Chapter 150Cephus' POV“That night he got me out of the basement, the night you came home with that girl,” Katie replies. Fire builds in her eyes when she says that girl. I want to tell her who Alessandra is, but I need to figure this whole Eli thing out first.“What did he do to you?” I clench my teeth, not wanting to hear what he did. Her eyes glaze over, and it is as if she is reliving the whole scene. Her body shakes as a single tear escapes her eye. Had I been that dark and uncaring that I hadn’t noticed someone who is mine, and mine alone, had been violated?“He just wouldn’t leave me alone. He touched me and pushed me down on the stairs in the basement. He told me I was a distraction for you…” She sounds hurt as if she wants me to contradict what Eli said. Except he is right, she is a distraction. She wove herself deep under my skin and somehow made her way into my black heart, causing it to beat again.“Did he…?” I can’t even say it. If he touched her like that, my patience
Chapter 151Cephus’ POVKatie has found a way under my skin, and each day that she is here, I feel myself losing my grip on things. I’m not soft, I can’t be. In this world, there is only strength or weakness. Being weak is certain death, and strength is power, something necessary when you have men breathing down your throat and people shooting at you.“I just don’t want to die yet. I have so many plans… My mom died rather young, and I want to fulfill everything before my time comes.” Her words cause a hole in my chest to form. She’s opening up to me about her mother and her death. God, does it make me feel even more like a fucking asshole for treating her like shit, for putting her through all this. It has to be done, though, softness is a weakness.She sounds defeated as she talks about her mom. I knew when her father came for money what his story was. His wife had died from cancer, so he was alone with a daughter and needed to find a way to make ends meet.“What type of cancer did
Chapter 152Cephus' POVMy eyes pop open as I stare at her face. She feels sorry for me. She sees me as that young boy who lost his mom, who lost everything, and that’s not what I want. I don’t want pity for what I have done or gone through.“I don’t want your pity, Katie. I don’t want you to tell me what I can and can’t do, what will work and won’t work. We all have our own ways of working through things, and I get by just fine with what I do…” My voice is so full of anger that I have to clench my hands from lashing out at her.Why does what she says bother me so fucking much? Because she’s right, my mind whispers to me, which just makes me angrier, of course.Her mouth parts, and it looks as if she is going to say something. Then she closes it, only to open it again. “I don’t feel sorry for you. That’s the last fucking thing I feel for you. The blood on your hands is because of you, and there isn’t any type of pity or saying sorry that can make that shit go away. I just know what i
Chapter 153Katie's POVDid he just say he loves me? Did Cephus King actually tell me that he loves me? Is he even capable of love?His eyes hold all the answers I will ever need. However, he isn’t giving any away. All I can tell is that he meant what he said. He loves me.“Shut that sassy ass mouth, Katie. Fuck me. Of course, I fucking love you. How can I not? You’re beautiful. You don’t take any shit from me. You killed someone for me, and you’re still dealing with my ass after all this… So, now will you please, pretty fucking please, ride my cock until I’m swelling, and my seed leaks out into you?”Though it isn’t the sweetest way to confess your love for someone, it is perfect for Cephus.“Fuck, yes, I will,” I say, kissing him fiercely.“That a girl…” he somehow mumbles while my lips are on his. My hands go into his hair, gripping at the softness of it. He is beautiful, even if he is lost and broken on the inside. I know if I could do anything, it would be to save him from himse
Chapter 154Katie's POVCephus made me a cup of herbal tea from the cabin supplies, and I was pretty sure he added a splash of something that wasn’t provided in the tea tray, but it was failing to calm me down.I thought I’d accepted the situation I was in, but this was much worse than the worst I had prepared for. As a kidnapper, I could be frightened, hurt, mutilated… even murdered, but once it got to that point I wasn’t going to care very much, and anyway, Cephus wasn't interested in inflicting extreme harm on a whim.Marriage was a life sentence.Around the middle of the day, Cephus came in with a little suitcase and a smaller, transparent plastic bag filled with toiletries: a small toothbrush and toothpaste, soap, a shower cap, and a few other boxed items I didn’t want to think about the use of.I pushed them across the bed. “Do you get special care packages made up for the girls whose lives you plan to completely ruin?”“It’s standard hotel equipment, Katie, don’t be dramatic.”
Chapter 155Katie's POVA permanent partner to me is what will balance me, reaffirm and remind me of my humanity when I am required to do very dark things, giving my life the significance it would otherwise lack.”The way he talked, it was like someone was forcing him to be some violent kneecap-smashing criminal. “Well, you’ve kidnapped the wrong girl, Cephus. Even if I wanted to, I could never do those things for you. There’s nothing soft or supportive about me.”I stiffened into silence when he reached over and put his hand on my bare knee. “Please, Katie, it’s Cephus. I don’t need to have women giving me this last-name attitude like they’re on the opposite side of me in a business deal. You at least are not, thank God for that.”“Oh, there’s that sexism jumping out again.”“I’d like to ask you, Katie, where you think your life is going if you’re not planning on getting married? You mentioned being ‘left to your own devices’… what are those, exactly? The television, your smartphone?
