Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 110824 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110824 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“You’re awake.”
My body jerks in reaction to the voice. What is Sam doing in my bedroom?
“Sam?” I mutter, forcing my eyes to open.
For a minute everything around me is blurry. I blink trying to focus. When that doesn’t work, I rub my eyes and try again. Eventually, I manage to clear my vision enough to see him standing beside my bed, holding a pitcher. I do my best to turn, keeping my blanket pulled up tight. I’m completely disoriented and as I slowly look around the room, I realize that it’s not mine at all. I’m also completely dressed, except for my shoes. My gaze moves up to Sam and I see guilt written all over his face.
“Angie—”
“What did you do?” I growl.
“I’m trying to keep you safe,” he replies calmly. He’s so calm that I want to slap him. He grabs a glass off a large cherry nightstand with a marble top. It matches the huge four-poster bed. The posts go up at least eight feet and they are encircled by an intricate wrought iron structure that has a pale white material draped through it expertly, encircling the bed and yet pulled back to look beautiful. If I wasn’t in the middle of a nightmare, I’d take more time to appreciate the beauty and opulence of the whole room. Instead, I’m thinking of killing Sam.
He pours what appears to be water from the pitcher in his hand into the glass. After setting the pitcher down as he hands me the glass. “Drink this, you need to flush the medicine out of your system.”
I watch him as he straightens back up, momentarily robbed of the ability to speak. Thankfully, my shock wears off quickly when I decide I don’t want to just think of killing him, I want to actually do it.
“Medicine!” I screech. A wariness moves over Sam’s features and that’s good. He should be wary. He should be terrified.
“Angie, calm down—”
“I’m not going to calm down, you ass! You drugged me!”
“It was just a mild sedative,” he responds, acting as if I was overreacting.
I drink the water, mostly because my mouth is so dry that it’s hard to talk.
“It was drugs! You had no right. I can’t believe you. What on Earth were you thinking, Sam?”
“I was thinking that I needed to get you away so you can be reasonable, and see that I’m trying to protect you, and this is the only answer.”
“What are you talking about, the only answer?” I ask, putting the glass down and staring at him. I’d like to get up, but I’m pretty sure my legs wouldn’t hold me up right now.
“I need to make sure you’re safe while we deal with my father. He knows the only way he can hurt me is through my uncles or through you. My uncles are safe. They can take care of themselves, and our army is more powerful than his at this point—not that he knows that.”
“What does any of this have to do with me, Sam? Your father is nothing to me. I haven’t seen him since my mother left him. You’re not making any sense.”
“You may not have seen him, but he has been there, Angie. He’s kept his fucking eyes on you constantly, using you to keep me under control. Now that he knows that won’t work, he’ll exact revenge and he’ll do that by completely destroying you. I can’t let that happen.”
I felt a chill move down my spine. I swallowed back the fear that I felt. Is Sam telling the truth? None of this makes sense. Plus, the Sam I remember would have never kidnapped me. He always handled me with care. I shook my head. I need to figure out what’s going on here, then I need to find out where in the hell I am and get out of here.
“I can take care of myself. Plus, Victor would never let anything happen to me. You’re overreacting. Why would your father ever go after me? Sam, we haven’t been a part of each other’s lives in years.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Angie. I’ve had people watching over you. I’ve tried to protect you for years. Ever since I discovered…”
He stops talking and just stares at me. There’s a look on his face that I can’t wrap my head around, but it looks like guilt. Hell, he should feel guilty. He kidnapped me, lied to me, and drugged me.
“Discovered what? On second thought, never mind. There’s nothing you could say that would make any of this better. I’m getting out of here, and then I’m going home.”
“You need to be reasonable here, Angie—”
“Reasonable? You want me to be reasonable when you drugged and kidnapped me?” I yell, losing control. I hate feeling helpless, and here Sam is trying to destroy all of the progress I have made over the years. I can’t allow that. I will not be the woman who was helpless and waited for someone to kill her. I don’t think Sam will kill me. On the contrary, I think in his messed-up brain somewhere that he is trying to protect me. It’s just that in the process he’s doing much more damage than he realizes.