Page 5 of Not a Pawn

Where am I? Fear courses through me as the memories come flooding back. Marco Pezzo and his vile men. The closet. His disgusting proposal and then the men who turned everything to ash.

A dragon protected me. Why? I must be losing my mind, the stress of the entire situation simply too much to bear. My fragile grasp on reality must have finally snapped. Elites, Alphas, and their dragons have no use for people like me and my father except to manipulate us for their own self-centred purposes.

I have seen people die right in front of Elites who could have saved them, but their selfishness kept them from doing the right thing. Why would I find protection? I’m not special. Nothing that happened in the past twenty-four hours makes a damn lick of sense.

Forcing my eyes open, I take a moment to allow the pounding to recede before pushing myself up into a sitting position. Scanning my surroundings I decide I must still beasleep, and this can’t be anything more than a dream.

I have never seen such opulence. The bed I am lying on is a massive four poster with dark wooden posts, the bedding is soft and luxurious. The room is larger than the apartment I shared with my father for most of my life.

I am still staring when the door on the far end swings open. My breath seizes in my lungs as I stare once more into the bluest eyes I have ever seen. The man with his dark hair in a messy man-bun on top of his head scans his gaze across my face before whistling.

Moments later another man I assume to be his identical twin, and my father step into the room. Tears gather as I stare at the man I thought was dead.

“You’re alive,” I croak, not looking away from him, fearing he may disappear.

“Harlow.” His voice breaks as he rushes to my side.

My father falls to his knees beside my bed, grasping my hand tightly as he sobs, murmuring intelligible words. I allow him this moment, knowing he needs to let it out before we can speak.

“Who are you?” I ask the men warily.

“Harlow!” my father admonishes. “These men saved your life even after I tried to kill them. Show some respect to Sebastian and Julian”

I glare at my father before ripping my hand from his. “If you had kept your promises none of us would be in this situation. This is all”—I twirl my finger in the air to encompass everything—“your fault.”

My father pales, my angry words hitting their mark.

“You are right,” he says with a nod. “But I have found a solution to all our problems.”

He looks so hopeful that I want to believe his words. But I know better, my father’s plans rarely work out for either of us.

“What have you done?” I hiss.

“Your father has agreed to go into a rehabilitation program for his gambling addiction,” one of the men from the door cuts in. “He will be there for thirty days. In that time, you will stay with us. We need a personal assistant.”

“Excuse me?” I tilt my head to the side, my eyebrows raised high on my forehead.

“If your father returns having completed his course, we will settle his outstanding debt,” the other twin says. “If he wishes at that time, we will also provide him with a job.”

“And if he fails?” I ask hesitantly.

“Then he will be banished from Bleakstone, and you will belong to us.”

“What?” I yell, jumping from the bed to stomp toward them. “I’m not a goat you can trade. I deserve to have a choice in the matter.”

“You do,” says the man with the blue eyes. “You are not a prisoner, and you are free to leave whenever you want. But if you do, your father’s debt will remain, plus the charges he incurred when we saved your life.”

“And there may still be some of Pezzo’s men out there looking for both of you,” his brother adds.

I glare at them before turning my ire toward my father.

“If you fuck this up, I will hand you over to whichever Elite-Alpha-asshole-mafia madman you owe money to, with a smile.”

Chapter Four

Day One

Julian

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