CHAPTER TWO:
1362 Words
Note to self; don’t get killed, it f*****g sucks.
CAMERON
I look around me but no one is laughing.
“You’re joking.” I finally say.
But Earl doesn’t look away. “I am not really the sort of man who makes jokes.”
I reach across the space and place my palm across his forehead.
His eyes nearly double but completely shocked at my audacity, he does not pull away.
“What are you doing?”
“Checking if you have a fever. I’ve heard meningitis can cause hallucinations and psychosis.”
“Cameron.” He growls in warning but the situation is so absurd that I seem to have temporarily forgotten any sense of self preservation.
“You’re asking me to be your wife” I finally blurt and he nods, like it is the most natural thing in the world.
“Yes”
“After ramming a car into my taxi and almost killing me so you can bring me tied up and blindfolded to some secret office where you proceed to call me a w***e for throwing myself at you?”
He doesn’t even have the decency to look away. “Yes.
I gasp, my hands flying to my chest. “Oh, why didn’t you say so earlier. I’ve always wanted to marry a raging homicidal maniac who’s not quite right in the head. Where’s the Priest?”
Earl pulls away, frowning. “I do not take kindly to being mocked.”
“And you will find Earl that most women do not take kindly to being tied up and held against their will.”
I swear I hear someone gasp.
His eyes narrow into slits and my fear returns like a tidal wave.
Time to shut up now.
He stares down at me, his gaze cold and unyielding. “I will forgive this foolishness and chuck it up to your accident.”
“You mean the one you caused?”
Okay what part of shut up did my brain not understand?
“This is my offer.”
Someone brings a blue folder to him and he takes it without looking to hand it to me.
Inside the folder is a check with more zeros than I've ever seen in my life.
“Five million dollars.” He announces in a flat tone. “I will pay you five million dollars. Two point five now, two point five after the deal is done.”
“This is insane. “ I manage to whisper, shaking my head but I might as well have been talking to the wind.
“and in return, you will agree to marry and live with me for the period of one full year. All your needs within that year will be met beyond your wildest imaginations. You will have a car and a driver assigned to you and…”
“No.”
I think I hear another quiet gasp.
Earl leans into his chair, his eyes still watching my every move. “What?”
I toss the folder back into the table in front of him. “ I said no.”
“Miss Waters…”
“You’re asking me to marry you, a stranger who stages accidents to kidnap women and is starting to look more and more like a drug lord with each passing second.”
His eyes flash. “Do not ever interrupt me again. But yes, I believe I am.”
“Then you have asked and that is my answer. I would never, ever marry you.”
He doesn’t respond. Not immediately.
He just stares at me until I have no choice but to stare back.
My heart is pounding but I can’t tell if it’s the fear, or something entirely different.
Dear god he really is beautiful.
Abruptly, he turns his chair away from me.
“You’re free to go.”
I glance from him to the rest of the bodyguards around the room. “What?”
He lifts his hand. “I said you may leave.”
He must think I’m stupid or dumb.
“Is this some sort of trick,” I eventually ask, biting my lip. “Are you going to stick a knife in my back the minute I turn my back, or wrap a piece of rope around my throat?”
He stares at me, brow raised. “Jesus…no. “ and then he waves his hand.“You are free to go.”
I get up slowly.
“However.”
“I knew it.”
“If you walk out of those doors then I’m afraid I will have no choice but to kill your parents, you know to keep you quiet.”
I stumble backwards. No.
“You bastard.” I croak, false laughter in my voice. “My parents are dead.”
“Oh I don’t mean the ones who birthed you Cameron. I mean the ones who raised you. What were their names again?”
He asks, snapping his fingers and one of the guards leans forward.
“Grace and Herb.”
Earl claps his hand, grinning at me. “Yes. Dear Grace and Dear Herb.”
And in that moment, I hate him more than I have hated anyone in my entire life.
“f**k you.”
“Sit.”
I sink back into my chair.
He rubs his hands together. “Now where were we?”
The doors burst open.
We both turn towards the sound and for the second time this night, my heart stops all over again.
“Oh my f*****g God what did you do to her?”
Earl frowns. “You’re late.”
“I’m sorry.” She says to him, tossing her bag on the table “Traffic was a b***h. Some i***t had an accident and blocked up the road.”
No, no it can’t be.
I swallow, shaking my head. I refuse to believe it. I just can’t.
She floats across the room still dressed in the same coat she had worn this evening as I sat across from her and told her about the wonderful man I just met.
She crouches in front of me. “Darling I’m so sorry.” Then she whirls on Earl. “You said you wouldn’t hurt her.”
But Earl simply rolls his eyes. “She’s fine as you can see.”
No, No I most definitely am not fine.
I stare down into the pouting face of the person I have called my best friend for the better part of an entire year, shaking my head.
“I don’t…I don’t understand. Rose?”
Rose straightens and just as Earl smirks again.
“Miss Waters I believe you know my sister, Rosalind Salvatore.”
Dear god above.
My chest tightens.
I do not recall the day I met Rose but I remember where.
The little cafe with its black and white marble floors, stained gray tabletops and uncomfortable chairs.
Their coffee was as delicious as bathwater and their hamburger sandwich could give a pot of salmonella a run for its money.
Yet its utter and complete lack of wandering eyes, or probing “Oh you must be new to town” questions is why when I had first moved here a few years ago, I had almost immediately fallen in love.
Then one day I had walked in and perched on my stool wearing a jacket that was three times too large and a shirt four times too small, was Rose in all her dark haired vixen goodness.
I wasn’t in town to make friends or get to know anyone.
In fact I had crossed state lines, tossed my phone and snapped my SIM cards to make sure exactly that did not happen.
But it turns out not only was she as stubborn as a mule, the only person who hated the sight of other people more than Rose was a green, furred covered monster that stole all the kids' gifts at christmas.
She had made me her personal project and the rest, as they say, is history.
And now here I am looking at her calling the man who had just kidnapped me brother.
- Writer
