Page 55 of Captured Pawn
His “Where are you going?” was drowned out by my “What are you doing here?”
“You first,” he prompted.
“It’s five. I’m going home.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
His question annoyed me. “Does it matter?” I answered, biting off the rest of the snarky response I wanted to say.
“Of course it matters.”
I wished I could believe him. But since I honestly didn’t have the first clue where I would be going once I left the only home I’d known, it was easy to avoid the subject. Instead, I asked, “What? Did Pops need the night off tonight or something? You get stuck on babysitting duty?”
“The team isn’t babysitting you, Sophie. They’re protecting you.”
“Same thing,” I replied, crossing over to the main checkout counter to turn off the laptop. It gave me something to do other than stare at how fucking fantastic he looked in his simple jeans and black T-shirt. To look at him, it was impossible to know he’d been shot only three weeks ago.
“I know somewhere you should go,” Nick said, sounding cryptic.
“Oh? Where’s that?”
I could feel a seed of hope growing as I waited for his response, but I pushed the hope aside. I wasn’t the same innocent girl I’d been before Matty died. Life wasn’t a fairytale where a knight—no pun intended—in shining armor was coming to sweep me off my feet.
“Tonight’s Waterfall. I made you miss the last one.”
He’d remembered. I didn’t know how to feel about that. “I don’t want to go alone,” I said, knowing going without Matty would be too hard. His loss was too fresh.
“I don’t want you to go alone either,” he answered, his smile growing.
Butterflies took flight in my tummy. He had that effect on me, but I’d be damned if I’d let him see. “I guess having the security detail trailing behind me does count as not being alone.”
“That’s not exactly what I had in mind,” he said before walking to a previously unseen basket sitting on the floor near the door and adding, “Margaret packed us a small picnic dinner. She said she stocked it with all of your and Matt’s favorites.”
Unwanted tears blurred my vision remembering the kindness and love Margaret had shown both me and my brother. I barely had memories of my own mother, but in my fairytale version of her that lived only in my head, she’d been a lot like the kind housekeeper.
He picked up the basket before returning his gaze to mine expectantly. It was so tempting to say yes. To enjoy one last Waterfall before moving away for good. But with a rare clarity, I knew going wouldn’t help at all. It wouldn’t bring Matt back, and it certainly wouldn’t resolve the complicated feelings Nick Knight stirred inside me.
“Don’t worry, Nick. You don’t need to show up here with your pity offerings. I know Matt asked you to protect me, but you should keep delegating that job to your employees.”
My anger at being used and then tossed aside was bubbling up and erupting with my biting words. The fact that Nick flinched told me he’d gotten my message loud and clear.
The small smile he’d been sporting fell away. The scowl of anger that replaced it felt more familiar to me.
“I’m not here as part of some pity offering,” he bit back.
“Oh? Then what possible other reason is there? You made it clear you needed me gone. I’m doing what you told me to do!” I shouted, grateful that my anger was banishing the threatening tears.
He ran his fingers through his hair—just one of his tells I’d noticed when he got frustrated. When he didn’t say anything, I practically shouted, “Why are you here? If it’s out of some sense of duty to Matt, I’ll help you out. You can consider your promise to him kept. Now you can slink off back to your beach house and…”
My voice choked, and I was unable to say the final words I’d wanted to say. That he could go back and put all of those sex toys to use with the unending string of women who were waiting to watch themselves be pleasured in the wall of mirrors in his bedroom.
I couldn’t say those words because it hurt too much to admit that I’d allowed myself to be another pawn in the games he liked to play with the women in his life. And right now, I didn’t know which hurt me more—being thought of as Matt’s annoying baby sister or being another notch on his bedpost.
“Dammit… why do you have to make everything so complicated?” he shouted, finally ditching his cool veneer along with the basket of food that crashed to the floor.
“Me? I did nothing to set any of this into motion. You’re the one who kidnapped me… turned me into a felon… did things to my body…”
Shut up, Sophie. Don’t let him see how much he hurt you.
