Chapter 6

I've never been this fucking anxious in my life. With every minute that passes and Tia still isn't awake, I worry I used too much of that shit Cason swears would work.

Pacing back and forth in front of the bed where she sleeps, I regret listening to him. Even more, I regret having to take this drastic step. Why couldn't she just come with me? All I was trying to do was keep her safe. Christ, you'd think I was trying to hurt her.

At least I was able to handle her parents better. They're nice, and those kinds of people never dream someone is lying to them. Tia definitely comes by her trusting nature naturally.

They'll be enjoying a first-class trip to Italy that will keep them preoccupied and away from here for at least a month. I hope Ryker puts his plan into action in that time and gets rid of Victor. I can afford to keep them in Europe for longer than the next four weeks, but getting them to agree to it will be another thing entirely.

I stop at the foot of the bed and watch to see if Tia moves at all. Fuck. Cason told me this stuff would only last for a few hours. Did I give her too much? Damnit, she needs to wake the fuck up right now.

Another five minutes go by with no movement at all, so I walk around the bed and gently nudge her shoulder to move things along. At least that's what I hope it will do. Since I've never used this stuff before, I have no idea what the hell is going to happen.

She doesn't respond to the first nudge, so I give her shoulder another one. She's breathing. I can see by how her chest rises and falls that she's taking air in and letting it out.

So why the fuck isn't she coming out of it?

I return to pacing, hoping at any minute she'll wake up, but when ten more minutes go by, I can't wait any longer. I sit down on the bed next to her and give her a little shake. Nothing too much but hopefully enough to get her out of it.

Her eyelids flutter ever so slightly, but she still doesn't wake up. Christ, am I going to have to take her to the hospital? That'll be fun. I'll have to pretend some asshole at a club drugged her so they don't arrest my damn ass right on the spot.

When I get my hands on Cason, I'm going to fucking smack the shit out of him.

I try again to shake Tia, this time a little rougher, and finally her eyes slowly open. I don't think I've ever felt so relieved in my life. My heart stops racing, and I sit back to take a deep breath.

"Where am I?" she quietly asks as she looks around the strange room we're in.

"It's okay. I'm here, Tia," I say, leaning forward to kiss her softly on the lips.

I never get to because she slaps me across the face so hard I nearly see stars. Falling back onto the bed, I shake my head as I rub the spot she hit. I had no idea she had it in her.

"What did you do?" she angrily demands.

Sitting up, I smile at her. "You're going to be fine. Are you hungry?"

Tia slowly lifts herself up and glares at me. "Am I hungry? You son of a bitch! You drugged me and kidnapped me, didn't you?"

I tilt my head left and right as I try to find the right words to say. "Kidnapped is such an ugly term. Let's say I did what needed to be done to make sure you were safe and leave it at that."

Her eyes flash pure rage, and she kicks her feet against my side before swinging her legs off the bed. "The word is kidnapped, Jaxon. Don't try to sugarcoat it. I can't believe you did this. It wasn't enough that you came back and turned my life upside down. For days, I was looking over my shoulder wondering when you would show up. Let me guess. You got in when I left my front door unlocked that day I was bringing in groceries. Jesus, Jaxon. You promised me you'd never do anything like this. Remember that, or is that not something you want to talk about?"

Her legs give out as soon as her feet hit the floor, so I quickly scoop her up into my arms and set her back down on the bed. "We can talk about anything you want. I just need you to take things slow for a few minutes, okay?"

She continues to glare angrily at me as she looks around the room. "What did you give me? Where are we? I need to get out of here to see my parents. Or did you kidnap them too?"

I smile, hoping to defuse the tension between us. "No, I didn't kidnap them. They're enjoying a vacation to Italy. I hired a tour guide to take them to all the best spots, and they're going to be staying in first-class hotels all the way. Trust me. They're going to have a great time. They loved the idea. I took a shot that Italy would be a great place to visit for them, so I guess I got lucky."

Tia shakes her head and grimaces. "You should assume that's the last time you'll get lucky with anyone in my family. Now where the hell have you taken me? You know I have work. If I don't show up, they're going to fire me."

"I took care of that too. You're sick. Mono. Sucks, but you're going to need about a month to recover."

Confusion fills her expression, which is so much better than the pure anger she's been giving me every second since she woke up. "How did you do that?"

"I have a doctor who?—"

Before I can answer, she shakes her head again and holds up her hand to stop me. "Don't bother. I don't want to know. I guess you figure since you have more money than God that you can just pull this kind of shit and everyone will be fine with it. So my parents are touring Italy for God knows how long, and I get to stay here in Chez Hostage with you. Well, forget it. Nope. Not happening."

She stands up again, and this time she doesn't fall straight to the floor, so she storms out of the bedroom. I follow and find her in the kitchen looking in the refrigerator. Good. I was thinking I might have to stop her from leaving the house.

