Page 16 of The Debt

“Don’t lie to me!”

He gripped her hair tighter, pulling harder.

“I’m not lying.”

With a sigh, he released her and eased himself from atop her. “Very well. I’ll just have to carry out plan B.”

“What’s that?”

“Give me your cell phone.”

“Why?”

“Give me your fucking cell phone and don’t question me Mira!”

Vasco couldn’t believe what he was seeing and hearing when Mira jumped from the bed and shook her head adamantly. “No. I’m not giving you my cell phone.”

His hand came up once again, aiming for her sore cheek which now showed the imprint of his slap. But Mira’s eyes blazed with something unrecognizable. She was not the same girl that she was two days ago. Quickly her hand came up and clutched his wrist. The strength from her hold surprising him.

“You dare defy me?” he snarled, grabbing the hand that held his. “How dare you?”

Yanking her hand away, she shrieked. “How dare you!”

Before he knew it, the sting of her open palm caught his cheek. Vasco’s mind went blank. He was unable to comprehend what was happening to his docile girl. He’d never seen this side of her and the conclusion was that there was one person to blame.

He wasn’t sure what Archer Dunbar did, but of a certainty he was responsible for her defiance. How dare he come between him and Mira? How dare that featherweight make a move on his woman? Did Archer really believe that he’d given him permission to date Mira?

While Vasco was processing the encounter with plans to teach Archer a lesson. Mira’s next words punch him in the gut.

“I’m leaving,” she said. “I can’t take this shit no more. You do what you want with my father. He’s as good as dead to me anyway.”

Vasco’s eyes flitted around the room until they rested on her purse lying on the bureau. Silently he walked over, picked up the purse and opened it. Mira rushed over, but not before he took out her cell phone and started moving towards the door.

“Give me back my phone,” she demanded.

“Everything you own, belongs to me Mira, including this,” he replied, holing up the phone. “Now stay in your room and think about what you have done … or didn’t do.”

He slipped through the door and slammed it shut.

The first time she threatened to run away was when she just arrived and she wanted to go find her father. It had been a different matter. She was in tears and distraught, not knowing where her father was and if his surgery had been successful. At that time, he ordered a padlock be placed from the outside of her door.

Since then, he had no reason to lock her in. However, he had not removed the lock. As he shut the door, he reached for the latch and snapped it in place, looping the padlock through the hook and snapping it.

“Let me out Vasco!” she pounded the door from within. “Let me out!”

He stood for about five minutes listening to her pounding and yelling. When he was tired of hearing her screams, he entered his own bedroom where he dressed for a day of business. As he left the house, he could still hear Mira yelling for him to set her free. It was not going to happen.

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