Chapter 156Katie's POVAt some point, my kidnapping had become a musical number or two short of a full-scale production. “I… how long have you been coming up with this plan?”“Just while we’ve been sitting here,” said Cephus. He met my eyes and seemed to bristle a little. He could probably tell I didn’t believe him. “You have to be agile in this business, Katie. There was this one time, I went to this scumbag’s house to collect on a debt, but I was just the first guy who decided to take care of that business that day… and the one who showed up after I was packing.”He was seriously trying to impress me with a war story after keeping me up half the night of being kidnapped.“That other guy was only seeking half the money I was there for too, a complete clown. But of course, he was ready to go postal, and the only thing that could have made the situation worse was if he realized I was a threat to him getting what he wanted, so quick as a flash I dumped my suit jacket behind a chair in
Chapter 157Katie's POV“I have a feeling you’re not against a bit of bondage play,” I said as soon as I opened the door to the bedroom. I’d decided I was going to be the one to come and find him. I needed to hold my own as much as possible still, and this seemed like one way to do it without getting him angry at me.Cephus looked up from the little card table he was sitting at and slipped the black book he’d been examining into his shirt pocket. “Why is that?”For a moment I couldn’t reply, distracted by how ridiculously out of place he looked at that table in his sleek suit.Well actually, he looked out of place in the entire scenario. Everything here was very plain and homey, a bit like one of those caravan sets on old episodes of Home and Away, not the sort of scene a multi-millionaire would tolerate even on holiday. It was a bit too downmarket even for me.I forced myself to get back to the point. “These.” I raised one foot and wiggled it at the ankle. I was surprised that the c
Chapter 183Katie's POVAll I see is a blur of him as I try to get my mind and body to function so I can answer him. My legs hit the floor as he pushed me down, releasing me to walk away. His hand grips his hair as he stares at the gun in his other hand and back down to me.“No. No, it’s not true,” I whimper, tears still falling. “Don’t listen to him,” I plead, looking him straight in the eyes.“Silence,” he orders, walking over to me with his hand raised. Will he hit me? Will he hurt me?“That isn’t true!” I shoot back. “Nothing he is saying is true…”Silence ensues for a long second before Cephus speaks. “Get the ropes and tape!” he yells to Mack. I’m lying on the ground on my side when his face comes into my vision.“Was it all a lie, Katie? Was it all some fucked up lie so that you could get into my head? So you could get the inside job done and walk away unscathed?” His voice is so loud in my ears, I push away from him.“Was it?” he shouts, demanding a response, his fingers gripp
Chapter 182Katie's POV“I see it as more of a protective arrangement for both of us. There are legal protections for each of us… incentives to keep one another’s secrets.”I fixed him with what I hoped was the most vicious look I had in me. “I never went to the cops after you kidnapped me, didn’t go running to my parents begging them to find someone to break your kneecaps, and you thought you needed some other way of getting me to keep your secrets?”“It matters…” I can hear the anxiety in Mack’s voice. Something is very, very wrong.“Why does it matter? She was nothing before this whole incident and will be nothing after everything takes place. She’s clean. I know it.” Cephus sounds confident, and though I know I have done nothing wrong, if Mack convinces him I did something, I know I am as good as dead.“It matters because I know she’s not clean. After Jared called me and told me what Luccio said, I did a little digging on her and found some shit out.”Horror fills my mind. What i
Chapter 181Katie's POV“I was seven or eight, in a regular primary school not far from here.” His right hand moved, grasping for his phone, then he left it alone and pulled my hand he was still holding onto his knee, placing both of his hands over it. If the ring I was wearing was digging in, he didn’t give any sign. “It might surprise you to hear this, Katie, but I was not the best of children.”“Shocking revelation.”“I was always targeting kids a bit younger, a bit smaller. The ones I knew wouldn’t be able to give me any shit in return. Except this one time, there was this kid—Billy Burke, I remember his name vividly—and he did give me shit. He told me he wanted me to stop pushing him around and trying to scare him, and no he wasn’t going to give me his lunch money, by the way. I’d never run into this situation before when I was running this scam, so I panicked a bit. I hit him in the face. Told me to his parents.”I didn’t know what to say to this. It took me all too quickly b
