good time out with a couple drinks, a few rounds of darts, and leaving with cash in my pocket sounded like exactly what I needed.
Unlike many of my college buddies, I wasn’t the type to find someone at a bar and go home with them, or head into the back room for a quickie even. Heck, I’d never even had a boyfriend. I’d always felt like it was cruel to bring anyone into my world, and therefore it was just best to stay alone.
I scoped the room again. There were plenty of people tonight, lots to choose from. But then I heard the name of my future husband behind me and I froze, fearing he was here. He wasn’t.
It had been someone asking the bartender if he was here yet, which meant he would be here. I didn’t even catch a glimpse of who it was who asked, my stomach dropping so hard as the bartender answered him, “Should be any minute now.”
My gut told me to walk out the front door and race back to my father’s mansion. But if I did and they were coming in, they’d see me. So instead, I worked my way out back and found myself standing in a storeroom.
I was terrified. Absolutely terrified, unsure what to do next, and eventually just crawling in the back and hiding. That had been the plan, hide and wait till the night was over, then sneak out.
But then he came in.
And there was something about him, something I didn’t understand. Sure, he was attractive, and from what I could tell, kind, but also, he was just as scary as the mafia assholes my father connected with.
It wasn’t just the Stravon family my father did business with. Anybody who had power, he was connected to. And honestly, the politicians were just as bad as the mafia. They just dressed it up in a much more user-friendly package.
But even though Ezra was just as terrifying on the outside, he was also safe. And when he told me he wasn’t gonna hurt me, I believed him one million percent. I didn’t even need those words, just his presence told me so.
“They’re coming. They’ll find me. They’ll make me…”
He calmed me down, and he promised me I’d be safe. And in that feeling of security, I let him know that I needed to leave. I needed to get out of there.
Hiding wasn’t the best option. I didn’t know why I ever thought it was. Panic, I guess. And when he said we’d leave together and took my hand, I hated my father more than I ever had before, because that meant that Ezra was never a possibility.
As much as I felt like he was mine, in a way I didn’t fully understand, he never could be. I was spoken for. I fucking hated it.
“Wait,” I said.
He froze right in his spot.
“I’m not ready.”
“What aren’t you ready for?” He gave my hand a squeeze.
“I’m not ready to leave you.” I hadn’t realized that was why until the words flew from my mouth.
“Never said I’d leave you. But we need to get out of here.”
“I know.” I wanted to ask if he would leave me or if that was his way of saying he wouldn’t. Growing up, I learned that word choice mattered.
“Do you know how to get out of here?” he asked. “I thought this was the outside door when I came in.”
Which explains how he got here.
“Sort of.” I made the wrong turn too, and at the time, I thought it was the worst mistake ever. But now that I was here, and this man’s touch? I didn’t think so anymore.
“Can you show me the way?”
I nodded. “But you’re not leaving, right? Me, I mean, you’re not leaving me.”
“I’ve got you.”
At least that was what I thought he said.
It didn’t make any sense to me. We weren’t talking about getting together, were we?
But also, did I have a problem with that?
And I wasn’t sure what that said about me, because right now, if he asked me to, I’d press my lips against his and hold him tight and beg him for more.
I shook that thought away. “Come on. Let’s go.”
We got to the storeroom door, and I cracked it open, listening to see if I heard anybody I needed to worry about. I couldn’t even afford for the staff to hear us, because they might ask what we were doing, which would slow us down.
But I didn’t hear anyone, and we went out to the hallway. I looked around, trying to get my bearings.
“This way, I think.”
I went down the hallway, took another turn, and then out the back door, one of them, anyway. There was also one in the kitchen, something I knew from the day I was bolting from a mark, having earned a little too much money from his dart failings.
Would he care? Would Ezra be upset that I sometimes used my skills for money-making fun?
Wait. Why did I even care? My job was to get us to the door. That was it. Why was I suddenly thinking that this person, this man who decided to help me out of a sticky situation, was somehow my everything?
There was no time to think about that now. We needed to leave.
“This way.”
I reached for the door.