I find myself stiffening in fear, my entire body turning to stone.
What the hell is going on here? I wonder as I stare up at him, meeting his eyes.
Why does he look so angry?
And why is he insisting on giving me a ride?
I try to yank my arm back, but his hold tightens.
Jaw clenching, he steps closer to me. Looming over me and covering me in his shadow.
Making me feel small.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell him to fuck off, I’ll find my own way home, when it dawns on me.
This has nothing to do with the past and everything to do with the now.
Four days ago, my father was killed while he was off duty. He was shot in the middle of the highway after pulling over the Russian mobsters behind my kidnapping.
Every police officer I’ve spoken to since believes the Russians were behind it, that they did it to escape.
But his death is still under investigation, pending forensics.
And nothing is certain until the evidence proves it.
Thanks to a little eavesdropping, I know the Russians weren’t the only ones involved in what happened.
Up until yesterday, when Beth and Amanda came over to stay the night, I’ve had at least two officers staked at my house around the clock. During the few times I was lucid and not crying my eyes out, I’ve overhead a few hushed conversations.
Conversations full of anger over the Governor throwing his weight around and messing with the investigation.
The Russians weren’t the only ones there that night. There were also a few unidentified men that were there and let go. Men that are rumored to work for Johnathan and James’s boss, Lucifer.
It all makes so much sense, I feel like a fucking fool.
This is a setup.
With Beth pregnant and needing to get out of the rain, Johnathan probably called in James to keep an eye on me.
No doubt their little crime family wants to keep tabs on me for any information that may come my way regarding the investigation.
That’s why James looks so pissed. He doesn’t want to be around me any more than I want to be around him.
My empty stomach churns at the thought that my best friend’s husband is throwing me to wolves.
But what can you expect from a ruthless criminal?
James continues to stare hard at me, his dark eyes practically daring me to defy him.
Defying him and going for help would probably be the sane option. But who would help me? There’s no one around…
I could try to make a run for the church, but James will probably catch me before I make it very far.
He’s done it before, and I’m so not going down that road again.
We both know he’s bigger, stronger, and faster.
What other choice do I have?
He has me completely at his mercy and we both know it. Fighting him would just take energy. Energy I simply don’t have.
Hating him for doing this to me now.
Hating him period, I take a deep breath to steel myself.
Then I rip my arm out of his grip and say, “Fine. If you insist… Give me a ride.”
4
James
The entirety of my life has been me in a car racing to one place only to run from another.
I’ve been in a lot of tough spots in my life, but I’ve never been in a position where the atmosphere is so fucking tense and palpable that I could cut it with a knife.
Beside myself with seething anger, I want to wrap my hands around the closest throat and squeeze as hard as I can.
Not Sophia’s though. I’d rather do some sexy fun times with her neck. If she’s down for being choked, I can do that.
No, my fucking anger is because of all this shit she’s going through.
She’s too fucking pure, too fucking good for this world of shit and slime I crawl through every day.
And unlike me, she didn’t get to choose this world.
Her shit of a semi-crooked father did.
Sure, her father did what he could to protect the citizens as the Chief, and I’m sure when he first started out, he was a starry-eyed idealist. But shit like the real world always comes crashing down on everyone.
The real world has a way of making us all crooked one way or the other.
I’ve seen enough and done enough that I’ve lost any rosy tint that may have covered my eyes. Killed a lot of people so far, some of them were bad people, some good.
Most of my life, I was sheltered from this world. I wasn’t stupid though. I eventually found out where my mom’s money came from. We lived in a huge house and she always drove the latest Mercedes, working as a county clerk. Shit like that didn’t add up.
I found out the truth and went my own way.
Glancing at Sophia, I watch her glare out at the world we pass by. I don’t think she understands what her father did. She knows he was a cop and that’s enough for her. She doesn’t know the choices he made or the lines he crossed to maintain the illusion he was in control.