Chapter 180Katie's POVEven when it gets worked out in the end, it sucks for long-term relationships.”It had to be even harder to find someone you could enter into the sort of long-term relationship most people were especially keen on with. Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised Cephus had jumped at the chance to get me on board as a future wife.And speaking of my future husband, I had half-expected he wouldn’t be there when I returned. Then when I saw him sitting on the couch in front of the TV where he’d been when I ran out to get in Caroline’s car—where he’d probably slept for all I knew, he’d gone out the night before and hadn’t been back before I admitted defeat and crawled to bed—I half-expected to spot Angel somewhere in the room in the next moment. She didn’t have anything further to add to her roster of manipulations for the moment: we were alone.“What was your day like?” asked Cephus without looking at me. I let my bag slip by degrees from my fingers, frozen in place by the p
Chapter 179Katie's POV“Cephus isn’t supposed to be a part of this side of things, he can’t do it… and I doubt you’re in a position to ask your mother for assistance. Caroline is an ideal choice.”I didn’t like it, but she was right. I couldn’t go about this the wrong way if I ever wanted to be on Cephus’s good side. I didn’t want to go about it the wrong way. And while I was surrounded by Cephus’s family I needed to make connections unless I wanted to be treated the same way I was on my own. Caroline seemed like the safest option there so far.“If you’re sure I won’t be inconveniencing you,” I told Caroline. “I could use the help. I don’t have much experience with the whole wedding business, that much is for sure.”Caroline broke out in a little golf clap of delight. There might actually be some benefit in spending trying to absorb as much as I could of her elegance. “I’m so pleased to help. Now, I was thinking, I have the whole of tomorrow afternoon off work, so that would be a g
Chapter 178Katie's POVI sat up with a gasp.It was just like the morning before when I had woken to unexpected voices. But this time I was in a strange bed again, and at least one of those voices didn’t seem familiar at all.I’d learned my lesson from the day before. I couldn’t get myself into the single bathroom in the apartment, but I pulled on a proper outfit, brushed out my hair, and cleaned my face thoroughly with some wipes. I didn’t dare put on makeup without a full mirror, but I was young and fresh enough that I could probably get away without it.Once I was decent, I made a quick and quiet tidy of my room and then stepped up to the door for a bit of strategic eavesdropping before I joined the action.A childish female voice was doing most of the talking. “She’ll need someone to guide her through the process.”Cephus’s voice sounded both amused and exasperated. “Someone who has never been even close to getting married before?”“You know exactly what Caroline means.” The thi
Chapter 177Katie's POVI kept trying to convince myself that what I was craving was the worst craving anyone had ever had, including anything that had been thought up by a brain on pregnancy. But it was ridiculous to be so worried about whether I did or didn’t sleep with him when I was already making myself vulnerable to him, right? Or was this just how I was convincing myself to go along with wherever my lust took me?I don’t think about looking at my plate. Then when Cephus abruptly slid his chair backwards and stood, I startled like a tiny animal that could run away if provoked further. I knew damn well I couldn’t run.Cephus came to my side and put his hand out for mine, drawing me to my feet when I complied.“You have sauce on you,” he said and pointed it out on my shirt—his fingertip pressing slightly into my breast in a way that was, I’m sure, entirely necessary.I looked down at his hand there. Well, I’d managed to at least try to eat something.I thrust my chest forward in
Chapter 176Katie's POV“Madonna and child.” Cephus folded his arms and leaned back; it felt like an acknowledgment that I’d landed a hit, but I didn’t have any idea how. I’d just been trying to give a voice to my frustrations. “So you know a little bit about art, then.”“I think that’s kind of something I picked up through pop culture actually,” I said. I was hoping to screw with him while I seemed to have an advantage, and he did appear to deflate a little in response. “You’d be more eager to get a leg over if I was the kind of girl who t art and how to engage with you because I have any desire to ‘get a leg over’. And I have no intention of scorning you because you lack cultural polish. I assure you that I will be able to provide for you sexually in every way you might require.”“What kind of statement is that? Trust me, I’m a sexy beast, even though from the way I behave you would expect pretty much any Arctic land to be less frigid than I am?”“Do you want me to provide referen
Chapter 175Katie's POV“Am I supposed to believe you are shy?”I was so startled by Cephus's Voice that here I dropped the capsicum I’d been fidgeting with. It rolled across the bench, and Cephus caught it with one hand while he continued dicing its unlucky sibling with the other.“I guess you wouldn’t,” I admitted, “but if any situation was going to make me feel that way… I mean, we’ve gone from you having me dragged out If bed to trying to cook with me?”“You’ve got to roll with the challenges life presents you sometimes, Katie,” said Cephus, rolling the second capsicum into the path of his knife.“Are you talking about me here or you?”“Both of us, for once.” His expression visibly dulled. It struck me then just how much more animated he had become since we had first met. It was just a handful of hours but there was someone behind the mafia man front he was slowly letting me see, whether by choice or unconsciously I did not know.It bothered disappearing again. It was messing wi