“You seem to forget what family you belong to,” Dennis stood, looming over me. He didn’t touch me, but he got so close I thought he would. “You belong to us. You work for us. You do what I want when I want, do you understand?”
I swallowed, hard. “I could take away your entire life in an instant and don’t think I wouldn’t hesitate to do it. You will do as you are told. You will.”
“You wouldn’t,” I sucked in a breath and looked at him with new eyes. He’d never threatened me before. I knew he was capable of it, but I just had never experienced it. I didn’t expect to.
“You have no idea what I am f*ck
ing capable of Joanna. Your father, you, it could all go up in smoke. Literally or figuratively, you decide.”
He’d kill me, kill my father if I didn’t do what he wanted. I might as well have handed him my throat on a platter if I said no.
“Well then, what choice do I have?” I asked.
“I thought you’d come around.”
I stared at him and watched as he turned around and walked out the door. “Expect your lover-boy to approach you about it soon. Got a deal in the works.”
I sat there, smoldering with anger until I could come up with a better plan. Then I grabbed my purse and ran out the door.
The only thing I could think to do was get the f*ck
out of here and back to my regular life. Maybe if I did this would all just go away.
Chapter Eight
Joanna
Words on a computer screen. That was what I needed. It was so much easier to concentrate on the economic influence of women in Ireland at the turn of the twentieth century than it was to think about my own issues.
“Where is she?” The sound of that voice put me on edge. I could hear it all the way across the rows and rows of cubicles.
Greyson.
I didn’t want to stand up. I knew that if I did, if I went to him, he would look at me and think I’d jump at his every beck and call. I had work to do. I had a shit ton of it, honestly. And I didn’t want his interference.
So I sat there, and I let him come to me. I tried not to look peeved as he found my cubicle and glared at me.
“I thought you were going to wait for me at home?” he asked his voice low.
It didn’t matter, it still carried, and I was sure the entire office heard it. I blushed.
“I had work to do.”
The man furrowed his brow, actually furrowed it, at me.
“Come on, we’re leaving.” Greyson grabbed my wrist and pulled me up to him, but I pulled back, staying exactly where I was.
“I said I have work to do.”
“And we have things to discuss, or would you rather do it here?”
This was the second time in one day that someone was trying to boss me around, and I was getting sick to death of it. I rolled my eyes and stood up, shaking him off of me.
“I’m sick to death of men bossing me around. You can ask me to leave, you can wait until I’m done, you can do anything else, but you are not going to tell me what to do.”
He reached out for me, but this time he was not nearly as gentle. His pull was rough as he grabbed my arm and tugged me into his own body.
He intentionally, quietly, dipped his head down.
“You need to reassess who in the f*ck
you think you are talking to. I’m not your family. I’m not like anyone you have ever known. You will come with me, and you will do it now.”
Just the smallest trace of fear, mixed with arousal, flowed through me. I wasn’t finished with this argument, but what he said earlier resonated through me. I didn’t want my peers to be privy to my life outside of school. I was already enough of an outcast as it was.
“Where do you want to talk about this?” he asked as he caressed my curves with his other hand.
“Anywhere but here,” I admitted, my eyes low. I didn’t want to look into his or I might just snap.
“Good.” He purred as he grabbed my backpack and led me down the hallway and out the doors.
When we were finally outside I took in breath after breath of fresh air, gulping them in through my mouth and counting to keep from being angry. To keep from melting away with embarrassment. My cheeks were flushed, and I could feel the anger blazing behind my eyes.
I still didn’t say anything, I just waited until we got into the car and away from the school. I didn’t want anyone I knew to see or hear me like this. It was too much. It was too crazy. I was being pulled off of f*ck
ing campus by a mobster with a bad attitude. Practically kidnapped.
What other f*ck
ing choice did I have?
“What exactly are you hoping to accomplish?” I asked as I looked him over. That suit, those lips, that hair. f*ck
. It was hard to even acknowledge him without being overwhelmed by my attraction to him.
I watched his eyes glanced over me then back at the road.
“I had a visitor today,” he said, his fingers gripping the steering wheel. “My father came by to let me know just what he thought of our relationship.”
“Relationship?” I asked I thought it was just a couple of passion filled nights, but nothing more. Not until my uncle came by.
He just shrugged.
“I had a visitor too,” I admitted, chewing on the inside of my lip.