CHAPTER 39
WINDY
“Darien.” His name leaves my mouth on a sigh, my head shaking before I can stop myself. “It’s a pleasure to see you again, as always.”
“Shut your mouth, little girl. The boss wants to see you.”
“Then your boss can quit being a coward and come get me himself.”
He moves fast. Faster than someone his size should be able to move. He jerks me around, and suddenly my back hits the cold metal of my car. The impact rattles my teeth, and I growl under my breath.
“Careful, you bastard. I’m fucking pregnant.”
He’s careful with my stomach, but not the rest of me. I have braced one of my forearms, so I don’t take a hit there. His hand clamps around the back of my neck, not squeezing, but just reminding me how little power I have right now. Like I could forget. I’m in a delicate position.
A low growl slips free from my lips anyway, instinctive and useless. I swallow the rest of it. Talking back won’t end well with Darien. There is only one person Darien listens to, and that is the man who pays his salary.
He ignores me and presses onward. “He’s otherwise engaged at the moment.” Darien’s voice is smug and satisfied.
I know exactly what he means. My stomach twists. “Disgusting.”
“He wasn’t disgusting when you were shaking your ass to get a little money from him, was he?” His tone is ice. It’s sharp, cutting, meant to slice through whatever pride I have.
I force myself to breathe and think. A different tactic. Different angle.
“If you take me,” I say quietly, meeting his eyes with a gaze of steel. “I have three alphas who will come for you. I hope you realize that.”
The words taste like hope and fear mixed together. I want them to come for me. I want to believe they would. But there’s still that hollow place inside my chest, the one that whispers they might now. They could drop me again, just like before.
Darien’s grip tightens just a fraction, enough to warn me but not enough to hurt. His eyes flick over my shoulder, scanning the street, before they rest on mine again.
His eyes harden. “They weren’t too scary when we burnt that piece of shit night club to the ground, were they?”
My eyes widen. “That fire wasn’t an accident?”
He starts chuckling. “Some alphas. They didn’t even tell you about the little note we left behind, I take it.”
I don’t fall for his bait. He wants me to turn against them, and that simply is not going to happen. We’ll be discussing that when I get home. About keeping secrets.
“I knew about note.” I shrug my shoulder, acting nonchalant. “Didn’t really worry me too much. Cowards always hide behind the scenes.”
He growls a threatening sound. The sound hits me deep inside my gut, causing me to cower away from him. It’s loud, demanding. “Coward? Shut your mouth, little girl!” he roars, an alpha’s bark in his voice. My lips instantly close as the wave of his dominance washes over me.
He smirks, dangerous. And that’s when I notice it.
The world outside the coffee shop is … empty.
Not just quiet. Empty. The night rush is long gone.
The few shops lining the street have their blinds half-drawn, their windows reflecting nothing but the lampposts that are ablaze.
A single leaf skitters across the pavement, the sound loud to the stillness in the air surrounding us.
No cars pass. No footsteps echo. No one lingers at the crosswalk to go sit on the benches just inside the park.
If I screamed right now, it would disappear into the open air.
No witnesses.
No help.
Just me, Darien, and the cold stretch of sidewalk.
He leans in, his voice low. “They won’t get here in time.”
For a heartbeat, I believe him.
For another, it solidifies.
“Get in the car.”
“Hell no.”
“Get. In. The. Car.”
“Fuck you.”
He laughs, grabbing me. “No thanks. You’re not my type, little girl.”
I pretend to be shocked. “I didn’t know you were into men, Darien. Does your employer know?”
His silence is damning.
He mutters not one word.
He looks at me as if he’s looking into my soul and burning it to ash. I can tell I hit a sensitive spot, and it’s fucking delicious.
“Oh, my god. You are …”
“Shut your mouth. Now get into the car.” His growl vibrates through the narrow space between us. “You don’t have a choice if you want that baby in your belly to still be safe after this is all over.”
My breath stutters, but I force my chin down, tucking it into my chest like I’m bracing for a hit that doesn’t come. I try to think of anything. Any angle. Any escape. Anything. But my mind is a blank, panicked blue.
I’m stuck.
He knows it if the lecherous smile on his face is any indication.
His fingers clamp down around my upper arm harder.
Not gentle, not careful, just firm enough to make it clear I’m going where he goes with or without my permission.
He drags me toward the sedan parked at the curb, the one I should’ve put two and two together before now.
The wheels are the same. The windows are tinted so dark they look like slabs of obsidian.
“You’re the ones that moved in down at the end of my street, didn’t you?”
“Guilty as charged.” He pops the back door open with a jerk of his wrist. “The boss wants to see you, and I’m not in the habit of making him wait.”
