16. Chapter Sixteen
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
V iktor
“It’s why you should not trust women,” I heard my mother’s soft whisper in my head. The inflection indicated amusement. “You brought this on yourself.”
“How so?” I snapped at the empty freezer. Cold rarely bothered me, but now I had rage to keep my blood boiling. I was going to kill her.
I thought of all the ways I might accomplish this. Admittedly, not all the ways were horrible. And it would be a shame to mar her perfect flesh with my usual methods of torture.
“You didn’t say anything,” she replied.
While waiting for Roger to arrive, and listening to a cashier and a customer work to open the door, I contemplated my mother’s observation.
“Don’t you have an eidetic memory?”
With a heavy breath, I replayed the only moment together where I never responded to her. I love you. Tiffany’s confession had caught me off guard. Her eyes, windows to her soul they were, told me she meant every word. This was not some sentiment uttered in the heat of a passionate moment. I didn’t respond because I didn’t know what to say.
I did care for her, and could see myself loving her, and knew in my cold heart I could provide the love she needed, yet…
The words didn’t leave my lips.
If I were to believe my family, love was a weakness none of us could afford.
It would be easy for me to say it back. Tiffany moved me in ways I had never felt. I already considered her mine. I already deemed her the mother of my future children. I was the only man to have tasted her passion, and I would be the only man to know her that way. I would kill any who tried to take her from me.
Yes, I was possessive. I was jealous. I was greedy.
I should have noted the subtle change in her demeanor when I didn’t respond. That was a miscalculation on my part. She moved on so quickly from the moment, that I didn’t realize my lack of response had enraged her so much.
“She didn’t kill you. That is her way of showing you love.”
“That’s all well and good, mother, but I can’t let this go. She trapped me in a freezer.”
If I hadn’t long-ago come to terms with my demons, this might have triggered me. I didn’t like to be imprisoned, especially not in freezers, and my mother, more than anyone, knew that.
Finally the door opened. The stranger, with a crowbar, looked relieved that I was still alive. The cashier, with a metal ice cream scoop in hand, simply looked terrified. Roger, who was standing behind them both, shook his head in disappointment. I had them call and tell my godfather to come alone, and now he knew why. I had to end her. She made me look foolish.
I glared at the two who had rescued me. “Did she say anything?”
The man cleared his throat and replied quietly, “The woman said you would know where to find her, if you are brave enough to face her.”
I ground my jaw so hard, I risked breaking teeth. I imagine she took my car, since the keys were in the blazer’s pocket. The fact that she strode out of here wearing nothing but that suit jacket enraged me, almost more than her trapping me in a goddamn freezer.
“Calm down,” my mother cautioned. “You’ll get her back.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to be quiet, that I wasn’t in the mood for her platitudes, but instead I addressed the customer. “Anything else?”
He looked to the cashier, as if to see if she would answer. She shook her head. The man released a heavy breath. “Only that she wanted me to make sure her threat was clear.”
For some reason, this made me smile. A genuine smile. She wanted to play dangerous games, did she? Tiffany tested me in ways no other woman would dare. If she managed to survive our next encounter, I might strap her again just for being a little brat.
I retrieved my wallet from my trousers and pulled out a wad of cash. I handed it to the customer, tipping my head to indicate he should give some of it to the cashier as well. “If you speak of this day to anyone, I will return and remove your tongues, then kill any friends and family I think you might have told. Do you understand?”
The man nodded.
“Good.” On that, I marched out, Roger trailing behind me.
Out on the street, a driver rushed around the black luxury car to open the passenger door. Me and my godfather got into the sedan.
Roger remained silent until the car pulled off. “You and your brother have the worst taste in women.”
I shook my head and clenched my jaw. I wasn’t in the mood for his shit either.
“Do you know where she is?” he asked.
“Yes.”
Heavy silence hung between us.
“Are you going to tell me where?” he finally pressed.
“No. Drop me off at my father’s house. I need to collect some things.” Like a cell phone. Mine was with my car keys. I also needed a cold shower to cool my temper.
I refrained from telling Roger that Tiffany went to her apartment. I knew this, because she wasn’t scared of me or the consequences of this day. Well, I would have to change that. I couldn’t guarantee that she would live to see tomorrow, but before she departed this existence, she would learn to fear my wrath.
My godfather sighed. “You have a fiancée waiting for you to entertain her.”
“I don’t care,” I snarled.
If not for me knowing Roger’s number by heart, which I had yelled to my rescuers to call, he wouldn’t even be here. I had brought him to the ice cream parlor so I would not have to confiscate someone’s car. I didn’t need his prattle. Just the ride.
“It was a situation like this that got your mother imprisoned. Though, your father had a harder time tracking her down. He loved her too much to kill her, but he could never again trust her.”
“He didn’t love her,” I corrected. “He hated her. He just needed her alive so he could force me to perform that stupid coming-of-age ritual.”
“Your father loved her in his own way, as much as a man like him might. She was heavily pregnant when she fled. When he dragged her back home, I told him to cut out the baby and let her die, but he couldn’t part with her, no matter how much the betrayal hurt. That line between love and hate is very thin.”
Everyone had always wondered why she had been banished, but none ever had an answer. I tried to imagine Tiffany living in a basement while I was married to this woman my father was trying to force upon me. I wondered if my fiancée knew that once she had a son, the countdown until her execution began.
When we pulled up at my father’s, I didn’t even bother with a thank you or a goodbye. I simply left the sedan to quickly do what I needed to do, before my father roped me into something silly. I took the servant door, the same one I had used to usher Tiffany out, then went straight to my room.