Chapter 13
A Couple Days Later
I came out of the bathroom, and my phone was sitting on the bed, fully charged.
The code on it was no longer there. There was no telling what Savion had done to it before giving it back to me.
I didn’t care. Finally, I had access to the outside world.
There had been so many missed calls and text messages from my family and friends.
Imani was going crazy because she hadn’t heard from me.
She’d gone by the apartment looking for me and was about to put out a missing person’s report, ’til she heard from Grim that I was doing just fine and was just taking care of some things.
If that was how he wanted to put me being kidnapped and held against my will, but whatever.
I had so many emails from work. It was gon’ take me at least a day to go through them. This was exactly why I took at least an hour every morning, before I get my day fully started, to answer emails so they wouldn’t get backed up like this.
“Ugh.” I groaned and sat on the edge of the bed. Soon as I sat down, the door popped open, but no one entered. “Hello?” I leaned forward, waiting to see if they were about to leave me food or something. I jumped at the chime of my phone.
Savion: You’re free to come and go as you please, but you have to bring your ass home every night. You’re my wife. You now live with me. If you choose not to, there will be consequences. Be a good girl.
This man had really lost his fucking mind, but I wasn’t about to complain.
He was finally letting me out of this dang room.
Lord knew I was tired of being stuck between these four walls.
He kept trying to tell me that this was my home now, but I wasn’t no sewer rat.
I refused to live underground like this.
If he wanted to keep me in the house with him, he was gon’ have to find somewhere else for us to stay.
Don’t get me wrong, the room was beautiful, but a girl like me needed sunlight.
Going to my text messages, I stopped on Imani’s name.
Me: Meet me at Waterworks.
The three bubbles popped up immediately like she had been waiting for me to say something to her.
Imani: Biiiiiiiiitch! I’m gone fucking kill you! I’ll be there and you better have answers too!
Getting up from the bed, I went into the closet to find me something to put on. Savion had gone as far as buying all sorts of clothes that he thought was my aesthetic. He might get some points for that.
Grabbing a blazer and some denim shorts and a corset, I got dressed inside the closet since it seemed like the closet and bathroom were the only places he hadn’t placed a camera.
When they first brought me in here, I was uncomfortable knowing that he was watching my every move.
As the time went by, I knew what to do inside the bedroom and what not to do.
My eyes shifted to the camera, knowing that he was probably somewhere watching me. Fucking stalker.
Once I got dressed, I brushed my hair up into a ponytail, did a light beat on my face, and headed out of the room.
I followed the hallways the exact way to the garage like Savion had showed me the day he took me to the zoo.
The events from that day had been replaying in my mind.
I still couldn’t believe his stupid ass had gone and done that shit.
I flipped on the light, and I saw an entire new section of cars on the right side of the garage.
Both of my cars were parked over there with some brand-new ones that didn’t belong to me.
When I turned, I saw all the keys on the hook underneath Mrs. Corvo.
This man had bought me new cars. What the hell!
I grabbed the key to the McLaren. I hit the fob on it, and a powder pink car lit up. “I ain’t mad at you, Mr. Corvo.” The corner of my mouth twitched. I neared the car, and my fingertips grazed the fender. “Let’s see what you’re talking about.”
I jumped into the driver’s seat and started the car. It was music to my ears to hear it crank. The tunnel opened for me, and I drove out with the windows down. The wind slapped me in the face. I could barely breathe, but I didn’t care. Savion had me feeling like a caged animal, and now I was free.
I pulled up to Triology, where Waterworks was located on the roof.
Valet came over to my car, and I exited.
They handed me my slip, and I entered the building.
By the time I got off at the top, Imani was already sitting at a table, waiting for me.
Her eyes landed on me, and I waved, but from her facial expression, I knew she was about to rip me a new asshole.
“Solei Saint-Mercier!”
I scurried to the table before she blurted out my middle name. “I know you’re mad,” I said as I eased down into the chair in front of her. “Just hear me out.”
“Oh, trust me. I’m listening.” She sat there with her arms folded over her chest.
