Page 123 of The Last Promise You Made

I wouldn’t let him hurt a hair on Gia’s head. He couldn’t have her. Oh, he’d try to take her and use her, but she’d never be his. I wouldn’t let him, but even more importantly, Gia wouldn’t let him either.

Right now, I had to find a way to get back there with them. Should I create a scene to do so? Or try something stealthier?

As I got closer to the door, I saw the scanner and the keypad. Gia would know a way past the electronics. Or Rory. Why hadn’t I put Rory’s number into my phone? Why had I just assumed we’d be able to reach her through Gia?

Jesus, I was an idiot. Definitely not cut out for spy work.

I headed in the opposite direction, out the ballroom doors, requesting directions to the restrooms, but before I could get there, a large beast of a man showed up at my side. Dressed in the black gear one might expect of the special forces, I recognized him as the animal who’d nearly strangled Gia in my house. It took everything in me not to lunge for his throat and repay the favor. My body instantly stiffened, fists clenching as I fought to hold myself back.

“Mr. Laredo has requested your presence.”

It wasn’t really a request. It was a command, but it was one I would easily follow if it meant getting behind the party walls and closer to Gia.

“Lead the way,” I grunted in response.

He took me down several hallways to another door guarded with scanners and keycode locks. The walls beyond it were black and the floors a checkerboard pattern. I’d been in the Grand Laredo before and had been impressed by its luxury and elegance, but I’d never been hit over the head with the pure black and whiteness of it. Was it a recent change?

The outside of Laredo’s home—as well as the barns and the other outbuildings—were warm greens and browns that blended in with the trees and mountains at the edge of the Daniel Boone National Forest. But inside, the house lacked any hint of color. I tried to remember a time when I’d seen Jaime himself wearing anything but black or white and couldn’t. His red Porsche was probably the only color I’d ever seen around him. It felt like it was a statement I’d need another encryption key to unravel.

At the bottom of another set of marble stairs, we moved past another key-coded lock and along another monochrome hallway to double doors, which the man opened with his thumbprint. Inside was a sitting room filled with black leather and white brocade. The walls were stark white, and the tables were black marble. There was a large television hanging over an ivory-colored buffet.

I was surprised when Gia and Jaime weren’t in the room. I’d been sure he’d want us all together so he could rub in my face his ability to seduce her, to show he could take what he wanted while causing the utmost pain to me. My pulse spiked, and my stomach rolled as unease crept through me.

“Enjoy the show,” the man said, head nodding toward the television.

He took a step back but didn’t leave the room. Instead, his arms crossed over his chest, revealing the gun tucked in at his waistband.

I turned my head to the screen as it came on, revealing another black-and-white room. This one had a large bed with black satin sheets. At the foot of it were two tufted armchairs. In one of them sat Gia with her back straight. Granny’s gems in her hair and on her body glittered in the light cast by the enormous chandelier glowing above her.

Standing beside her was Jaime. He’d removed his tuxedo jacket. It was draped over the back of the chair next to her.

“Tell me, Gia. Has Hatley made you come with his fingers and tongue as well as his dick? Or have you kept him dangling while using him for your job?” He ran a finger along the shell of her ear, and I was filled with the need to rip his hand off and shove it down his throat until he choked to death.

“A girl’s got to do what she’s got to do, right?” she said, voice colder than I’d ever heard it. Even when she was angry with me, there was emotion in Gia’s voice. Fire I loved. That same fire I’d felt as I’d embedded myself in her last night. I hated that he was trying to turn what had happened between us into something dirty. Something ugly. It had been a little piece of heaven—heaven I needed back, needed in my life with a desperation that would make me do just about anything to keep it.

“He fucked my sister. For that alone, I should have killed him,” Laredo said, but there was no heat to his voice. He was in complete control. “Instead, I will make his daughter love me more than she ever loved him or my traitorous sibling.”

Gia stood, entering his space with a saucy dare as she pulled the flash drive from her clutch. “Do you want this or not?”

He stared at her for a moment and then grabbed her chin. Even over the screen, I could see he was holding it with a fierceness that made his fingers go white, that might leave more marks on her than the ones already on her neck. My nails dug into my palms, and my teeth ground together, shooting pain through my jaw.

“The first lesson you need to learn is that you do not set the terms. You don’t demand. There is only one of us who will ever set the rules.”

She dropped her lids, and I knew it was so he wouldn’t see the hatred and fury those words caused her. Gia wasn’t built to capitulate. She was meant to burn and scorch and lead. But even as I had the thought, I realized just how much she’d relinquished control to me—not only last night but multiple times since she’d returned to Willow Creek. She’d trusted me enough to give me power over her and her body. It was a gift. One I’d never take for granted.

He jerked her chin higher and smashed his lips on hers. My entire body jerked, twisting to scan the room, looking for a way out. A way to get to her.

The giant stepped closer, reading my thoughts.

“Let’s see what you’ve brought,” Jaime said, drawing my gaze back to the screen. As he walked away holding the flash drive, Gia scrubbed at her lips with the back of her hand, and I caught a hint of red. He’d made her bleed. Fuck this. Fuck all of this.

“Take me to them!” I demanded of the man beside me.

“Soon.”

I whirled toward the door, and the man calmly pulled out his gun with a silencer screwed on the end and aimed it directly at my heart. “You are to watch first. Then, I will take you to them.”

My blood was pounding so harshly it filled my ears.

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