Page 16 of Entangled
“Welcome home, sir,” my personal bodyguard Isaac says as I walk through the side door with Soren in my arms. The man is completely unfazed by any of my shenanigans, and this doesn’t seem to be something that will ruffle his feathers, either.
You, my friend, have seen some shit.
I knew if I asked Isaac to tell me about some of his military stories, we’d be talking for days on end.
Again, my friend has seen some shit.
The look in his eyes was evidence enough of that.
Usually he was a wraith, hiding quietly in the shadows while also keeping an eye out, just as I liked it, but every once in a while he liked to make an appearance. He just always seemed to have terrible timing and caught me doing something particularly sketchy.
Like carrying an unconscious woman in my arms.
“Isaac,” I finally returning his greeting and swiftly kicking the door shut behind me. “I assume you got my message about preparing the guest bedroom at the end of the hall.”
“Of course sir,” Isaac nodded, arms crossed in front of him in typical Isaac fashion.
“Perfect,” I replied before making my way up the stairs, Soren still unconscious and peaceful looking.
Despite my arms being full, I somehow managed to open the door. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room before walking through the doorway. Soren jostled in myarms and I felt my blood heat unintentionally at the side of her nightgown riding up her thighs. If the little fabric she was currently wearing could even be called a nightgown.
It was proof of how pitiful my sex life had become when just a flash of skin from an attractive woman was enough to get me going.
I laid Soren down gently on the bed and took the quilt from the chaise next to the fireplace and covered her with it. I was practically tucking her in like a damn child.
I again took in how peaceful she looked as she slept—how gentle her snores were, how her plump lips were slightly parted, and how her long hair laid behind her head like a halo.
And I tried to ignore the bruises and cuts that littered various parts of her body that came to light once her makeup was gone. This was her true face, and as I took her in, I noted that all of her secrets and pain were out in the open for me to see.
And from the look of the split lip she was sporting, the pain was recent.
I felt the beast inside me grow stronger at the sight of it and vowed to burn anyone to the ground for so much as looking at her the wrong way again.
She was in my house now and under my care.
She wasmine.
I hadn’t been able to save my sister from getting caught up in the evil of the crime underworld, and I refused to sit and watch another innocent soul snuffed out by it.
Against my better judgment, and unable to fight the pull any longer, I pulled a chair up next to her bed and took a seat, crossing my arms over one another and my right ankle over my knee. Watching her sleep, paired with the darkness surrounding us, didn’t help and soon I slowly faded away into unconsciousness as well.
7
SOREN
Fuck,my head hurts.
I brought a hand to my head and willed the pounding to stop before slowly opening my eyes.
But it wasn’t my ceiling I was looking at.
And then all the memories came flooding back—the hood over my face, the sickeningly sweet smell that invaded my nostrils, and then the utter darkness that consumed me.
And that voice that still had the ability to send a chill down my spine even now.
So where the fuck am I?
I tried to not make any sudden movements as I did my best to look at my surroundings without fully sitting up. I was in a beautifully designed room, shades of purple and gray everywhere. A stone fireplace with bookshelves on either side and a chaise next to it. It rivaled even my room at home.
