I’ve heard the stories. I’ve heard whispers of Caden Blackwood and his torturous methods to keep his victims under control before he sells them off alive or cuts them up and ships their body parts to every corner of the world. There’s no mercy to him, no kindness in his eyes. Only impatience and irritation. Pure malice.
Caden sighs. He runs a veiny hand through his messy black hair, confirming my previous assumption. He has long fingers, nails too short not to be bitten regularly. Stress? Anxious tic? If I had to work with Drago, the anonymous masked man, I’d be fucking anxious too. I had one encounter with him, to arrange this new business deal, and that was enough to haunt my slumber for a lifetime.
“You can rest for a while,” he says, his hard voice softening just an inch. “I don’t know what the fuck you’ve been doing to make you look so malnourished, but I don’t have time to baby anyone. You can recover freely for the next few days. You need to eat, and you need to exercise. You don’t have a job for the next few days, so take until then to pull your shit together.” Caden walks away as if that’s all that needs to be said.
I watch him go, not ready to take my eyes off him. He pauses at the door, clears his throat and adds quietly, “When you’re feeling more coherent, you can start thinking wedding plans. You can have whatever you want.” Then he disappears.
The other two stay, still looking. Blonde Hair speaks next. “Ignore the big, grumpy ball sack. We’re all a little tightly wound at the moment. I’ll help get you back to… whatever you looked like before… Well, whatever your desired state is.” There’s a soft caress to his voice now. It’s taming, a comfort with it that tugs at my muscles, willing them to unclench.
Curly Hair starts walking towards the door Cade’s disappeared through. “Yeah, let Alfie fix you up for us. We can’t break you if you’re already broken.” With a wink that matches the devil’s menace, he disappears too.
Alfie stays, looking at me still, waiting for something. When he doesn’t find it, he says, quiet and hesitant, “What happened to you?”
Something about this guy unwinds my defences. He’s not like the other two. I can tell already. There’s a tenderness behind the hard glare. The glare itself only seems half-serious now, like he’s putting on a front for the other two. Now they’re gone, his shoulders seem to shrink.
“I was born,” I say, looking down to the shiny sheets.
A silence follows, with an awkwardness so thick it starts to curl around my chest.
Finally, he says, “Join the club, kid.” And he leaves too.
I let myself unfold against the mattress. It’s far too soft, no substance, no support at all. Is this my bed? Is this Caden’s – ours? He called thisourhome. This won’t do. I’d have to get some stone lining laid in or something. If I planned on staying, that is. As soon as I reach my target profits… I’m out of this hellhole and miles away from its hellhounds.
CHAPTER 3
CADEN
What a fucking disaster.
Complete, utter, disappointment.
I’d heard of the Valor girl plenty, everyone has. Little slut, fucks anyone that moves within five feet of her. Depressed and suffocated by grief of the death of her brother. Weakling. But, apparently, a tech genius. You wouldn’t guess it by looking at her. All I saw behind those blue eyes was cold emptiness. A hollow shell. But I’m not an idiot to think that’s her true form. She’s gone through something, for sure. No one looks like a mental hospital escapee on a normal day.
Fuck knows what her dad’s done to her, but he’s handed me a train wreck. Does it look like I have time to fix people?
I go through to the kitchen, irritation prickling my skin, the front of my hair now damp and askew from running through it with hot, sweaty hands.
She’s not my type of girl. At all. But again, it’s hard to conclude that when this is the only time I’ve seen her in person. The photos I’ve seen of her show a completely different girl. Perhaps even a little attractive. Long, clean blonde hair, not matted and splattered with God knows what. A tempting littlephysique, definitely not the bony skeleton I carried to my bed. A delicate, innocent gleam in her blue eyes, not the hostile, fierce glower I received when she woke up. The girl in my bed now is not the same. I hope Alfie can handle her, because I sure fucking can’t.
I grab a bottle of water from the fridge as my Cane Corso companion, Sergeant, comes up to nuzzle his nose into my thigh.
“Hey, Sarge,” I say, voice quiet. I drop my hand and give him a scruff between the ears. “Did you see the state of her? Yeah, that’s your new mum, apparently.” He tilts his head to the side, and my lips twitch into a faint smile. “I’m kidding. She does anything bad, you give her hell, you understand?”
He chuffs and licks my arm in response. I reach onto the counter and hand him a treat.
I don’t know why it has to be her. I understand my obligation to marry, and to preferably marry a woman who knows the world I live in and the job I do. My father said it will bring our families closer together, if there’s a union between the two of our families, we could reach new heights in the underworld. More money, more power. I get it, that’s the main objective. Dominion. The top of the food chain. But her? I shake my head at the thought. There’s plenty of families in our little world that we could have linked up with, a lot of women more suitable for me than her. But I respect him. Anything he asks me to do, I obey, because he’s given me everything. Even if I don’t agree with some things – a lot of things – he asks of me, I would never say no.
But I hate the fact that everyone in our world thinks my new fiancé is a whore. It goes against every fine line and stroke of the brush I’ve used to craft my pristine image. But God forbid I try to defy Dad’s wishes. I don’t want to. All I can do now is try to whip this mess into somewhat of a shape resembling a wife perfect for me. And I’ll accomplish that by any means necessary.She’s in my corner of the world now, and we don’t accept mess here. I can play nice, but only if she does. And judging from that first interaction, plus the fact she leaped on me back at her dad’s place, it doesn’t bode well for a peaceful future.
I’m absentmindedly stroking Sarge, lost in thought of the future, where this will take us all now, when Fiz comes in.
“So, what’s the verdict?” he says, grabbing his own bottle of water.
I shake my head, watching Sergeant strut back off to the front doors. “That my life’s not gonna change because of some broken burden with a pair of tits.”
“You really believe this could help the business? I mean, I don’t really get how you marrying a Valor is the best option. Why do we need to merge with them?”
“Exactly what I was just thinking.” I sigh. “I don’t know. Dad obviously has his reasons. I trust him.”