“Who was the man who was driving the car the other day? Who was the man who was getting into the car? I didn’t recognize either of them, or else I would’ve run far away. Your boss is a disgusting pervert who thinks he owns everyone.”
Darien snorts. “But you sure loved taking his money. Hypocrite.”
The word hits harder than his grip. I feel heat crawling up my neck, shame and anger tangling together until I can’t tell which is which.
Darien nudges me toward the open door, his hand still locked around my arm. “Get in.”
I hesitate—just a second, just long enough for my pulse to spike and my stomach to twist.
Because once I’m inside that car, I don’t know what happens next.
“I don’t want—”
“Get in the goddamn car, woman!” he thunders, jerking me toward him and all but throwing me into the back of the car.
I slide into the back seat, my pulse thumping in my ears. The interior smells like leather and cold air. Then I see him.
Taylor Sheffield.
Sitting there like he’s been waiting for me, hands folded, eyes unreadable. My stomach drops. I look back at Darien on instinct, searching for some kind of explanation, like I owe it to him or something.
Darien smirks when I glare up at him. “Maybe I lied a smidge. Who knew?”
A low growl rumbles out of me before I can stop it, but nothing is done because Darien slams the door in my face.
The click feels final, like a lock sliding into place.
Taylor doesn’t say a word. He doesn’t even blink.
Darien climbs into the front seat, slams his door, and the car jerks away from the curb.
Cedar Hill is in the rearview mirror. The city pulls closer with every passing second.
The skyline rises like a jagged warning.
He’s not taking me to his house in the suburbs.
He’s taking me to his home in the city. My instincts scream that I shouldn’t have gotten into the car, that I should’ve fought harder, done something—anything.
But it’s too late now.
I try to steady my breathing, try to pretend I have some control left. “So,” I force my voice to sound casual. “Where exactly—”
“Don’t speak.” Taylor looks at me with death in his eyes.
“I was just—”
I don’t even get the sentence out. Taylor moves like a striking snake. His hand clamps around my throat, squeezing hard enough to steal my breath, enough to make my vision blur around the edges. I freeze, my hands hovering uselessly in the air.
His face inches close to mine. It’s twisted with something wild and furious. “Who told you …” he snarls, “that you could bring a baby into this world that is not mine? I’m your alpha. Not them.”
My entire body trembles. I can’t help it.
I’ve never seen this guy like this before.
Yes, he was obsessive when we went out while I was working at Lavish Darlings, but he wasn’t overly obsessive.
He acted like any client of mine, except …
toward the end, he was getting creepier and creepier.
He would act as if I belonged to him, and no one else could have me.
I look straight into his eyes, and what I see makes my stomach sink like stone.
It’s not anger.
It’s not obsession.
It’s jealousy. A kind of possessive madness that makes the air in the car feel too thin, too hot.
I try to pull in a breath, but his grip makes it shallow and shaky.
My pulse hammers against his fingers. The city lights flicker across his face as we speed toward the city, seeing the skyline opening up.
For a moment, I swear I’m staring into the eyes of someone who has already decided what I am to him and what I’m not.
“You’ll live with me.” He nods.
He releases my throat with a shove. I fall back into the seat and put my hand around my throat, rubbing away the pain. I hesitate taking a look at him, but when I do, he’s on his phone with a large smile on his face like all is right in the world.
He’s nothing but an asshole who thinks people belong to him. Well, I refuse to fall in line with his wants and needs. I’m not one of those little women who want to impress him.
“Take me home. Now.”
“You are home,” he says when we pull into an underground garage. “Better get used to it.”
The car rolls deeper into the underground garage, the concrete swallowing the sound of the engine. Fluorescent lights flicker overhead, casting everything in a pale glow. The air smells of nature and oil. The farther we go, the more isolated it feels, like the world above is sealed off.
The sedan glides into an empty space near the back wall. Sheffield doesn’t look at me when he speaks again. He doesn’t have to. His voice is enough.
“Get out of the car before I make you and your unborn child regret it.”
His words hit me harder than his hand ever could.
A cold rush sweeps through my chest. It tightens everything inside me.
I stare at my surroundings, thinking about how I’m going to get away from this freak.
I stare at the pillars, the shadowed corners, and the rows of cars that are lined up meticulously.
This won’t be a home.
It’ll be a cage.
My fingers curl against my thighs. I force myself to breathe, to keep my expression neutral, to not let him see the panic clawing at my throat. I won’t give this beast the satisfaction of seeing me crumble.
He thinks he’s won.
He has no idea how wrong he is.
My alphas will come for me.
They will.
I just need to have faith that they haven’t been lying to me this whole time.