"I can have something made for you. Just tell me and I'll get the cook to whip it up. She's quite good. My uncle found her in this tiny restaurant right outside of Baltimore slaving away for next to nothing and stole her away on the spot."

Tia leans back and looks around the refrigerator door at me like I said something bizarre. Her eyes narrowed to angry slits, she asks, "So is this a family trait? Stealing people away from their happy lives to come stay with you people? You should try a dog and leave us all alone."

"You know what I mean. The woman was working in a crappy job, so he offered her a job as a cook for him."

"Then what is she doing here? By the way, where is here? I need to know when I decide to leave."

I can't help smiling at how feisty she is right now. It's one of the million things I love about Tia.

"She's here because he didn't think I'd want to cook. He was right."

As she slams the refrigerator door shut, she mumbles, "How nice. Wealthy psychos."

"As for where here is, we're right outside of Philly. It's a house that's in my family that they don't mind me using for my purposes."

Tia shakes her head in disgust. "Your money never bothered me before today, but I think it's pissing me off. You have houses at your disposal where you can take someone you kidnap and a cook who comes with the deal. How nice for you. If you don't mind, though, I'll be leaving. I have a life to get back to."

When she moves to step around me, I stop her by gently grabbing her wrist. I don't want to hurt her, but I can't let her leave. Not until I know it's safe.

She looks down at where my hand holds her arm and then up at me, her eyes full of rage again. "Let go of me. Now."

With a shake of my head, I give her my answer. "You'll stay here until you're no longer in danger."

"From the part of your family that doesn't have money to burn and chefs to steal."

I don't know why her attack on my family bothers me, but I snap back, "You wouldn't be in this position if you hadn't dated my cousin first, Tia. Don't blame me for your bad choices."

Her shoulders sag as I finish speaking, and she sighs. "Nice. How long have you been waiting to bring that up, Jaxon? Like anyone ever asks to be kidnapped twice."

"You weren't kidnapped the first time," I say, needing to correct her for some reason.

What the hell does it matter what she calls it? The end result is the same.

Once again, she's forced to stay with me, only this time it's because I can't bear the thought of her getting hurt because Victor wants to be an asshole to the rest of the family.

Tia frowns and sighs again. "Right. I was just tricked. This time is the kidnapping. Do any of the people in your family simply have normal relationships?"

I think about how Ryker got together with Kaia and Cason got with Lily and shake my head. "Not really. Occupational hazard, I guess."

She tugs her arm away and walks toward the living room mumbling, "I guess bad men don't do things like the rest of us. How lucky for me."

Once again, I follow her and hope we can move past this angry part of our time together. I know she still loves me. I just need to make her remember that.

"So you're not hungry?"

Spinning around to face me, she laughs. "I don't believe for a second you have a chef here to cook for us. I looked around that kitchen, Jaxon. Gorgeous, to say the least, with all the stainless steel appliances and that gas range that's definitely chef level, but there's no food in the damn refrigerator. Why do you feel you have to lie to me? Is it to make me think you're a nice guy? Because that ship sailed the moment you took me from my apartment and kidnapped me!"

So much for getting past the anger.

"She's at the store. You'll see when she gets back."

"Then why did you say she could whip up something for me if she's not here? You must think I'm a total idiot. I bet this kind of thing works with people who don't pay much attention to what's said around them. I'm not one of those people, you know."

I take a step toward her and stop when she throws me the nastiest look I've ever seen. "I know you're not. I promise I'm not lying. You'll see. And for what it's worth, I love that you're smart. I just think you could believe in me a little more. We were together for a long time."

Of course, she doesn't miss a beat before saying, "Until you broke up with me."

Jesus, I can't deal with this for the next month.

"Fine. I broke up with you. Yes, I did that. I told you why, and whether you believe me or not, that's the truth. I'm not going to keep trying to make you understand. It happened and that's it."

As I talk, her expression gets angrier and angrier until I'm pretty sure she wants to hit me. Marching over to where I stand, she pokes her finger into my chest as she shakes her head.

"Nope. You don't get to be like that, Jaxon. You were the jackass who left me, not the other way around. I'm not okay with the it happened bullshit. Own your behavior. If you're going to be a bad man, then be a bad fucking man, but don't expect me or anyone else to be okay with it."

I truly love this woman, but at this moment, all I can think of doing is stopping her from talking so at least she might be able to remember how much she loved me before we broke up. It's never going to happen if all we do is argue, so it's time for more drastic measures.

We stare into one another's eyes for a long moment before I lift her up and throw her over my shoulder. She wants me to be a bad man? Okay. It's my nature, so I'm all in on that.

She complains the entire way back to the bedroom, but I'm not listening anymore. It's time for me to remind her of one of the things that made us so great together.