Page 43 of Oh, Hell No

Oz’s horse had won the Kentucky Derby three years ago.

I sank back into the cushions. I had been abducted and held prisoner by a millionaire who raised thoroughbred horses. What the hell?! How does that even happen?

Yes, my brother had washed the counterfeit money through them, but why didn’t the elite folks with all the power not send those that work for them to do the dirty work?

Realizing my glass was empty, I reached for the bottle and paused at seeing it was now below the half mark. I should stop. But I wasn’t going to. I had just learned that the man I had some strange obsession with was not only sexy and dangerous, but he was also wealthy and powerful with a famous family that had a Wikipedia page, for crying out loud.

Filling my glass, I went back to my phone and decided to try searching images. It was a mistake I wished I hadn’t thought of doing. Because there were plenty photos of the Oz Savelle I had been looking for, and he was rarely alone. Models, senator’s daughter, tycoon’s daughter, two different heiresses, and aneffing princess from some European country I didn’t know about.

I blew out a breath and closed my screen, dropping my phone onto the sofa. What in the actual fuck?

I took another long swig and stared straight ahead as Lucifer was drinking some whiskey at his fancy nightclub with half-naked ladies all over him. My gaze then moved to my phone. The urge to continue my digging was there, but I already knew I did not want to do that. Not really. I wasn’t happy with the things I had found out.

Oz was not at all what I had thought he was: A dark lord who lived in the shadows, breaking laws with his criminal activity, killing people, torturing them in some hidden cell.

Nope. He was a wealthy, desired heir to a horse-racing empire who dated princesses and shit. I was so drunk that I was cursing. It was in my head but still. I normally didn’t use profanity. Right now, I wanted to let out a string of it. I had to stop thinking about that man’s face to get off. It was not good for my sanity.

He wasn’t a man who existed in my imagination. He was very freaking real.

I finished my glass and set it down, then curled up on the sofa. Walking to the bedroom seemed too taxing right now. I would lie here a few minutes, pout over the fact that I couldn’t have a man that I hadn’t actually wanted because he was a mean Mafia man with a gun, only to learn he was a famous horse person. My eyes grew heavy as I let the bliss of nothingness take me under.

Twenty

Oz

The sight of her curled up on the sofa, softly snoring, would be cute, but the damn candle, still lit and too close to her, made this scene an anxiety-ridden nightmare waiting to happen. She had to stop doing that. I couldn’t stay here all the time and go after her to keep her safe. I needed her to at least cooperate. Jesus, it was a fucking flame on a wooden table maybe three feet from her face. One I did not want messed up or harmed.

I set down the items I had brought with me before walking over to her. On my way, I saw the empty wine bottle and went to pick it up. A seven-hundred-dollar bottle of 1968 Mayacamas Vineyards Late Harvest Zinfandel. I studied the rest of the items around her. The empty glass she’d drunk out of, the box of Goldfish, and a pint of chocolate ice cream that was melting and dripping off the table and onto the rug below. She’d had a little party, it seemed. I grinned and picked up the ice cream, thenwent to get something to clean it up, noticing the television had been left on.

Lucifer. What the hell was that? A TV series about Satan? I thought she watched crime shows.

I walked into the kitchen to toss the ice cream and get a soapy washcloth to clean the ice cream up before her rug was stained. It was a dark blue-gray color, so it should be okay. If it had been the creamy-colored one in her bedroom, that would have probably been ruined.

I bent down, and my eyes went to her face like a fucking magnet. After she’d disappeared today, I’d been restless, wanting night to come so I could get here. Seeing those eyes open, looking at me, had hit my chest hard. Those eight weeks had seemed like an eternity since I’d had those brown eyes locked on me.

She’d been unhappy about it, too, but not about me. There was surprise, shock, and interest, and then she got a look at Halo, and everything changed. She’d been…annoyed and fucking unhappy about it.

I scrubbed the carpet, then wiped down the table and made sure all the melted ice cream was cleaned before standing back up. I stood over her, letting that peace that watching her gave me sink in and soothe away the stress the candle had caused me.

“You were jealous,” I whispered, pleased with that fact.

She hadn’t seen me in two months. I might have seen her every night since and sometimes during the day, but she hadn’t seen me. When she had gotten a look at me today, she hadn’t wanted to stop. It took Toby, the dickwad, touching her and repeating himself for the third time to get her attention. I liked that I had that power over her. I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about seeing me again just yet, but I made the decision in that moment that I was going to let her.

I went as far as placing myself directly in her line of sight,wanting her to find me. Halo had forced Bane to go when I asked her to help me out with this. I had known asking Bane to go would be a solid no, so I went to the one who held the power over him. Halo wanted to take Hawkins to his first festival, and Bane wasn’t about to tell her no. I could have gone alone, but I thought having them there would make it appear as if I were there with someone, not stalking her. Because I wasn’t stalking. I was protecting.

When we had been there for two hours and I watched as Toby tried to impress her—playing carnival games; buying her cheeseburger egg rolls, which she didn’t seem to like because she only took one bite; and stopping to talk to people they knew, making sure everyone saw them together—I’d had enough. I was tired of her looking at him. I wanted her to put those eyes on me. And see her reaction.

She did.

And the reaction I got was better than I’d hoped.

Except she promptly left. That part I didn’t like. She had run from me. I wanted to think it was because she had thought Halo was my date and didn’t want to see it. But there was the concern that she had been afraid of me and I wasn’t dealing with that well. It had been two months. I hadn’t hurt her or scared her. I had stayed away—well, at least from her sight. She had to see I wasn’t going to hurt her.

Sighing, I started to pick up the empty bottle to toss it and stopped. She might have passed out drunk and could think she just didn’t remember putting the ice cream in the trash and blowing out the candle, but if I did anything else, it would stand out.

After seeing her today and her reaction, this wouldn’t be enough anymore. I was gonna need to see her eyes when they were open. I wanted her to look at me again. I should continue as we were for a while longer, but I couldn’t. When she hadleft today, I’d felt a franticness crawl through me. I hadn’t been done. I’d wanted to see those dark brown eyes focused on me. Read her expression. That box I had been trying to keep her in did more than open today. It had exploded. Needing to know what tomorrow held for her, I surveyed the area until I saw her phone tucked under her side. That couldn’t be comfortable.

I eased it out, inhaling her intoxicating scent, then straightened to unlock it.

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