Page 24 of Stitched Up in You
“Since you like to toy and play with your existence by testing me repeatedly the way you do, I now own you,” he says, his gravelly British accent doing things to my middle that I refuse to identify.
“Bullshit, you don’t own me, and you most definitely have some issues if you think I’m going to listen to anything you say. You. Kidnapped. Me.” I bite out between clenched teeth.
“After you hacked my company, which caused an entire breach resulted in thousands of man hours lost and more money than you can fathom,” he replies calmly.
I avert my gaze, unable to hold his scornful stare when I did do that, and we both know I did.
“To pay for what you have done and your new multi-million-dollar debt to me, you are going to track down every shipment that I have ever shipped from this company. If it left any of the walls I own, I want to know about it,” he says, a new seriousness to his tone that hasn’t been there until now. “Or I will alert the authorities and tell every news channel about thepathetic woman who was so desperate she stole millions from a children’s cancer fund.”
My jaw hits the floor and my arms fall. “I did not.”
“DB 2917 subsidiaries that you pulled from, was in transition to being allocated for the children’s research fund, and you took it,” he says, a furious light in his gaze.
The blood rushes from my face at the implication and the leather seat squeaks loudly as I move in place. Whether it was for a humanitarian effort or not, I would never steal from kids.
Not only that, but the media would also eat me alive, and I would most certainly go to jail.Oh my god. I quickly think back. He’s lying.
I recall seeing the children’s fund he’s talking about, and it wasn’t under the DB whatever the hell he’s talking about. “You’re lying. I know I didn’t touch a kid’s fund, I even remember seeing it,” I say.
“Who’s going to prove me wrong?” he replies, lifting his brow.
I go still.
“You’re going to come with me, to be on hand when Mikael needs you, and you will follow my every order. You will eat and sleep when I say, you will dress as I say, and you will work when I say,” he continues.
“What? Hold on, you can’t be serious?” I sputter. This dude is completely off his rocker.
I force out a fake laugh and practically lie back in the chair, tossing my legs over one arm and smile up at him. “You’ve got jokes,” I tell him, even as my pulse skitters, my heartbeat outdoing even a hummingbird at this point.
When he steps closer to his chair, hedging me in, I have never been more scared or turned on in my life.
He looks down at me, with a deadened stare, as he pets my fluffy gray kitty. “Obey me now, or I will destroy you andeveryone and everything you’ve ever loved,” he says, the words like a nail to a coffin of my soul, wrapping around me like a vice. A bolt of lightning strikes outside the window, causing me to fairly jump right out of my skin. The light crashes, throwing Frank into a silhouette, making him look even larger and more ominous than ever before.
“I don’t do well with being locked up, sorry. And no matter how pretty a room is, a prison is still a prison,” I say, rising up to my feet to reach for Edgar.
Frank doesn’t have to move much to pull him just out of my reach.
“Just so we are clear, youwillpay for what you’ve done, and that means working for me for as long as I deem it necessary,” he says, “You see, I don’t need to put you in a room, or a prison, Miss Crenshaw, because if you’re not where I need you to be when I need it— well consider your life and your employment one and the same.”
He turns and heads for the door, my mind still reeling.
“So, what’s it going to be, Miss Crenshaw?” he asks.
Defeat is a hard pill to swallow. As I don’t want to, I’m definitely going to use my get out of jail free card, no matter what it looks like. “Where to boss?” I ask.
I follow him silently into the elevator on our way down, inwardly wondering if perhaps he had different protocols in place to keep the building going. A frown pulls between my brows at the rainbow color display, the fountain in front of Talbot Global, working like its business as usual. The lights cascade around the room, entering from the glass walls and front lobby doors. Once we reach the silver-inlaid front lobby doors, I want to fall onto the ground like a child having a tantrum at the sight of my cat being loaded in a car.
“Hey,” I shout, when I’m quickly penned in behind Frank and his goons. I try to beeline for where they’re taking Edgar, but thebig man himself stops me. It appears I’m to ride with the asshole whether I like it or not.
I freeze like a deer in the headlights when cameras begin to flash. Brightness floods my gaze as I try and fail to locate where it’s all coming from as people start to shout, and the craziest most hairbrained scheme ever barrels into my mind.This is fucking nuts.
A thrill of anticipation goes up my spine. On impulse, I make my move.
I grab at Frank Stein’s suit where it stops at his hips and tug with all of my might. Just as I had anticipated, he stumbles just before righting himself, and I take advantage, throwing myself into his arms. I fling my arms around his neck before planting my lips against his and slamming my eyes shut.
Cameras go wild as voices raise into shrieks and yells.
He makes a garbled sound, and I raise my head, giving him a soft smile and a wink as confusion overtakes his expression.
