Page 15 of The Debt

Chapter 10

Vasco patiently awaited Mira’s return home. He’d sent the driver to retrieve her at the hotel and they were expected back any minute. News was that the engineer had left the hotel earlier that morning, but what incensed him was that his spy saw the engineer slip out of her room before sunrise. That could only mean one thing.

She’d never spent the entire night with a target before and have always moaned about having to spend any time at all with them. She’d always been able to convince the men to take a drink or two which would either lead to them spilling the beans about their business or they’d pass out drunk. Whenever they became unconscious, Mira would then have to search their phones, diaries and in some cases, retrieve information from their laptops. But she’d never slept with anyone before and this troubled Vasco.

Leaning back in his office chair in the study, he watched the security monitor that fed from several angles of the property, including the gate and front door. After the arrival of the car, he kept his eyes peeled on the study door, awaiting her entry. After a five minutes, and she did not enter the study, he departed the room.

He found Randy on the terrace leading out to the back garden. He was the man he’d sent to keep an eye on Mira at the hotel.

“Randy, where’s Mira?”

“She went up to her room, Boss.”

“Take the day off,” he told the man who had been watching and following the couple since they left the party.

“Thanks Boss.”

Leaving the terrace, Vasco climbed the stairs and headed to her bedroom. After knocking once, he pushed the door. A startled Mira was in the middle of changing her clothes and was only now in her underwear. She held her hands over her body protectively while her eyes shot darts at him.

“You can’t just enter my bedroom as you like Vasco,” she snapped.

He closed the door and purposely strode over to her. Without thinking, he raised his hand and landed a hard palm across her cheek. Mira cried out, her eyes widening in horror. Her hand came up to rest on her cheek as her eyes became glossy.

“That’s for sleeping with another man,” he said easily. Her mouth opened to protest but he placed a finger on her lips. “No use denying it.”

To his bewilderment, Mira slapped his hand away and pushed him hard. “You don’t have the right to hit me. If you do that again, I swear…”

“What?” he demanded, closing the gap between them and grabbing her shoulders. “What the fuck will you do?”

“I am tired of this,” she replied, trying to wrangle from his grasp. He gripped her tighter, his anger now snowballing into full rage. “I’m tired of your abuse and I’m tired of you!”

“You’re tired of me?” he asked. “You’re forgetting what…”

“Do you think I’m afraid to lose my father to you now? Go ahead Vasco, kill him if you want. It can’t be worse than not knowing where he is and when you will set me free.”

“I will never set you free,” he shouted. “You belong to me. Do you get that?”

“I am not your property!”

“Yes you are,” he responded easily. “You became mine when you signed that contract.”

He could see her recoil inwardly. A part of him wanted to ease her pain, but that part of him that wanted to possess her would not allow him to relent. She belonged to him and no one else. Vasco also realized that he’d basically pushed her into the arms of Archer. His plan to use her to get the information backfired.

Obviously the man charmed her, for her to be acting this way. This was the first time she actually stood up to him. Her claim to not care whether her father was dead was just a smoke screen. She would never risk the life of her father by doing anything drastic. He could forgive the one night’s indiscretion as it was his idea that she complete her task at all costs.

Releasing her shoulders, he gently rubbed the spot where his fingers now left an imprint. “Now tell me what I need to know. I assume since you both spent the night together that you got the information.”

She stepped away, picking up a pair of jeans from the bed. “No, I didn’t.”

He closed the small gap between them and slipped his arm around her waist, pulling her up against his body. She gasped, dropping the piece of garment as his other hand came up to squeeze her breast. His fingers tightened around her soft flesh, continuing to squeeze, knowing it was painful for her. Still his mind could not allow him to release her pain.

“Ahh, you’re hurting me Vasco.”

Letting go of the breast, he pushed her face down unto the bed, covering her body with his. With one hand he grabbed her hair and pulled back. She cried out in pain. A battle raged within him now. His deranged mind wanting to violate her while his weakness for her barely held him back.

“If you don’t hand over the information, I will take from you what you so freely gave to another man.”

“I didn’t do anything. We fell asleep after dinner.”

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