“Then let’s grab what we need and head out,” Brecken replied, looking down at his watch. “Because we’re meeting with them in less than an hour.”
He followed me into my office. I unlocked the safe again, this time pulling out all the cash I had on hand and a couple black velvet drawstring bags filled with diamonds. My parent’s wealth had done a lot for me in my life, but I was never more grateful for it than today, knowing the money they’d given me was going to save Angelica’s life.
While Brecken packed the duffel bag, I crept back upstairs and watched her sleep. I didn’t allow myself much time to savor the sight, just a moment. Then I pulled a pair of fur-lined handcuffs from the nightstand and slipped them around her wrist. My hope was she’d never know they were there, but I didn’t trust her not to convince Brecken’s employee that they needed to come after us. Girl power and all that.
I wanted her safe and sound in my home while I cleaned up the mess her father left behind. If the way I handled it pissed her off, so be it. I’d figure out a way to make it up to her later.
Gettingto the meet was easy enough. They’d agreed to see me in the back room of a low-class strip club that was worlds apart from the places I owned. One of Brecken’s guys stayed with the car while the three of us went inside. The old guy sitting behind the desk wasn’t too intimidating, but the four guys surrounding us with their hands on the guns in their holsters sure as shit were. It was a good thing Brecken was standing behind me because I knew he had my back, literally and figuratively. I also knew he was the best shot in the room because he’d already been better than anyone else before the military got their hands on him.
“You’re here to pay off Mr. Rose’s debt?” the man asked, drawing my attention away from his goons and back to him.
“No, I’m here to make sure you stay the fuck away from my woman,” I corrected. “I could care less about her father’s debt to you.”
His eyes fell on the duffel bag in my hand. I stepped forward and tossed it onto the desk. He stared at me, presumably assessing my strengths and weaknesses, before unzipping thebag and looking inside. He pulled the stacks of cash out first, his thumb fanning the edges of the bills out on each stack before he placed it on the desk. He moved to the bags of diamonds next. Opening one and dumping the contents in his hand and then pouring it back inside to move onto the other.
“I can’t help but wonder about the girl,” he uttered, a calculated gleam in his eye. “That her father would so callously toss her to the likes of me, but a man such as yourself would pay handsomely to keep her from my clutches.”
“There’s enough money there for you to forget you ever heard her name.”
He cocked his head to one side. “I can’t help but be intrigued. Who’s to say she wouldn’t be worth more to me than what you’ve brought today?”
“If so much as a hair on her head is hurt, she’ll cost you a hell of a lot more than what was in that bag,” I warned.
He leaned back in his chair, a slight smirk tilted the side of his mouth. “I’d choose your words more wisely, Mr. Cadwell. You may be wealthy, but you’re too soft to take me on.”
I felt more than heard Brecken step forward, moving to my side. “He isn’t soft, and he wouldn’t be alone.”
“Ah yes, I’d heard you’re more than paid muscle to Mr. Cadwell.” He studied Brecken, nodding his head after a while as though he’d come to a decision. “Fine, consider the deal done. I’ll accept the money and the diamonds in exchange for the girl who I could have taken as my marker from her father.”
“You’ll spread the word that she’s not connected to him in any way going forward,” Brecken pushed.
“Yes, yes,” he replied, waving us off. “The last thing I need is the authorities breathing down my neck because the girl stubbed her toe or some such nonsense. I’ll make sure her father cannot use her as collateral again.”
“Thank you,” I forced the words past my lips, relieved to know Angelica would be safe but pissed at the thought of what this man would have done to her if she hadn’t been mine.
My beautiful angel—who I’d left shackled to my bed.
15
ANGELICA
Iturned over part way, still mostly asleep, and felt a tug on my wrist. “Lemme roll over,” I murmured into my pillow, trying to jerk my wrist out of Morgan’s grasp. Only there wasn’t any give. None at all. I lifted my head, and blearily looked up at my hand.
What the heck?
I rubbed my free hand over my eyes and then opened them wider. I had to be seeing things. I jiggled my wrist and felt the soft slide of furry material on my skin. I looked at the headboard, and as sure as the sun rises every morning, the other end of a set of handcuffs was wrapped around the nearest bedpost.
“This cannot be happening to me,” I growled.
“Shit,” Morgan muttered from the other side of the room. “I was hoping to make it back before you woke up.”
“Back from where and why am I handcuffed to the bed in the first place?”
“I went with Brecken and a couple of his guys to take care of the situation,” he explained, moving around the bed to kneel on the mattress next to me. I watched dumbly as he pulled a keyfrom his pocket and released my wrist, rubbing it lightly with his thumb.
“You thought it was a good idea to not wake me up and tell me what was going on but instead to leave me sleeping in our bed with my wrist latched to the bedpost?” I yelled.
“I had to make sure you stayed put. These were dangerous men and I didn’t want them to lay eyes on you. Ever.”