I got comfortable in my chair because I knew this conversation was about to be a ride. I didn’t think she’d even believe this bullshit. “So, you remember when I thought that you had pranked me and put that ring on my finger back in Vegas?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Turns out, I got drunk and got married.”
“You what!” Her eyes damn near popped from her head.
“I’m married.” My mouth slacked because I couldn’t believe this myself, especially after I had already told myself that I’d never get married again after Zayden’s death.
“Did you get an annulment, or is it too late for something like that?”
“I’on even think I can do that if I wanted to.”
“What the fuck you mean? You’re a grown woman. You can do whatever you want. This don’t sound like the Solei that I know.”
“I kinda made a deal with him.”
Imani scratched the side of her head and asked, “You did what?”
“I made a deal. He told me that if he can make me fall in love with him in sixty days, then he won’t kill me.”
“And you fucking agreed to that bullshit!”
Eyes in the restaurant shifted to us. Imani didn’t care because, at this point, she just knew that I’d lost my mind.
“Wait, see, you didn’t hear the rest of the deal and why I agreed to it.”
She tossed her hand into my face. “I don’t need to.
All I heard was that you might get killed if you don’t fall in love with some man.
We’re talking about you here. You’re one of the pickiest people that I’ve ever known.
I might as well gone and pick out my black dress.
” Shaking her head, she grabbed her drink from the table and sipped from the straw.
Imani was right about that. I wasn’t easy when it came to relationships.
Men really had to apply pressure behind me to get anywhere with me.
Most of them didn’t stand a chance. I didn’t care how fine they were or how much money they had in their bank account.
Money didn’t move me. I had my own motion.
If another man ever locked me down, he had to be a big dawg. A mufucking shark.
“I told him the only way I’d agree is if he fight a lion.”
Imani’s drink sprayed all over my face. I grabbed a napkin and wiped it off. “So that means that you’re free to go, right?”
I shook my head. “That crazy-ass man went out and fought a fucking lion. I’m in trouble, ain’t I, friend?”
Imani swiped her phone from the table, and the light illuminated her face.
“What are you doing?”
“Bitch, I’m shopping for my black dress because you’re for sure dead.” I sank in my chair, mind going a mile a minute. “I mean, you can poison his ass. I’m pretty sure the agreement is void once he’s dead.”
“I’m not even sure if I want him dead.”
“Come again? Don’t tell me you caught feelings for him already.”
“No . . . I mean . . . I don’t know. When he was in there fighting that lion, I was scared as hell. I really thought he was about to die, and that did something to me.”
“See . . . I just don’t know.” Shaking her head, she sipped from her drink. Imani was gon’ be drunk as hell, trying to figure out what was going on with me.
* * *
I made it back to the house and sat in the garage for a while.
After spending time with Imani, I knew I was in over my head.
The real issue was gon’ be when I had to sit down and tell my family what was really going on with me.
The way they treated me when they thought I was working with Savion to kill Wicked, I thought they were really gon’ cast me out the family for the rest of my life.
I could only imagine how they were gon’ react once they found out that I was married to that man.
The passenger door opened on my car, and I looked over and saw the woman that had been bringing me food. She never told me what her name was, and I never thought to ask. In my mind, she was the enemy too. What woman in her right mind would be fine with a man kidnapping a woman?
“I think we got off on the wrong foot. I’m Geneva, Savion’s mom.”
Ah, now it all made sense. She birthed the lunatic. Geneva slipped into the passenger seat and shut the door behind her.
“You’ve been the one cooking my meals?” She nodded. “That food really be bomb, for real.”
“Thanks.”
“I don’t blame you for helping him. I understand now.”
“Men like Savion don’t know how to ask for love. They take it. Grip it too tight. Smother it ’til they ruin the very thing they were trying to keep.”
Geneva sighed softly as she pushed a loose strand of hair behind my ear. Her motherly instincts were kicking in. “You know what the scary part is?”
“Uh-uh.”
“My son has killed people without blinking.” Her eyes gazed deeply into mine. “But you? You got him unraveling.”
“Good.”
“No, baby. Not good. Men like Savion are the most dangerous when they finally feel something.”