Page 35 of Trapping His Darling

The customer’s mouth dropped. He then looked at me. “American, yes?”

I nodded.

“That man you locked up is very dangerous. He and his family will kill you for this.”

I giggled and shrugged. “Well, if he feels brave enough to face me, he knows where to find me.” With that, I turned and sashayed to the door. “Make sure to tell him I said that,” I threw over my shoulder. “I want my threat to be very clear.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Viktor

“It’swhy you should not trust women,”I heard my mother’s soft whisper in my head. The inflection indicated amusement.“You brought this on yourself.”

“How so?” I snapped at the empty freezer. Cold rarely bothered me, but now I had rage to keep my blood boiling. I was going to kill her.

I thought of all the ways I might accomplish this. Admittedly, not all the ways were horrible. And it would be a shame to mar her perfect flesh with my usual methods of torture.

“You didn’t say anything,”she replied.

While waiting for Roger to arrive, and listening to a cashier and a customer work to open the door, I contemplated my mother’s observation.

“Don’t you have an eidetic memory?”

With a heavy breath, I replayed the only moment together where I never responded to her.I love you.Tiffany’s confession had caught me off guard. Her eyes, windows to her soul they were, told me she meant every word. This was not somesentiment uttered in the heat of a passionate moment. I didn’t respond because I didn’t know what to say.

I did care for her, and could see myself loving her, and knew in my cold heart I could provide the love she needed, yet…

The words didn’t leave my lips.

If I were to believe my family, love was a weakness none of us could afford.

It would be easy for me to say it back. Tiffany moved me in ways I had never felt. I already considered her mine. I already deemed her the mother of my future children. I was the only man to have tasted her passion, and I wouldbethe only man to know her that way. I would kill any who tried to take her from me.

Yes, I was possessive. I was jealous. I was greedy.

I should have noted the subtle change in her demeanor when I didn’t respond. That was a miscalculation on my part. She moved on so quickly from the moment, that I didn’t realize my lack of response had enraged her so much.

“She didn’t kill you. That is her way of showing you love.”

“That’s all well and good, mother, but I can’t let this go. She trapped me in a freezer.”

If I hadn’t long-ago come to terms with my demons, this might have triggered me. I didn’t like to be imprisoned, especially not in freezers, and my mother, more than anyone, knew that.

Finally the door opened. The stranger, with a crowbar, looked relieved that I was still alive. The cashier, with a metal ice cream scoop in hand, simply looked terrified. Roger, who was standing behind them both, shook his head in disappointment. I had them call and tell my godfather to come alone, and now he knew why. I had to end her. She made me look foolish.

I glared at the two who had rescued me. “Did she say anything?”

The man cleared his throat and replied quietly, “The woman said you would know where to find her, if you are brave enough to face her.”

I ground my jaw so hard, I risked breaking teeth. I imagine she took my car, since the keys were in the blazer’s pocket. The fact that she strode out of here wearing nothing but that suit jacket enraged me, almost more than her trapping me in a goddamn freezer.

“Calm down,”my mother cautioned.“You’ll get her back.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell her to be quiet, that I wasn’t in the mood for her platitudes, but instead I addressed the customer. “Anything else?”

He looked to the cashier, as if to see if she would answer. She shook her head. The man released a heavy breath. “Only that she wanted me to make sure her threat was clear.”

For some reason, this made me smile. A genuine smile. She wanted to play dangerous games, did she? Tiffany tested me in ways no other woman would dare. If she managed to survive our next encounter, I might strap her again just for being a little brat.

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