I can’t escape.
Then what’s the use in trying?
I’m going to face it. Face him.
I straighten my back, pull my shoulders up, and force the oxygen through my lungs.
I’m not the person he left battered and broken nearly two years ago. I’m not the person he beat down until there was nothing left but a shell. I’m not that girl.
“Get out,” I grate, through my clenched jaw.
“That’s not a very nice way to speak, Arianna. Did I teach you nothing?”
“Fine,” I answer, tilting my chin up. “I have things to do. If you’ll excuse me…” I turn and make it two steps before his fingers grasp my elbow.
“I have something for you ...”
I turn in his direction and jab a finger in his chest. “You have nothing I could possibly want,” I spit out. “Nothing, do you hear me?” What have I got to lose? Is he going to drag me through the building kicking and screaming? Because that’s exactly what I’ll do. Kick and scream until everyone knew who he was. Besides, I have the commando at the door. Denham would be here within minutes. Jonny wouldn’t stand a chance.
He pulls open one side of his blazer, and takes a red rose from his inside pocket, offering it in my direction. “Your security wouldn’t let my guy deliver this to you earlier, so I thought I had better deliver it myself.” He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes and I know that he could never smile a true smile borne from happiness. Every tilt of his lips is tainted with evil, always with a calculated agenda.
“I knew it,” I whisper.
Deep down, I knew it. I just didn’t want to admit it. I wanted to believe it was Denham.
“A rose. Every day a rose,” I say, mesmerized by the red flower. A simple red bloom. He was there all along. He nods in agreement as a fresh wave of nausea hits me.
“Well, are you going to take it?” He pushes the long stemmed flower in my direction once more and I narrow my eyes at him.
“Screw you.”
He tips his head back and laughs, before he spots Beth coming back in our direction. His composure slips over him like mercury. Fast and efficient.
“You really are a stupid beautiful girl,” he whispers as I hear Beth’s heels approaching across the marble floor.
“Here, water. Don’t you think you should sit, Arianna? You’re very pale,” Beth says offering me a glass of water with a concerned look on her face.
“I’m fine, really. I have things I should be getting back to.”
“No, you don’t. Not today. You go home, I’ll finish up here.”
“It’s fine, I—”
“Go,” she orders, making a shooing motion with her hands before turning and placing a hand on Jonny’s arm. “James, I’m sorry to have kept you. Let’s get you fitted.”
I stand and watch them, mesmerized. I’m amazed at how my old life seems to have entwined itself with my new life. Beth is clearly very friendly with Jonny, or James as she calls him. And I wonder just how long he has been coming here to her to purchase his clothes. He’s always dressed well. He’s always liked the finer things in life. Outward appearances have always been of the utmost importance. Maybe Beth had been in the background of my life for longer than I knew.
Chapter 12
Arianna
Commando wasn’t keen when I said I wanted to walk home. It makes it harder for him to do his job, apparently. But seeing as he let the one person that he was trying to keep from me, slip through his net, I’d say he’s failed miserably already without even knowing.
I needed the time and fresh air. I needed to think things through. To try and process the few words that came from Jonny’s poisoned lips. Knowing that he loads each one with a kick makes it harder for me to decipher than a tomb full of hieroglyphics.
By the time I make it to the large glass doors of The Kingdom, I still don’t have it all figured out.
Do I tell Denham or do I keep it to myself?
