Dominic stepped into the room, a hostile intensity in his eyes. Another one of his men entered the room and went straight to Marco.
“Hey Marco. Why didn’t you get out? Were you putting on a show for Miss Sophie?”
My head whipped to Marco and the other man.
I whispered, “What?”
Marco grunted, but the other man spoke on as if not noticing. “Marco can get out of any situation. He’s like a Houdini on steroids.” He chuckled. “That’s probably why he’s Dom’s Second.”
He finished cutting Marco’s zip ties, then walked out of the room.
I stared at Marco, who stared back at me with a guilty look on his face.
I turned to look at Dominic, who was staring at me, but his jaw was clenched tight.
“So you knew about this.” A statement. Not a question.
He continued to stare at me intensely. Marco cleared his throat. He moved behind me to cut off my zip ties. Still staring at Dominic, I rubbed my wrists once the ties were off.
“Well, I hope you got what you needed from this.” I felt resigned. I had been set up. Yep. Just a pawn.
I got up and walked out of the room, not looking back.
??????????
Two days later, one of the maids came to my room and told me Dominic wanted to speak to me in his office. I hadn’t spoken to him since that day. Actually, I had actively avoided being out of my room for most of the time except when I needed to. Like running down to grab quick foods to eat.
I had been put into a situation, knowingly, that could have ended my life. I no longer felt safe in this house. I thought I had been safe. Well, relatively so. More so than my own childhood home anyway. But that had been a lie. I should have known.
I knocked on Dominic’s door, waiting for him to allow me entrance. I heard him say in a commanding voice, “Come.”
I took a deep breath, and put my mask on. I walked in and saw him sitting behind his desk. Again, the man was beautiful. I’m sure he knew it too. He had on a button up shirt, top two buttons undone, sleeves rolled up to mid arm. His hair looked a bit more disheveled than usual.
How many women has he been with since we got married? The thought made me sick. That wasn’t any of my business. Not something I needed swirling about in my head.
I walked in and stood in front of his desk, my hands crossed in front of me.
He looked at me for a long moment. I was used to people staring at me, trying to make me uncomfortable. I had been able to hold my own when others did this to me, but having Dominic do it now was unnerving me.
Finally he moved, rubbing a hand down his face, and sighing. “I’m sorry for putting you in that position a few days ago. I was testing you.”
I just stared at him, then shrugged. “No worries. I know you have to do what you have to do.”
He grunted and glared at me. “Don’t do that!” He snapped.
I could feel myself tense up.
He lightened his tone. “It was not okay. I thought that maybe you were taking secrets to your father, or had some other agenda for not fighting more against the arrangement.” He looked at me seriously.
“And what made you think that’s not true now?”
“I had a wire on Marco.”
“Oh.”
“The fact you were trying to sacrifice yourself for him, even when you thought he was just a guard, tells me more than I had planned to find out.”
“Oh.”
