I raise my chin a nudge. “Why don’t you tell me how my mother is doing?”
“I didn’t realize I gave you other options than to give me a fucking food order,” he growls in a menacing tone and steps closer.
I stand my ground and tip my head back to keep glaring at him.
Taking a calming breath, I soften my tone and try to stop glaring when I ask the same thing yet somewhat differently. “Will you please tell me how my mother is doing? I was very angry when I left the house and said stuff I didn’t mean before the blast and she hit her head that knocked her out. The load of guilt I feel is a heavier weight, one I can’t seem to stomach.”
For the first time I see his face soften slightly. “She’s still alive and in the hospital.”
I release a sigh in relief. “Thank you.”
“She hit her head hard and they have kept her in a medically induced coma. They hope to pull her out tomorrow or the day after, if her vitals and shit are still strong and improving.”
I swallow hard and take a step back. Feeling the back of my knees hitting the bed, I let my ass hit the mattress. Staring dead ahead, I try to process what he just told me.
“The prospect who I ordered to take your mother to a hospital found out there was a gas leak near the time he brought your mom in. So, he said he found her on the street, unconscious. She’s been labeled as an innocent bystander and they are trying to find out who she is since she doesn’t have any identification on her. She’s in the right place for the moment, yeah? And the prospect is there to keep an eye on her and give me regular updates.”
She’s in the hospital because of me. She would have been in the house if I didn’t rush out. Now she’s oblivious to the world and might not be the same person she was if she gets out of the coma. Or worse; never wakes up.
“I need to see her,” I blurt and rise from the bed.
He gives a hard shake with his head. “Not happening.”
I bite my tongue and prevent myself from snarling an angry reply. His eyes light up as if he’s laughing at me and knows it takes effort to hold myself in check.
“Please,” I manage to say between clenched teeth.
He towers over me and slowly leans in to place his mouth next to my ear. “The answer is still no. But I might be persuaded if you offer me something special.”
The huskiness in his voice flows on a warm breath over my skin, pushing away the chill in the air and makes my body shiver with a foreign feeling. I know what he’s hinting at and the anger drains away the flush of what I think is desire from my body.
“Something special,” I echo.
He hums and I gasp when I feel one of his fingers trace the underside of my breast.
I shove his hand away from my body and take a step back. “I heard you mention easy pussy being available in an endless supply multiple times. So, sex or whatever it is you want to do between my legs isn’t anything special to you. It’s about principle. About vengeance. Striking your enemy where it hits hard, and in this war, you hold a piece you can break multiple ways so just go ahead and get it over with. Take me, kill me, so you can end it.”
“End it?” he barks and closes the distance, backing me up against the wall so I have nowhere to go but to face the angry man standing in front of me. “I have no desire to end this shit soon. I plan to spread out the wrath descending onto my enemies. They will endure long term torture by my hand.”
The venom in his voice and the viciousness and anger swirling in his eyes should be terrifying but instead I have only understanding. I would feel the exact same way if I would be standing in his shoes, and I’m sure my father would react the same way.
“As is your right,” I whisper and hold his hard stare.
His fingers slide around my throat, tightening enough to make me gasp and realize he holds the power to grant me my next breath or to take it away. Yet, with what he just mentioned I somehow hold no fear.
The way my father raised me, what I’ve seen and endured during my life growing up, I know his actions are granted. The weight this man carries on his shoulders is more than his own and each of us have a place in this world to fulfill and live up to.
His eyes search mine as if he’s trying to pull me apart and find out what I’m thinking. “What would you offer to save your own life?”
“My life is not the one I would want to save. My mother…my father…my–” I swallow hard and add on a croak, “My brothers.”
His thumb slides absently back and forth over my pulse. “You would give yourself up for your family.”
A statement, not a question. He knows the same loyalty because the man practically breathes it; it’s the reason I’m locked in here. It’s why he seeks revenge to lash out at those who wronged his family, his brotherhood.
“Not a bad idea,” he muses.
“What?” I whisper, distracted by my body’s reaction due to his closeness.
The scent of his leather cut mixed with a spicy, herbal, and woodsy fragrance adds to the overpowering presence his body envelops me with. I swallow hard at the thought of his hands on my body, his lips covering mine to give me my first kiss and so much more.
A self-assured smirk slides over his face. “I’m taking you.”
My body shivers in his grip. He did not just say that. And I can’t believe the thought process my body just went through. What the hell am I thinking? He’s the enemy.
“You already have me,” my Ramsey-fog induced brain replies.
“True,” he rumbles as his lips hover over mine.
My heart skips a beat at the thought of Ramsey kissing me but at the same time he tilts my head to the side. I feel his thumb slide over the pulse in my neck. I gasp when I feel his teeth nip my skin at the same spot the next instant.
A moan tumbles from my lips and when he sucks and bites down, the feeling overwhelms my senses. It’s as if he’s teasing the place between my legs, making heat pool low in my belly. No one and nothing has ever made me feel this way. Reaching out, I grab fistfuls of his leather cut to hold him in place.
His tongue licks away the assault on my neck and when he pulls back to stare at me, he catches me off guard when he asks, “When a woman in a mafia world becomes a wife, where does her loyalty lie? With her new husband? Or with her family?”
“What?” I ask in confusion.
His hand on my neck tightens and he pushes me harder against the wall at my back. “Where would your loyalty lie? Your husband or to your family?”
My heart slams against my chest. His dark rumble of words remind me of the situation I’m in; kidnapped by the man who seeks revenge for the unjustified loss they took. My mother’s words come back to me because this is not something my father taught me but what my mother mentioned loads of times.
I keep my eyes locked with his and recite the words I grew up to respect, “Once the vows are spoken my loyalty would lie with my husband.”
“Then you’ll become my wife,” he simply says and I can feel my eyes widen.
‘What?” I ask once more.
The self-assured smirk is back in place. “You heard me.”
“My father…he–” I start but he cuts me off.
“Your father doesn’t have a fucking choice in the matter. He’s the one with his balls on the line. And he should be fucking glad I’m taking you because Logan Bane is the one who really wants to marry you.”