Page 24 of Captivated By Him

I take steady steps to where she’s sitting and lean over the kitchen island until I have her gaze lined up with my own. “I’m notlettingyou stay here, Nicole. I’m making you stay here. There’s a difference.”

She rolls her eyes. “Fine, if that’s what you need to think.”

I grab her coffee cup and pull it away from her. “The difference is if I werelettingyou stay, I’dletyou leave. But since I’m making you stay, I’m not.”

“What do you mean?” she demands, her temper flaring.

“It means until we have all this settled with the Kaczmarek family, you’re not leaving this apartment. For any reason.”

“No way, Jakub. I have to work—”

“Okay, you’re fired.” I shrug before she can finish her argument.

Her nostrils flare and her dark eyes go wide. “You can’t do that.”

“I own the club, so yeah, I can. And I just did. It’s not safe for you at the club. If Piotr decides to pop up somewhere it will probably be there, so you aren’t to be there. You’re staying here where I have men downstairs who can protect you if the Kaczmareks show up while I’m not here.”

“You didn’t tell me that when I agreed to come here.” She jumps off the stool she’s perched on and storms past me. “I never would have come.”

“Nicole.” I slowly follow her as she grabs her stuffed suitcase and purse and heads for the freight elevator that acts as my main entrance. Even if she gets down to the main floor, I’ve posted two men down there. She won’t get two feet before she’s grabbed and held until I can get to her.

She hits the call button on the elevator, but it’s not going to open.

“Do you really think I’d have the elevator just open to anyone? It’s basically my front door, Nicole.” I put myself between the electric panel and her. “Unless you have the turnkey, it’s not going to work.” I move to the side and point to the keyhole.

There’s a fire escape and a back stairwell but she doesn’t know about those yet.

“You can’t hold me hostage.”

“I’m not. I’m protecting you.”

She levels a heated stare on me. “You’re protecting yourself.”

I lift one shoulder. “A little, yeah, but if you aren’t here, they’ll find you without any protection. Here. They’ll be more respectful when they come looking for you. Which probably won’t be for a day or more. Depends on how long the little piss ant takes to tell his boss he failed.”

More than likely, he’ll lick his wounds at a bar for the night and then go crawling to his boss in the morning.

Frustration blooms across her features and slowly reality wears away at the fight in her. She leans the suitcase up against the wall and drops her purse on the floor beside it.

“Fine. I’m stuck here.” She throws her hands up in the air and stomps her way over to my black leather couch.

“Pouting won’t help your situation.”

She leans forward, elbows on her knees and puts her face into her hands. Her shoulders slump and for a moment I think she’s going to start crying.

“My situation.” She throws her head back and laughs. “My situation is I’m stuck with you until the Kaczmareks decide to either leave me alone or have me killed because I dated one of their wackos at the insistence of my father.” She laughs some more, then slouches into the couch and lays her hand over her stomach.

When I get to where she’s sitting, I sink onto the couch beside her. She’s wearing a light pink V-neck t-shirt and a pair of cutoff jean shorts. There’s a splatter of blood on her shorts and more on her bare leg. I touch the spot on her thigh.

“You should wash up.”

She cranes her neck to see where I’m pointing and sighs. “I’m sorry you’re stuck in the middle of this, Jakub. If I had known you owned Katfish, I wouldn’t have even applied.”

There’s a sadness to her tone, and I fucking hate it.

“Go wash up, the shower’s in the bathroom attached to the bedroom upstairs. Last door on the left.” I gesture to the stairs against the far wall. There are three rooms upstairs, the hallway is open and overlooks the main living area of the apartment.

I reach over to her face, running the back of my hand along her cheek. Any other woman I know would have been a crying mess after seeing what she saw in her apartment, except for my sister. But not Nicole. She’s reserved and holding back. If it wasn’t for the little tremble of her lower lip, I might not notice the stress she’s feeling right now.

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