A week later, Alexander Noble picks up the phone and summons Tess to his office. I knew she was in residence when I forced my way into her home to meet with him, but I hadn’t wanted to see her until it was done.
Turns out the conversation with her father took less than ten minutes. He wasn’t given any choice in the matter, but he readily agreed to my proposition nonetheless. That selfish, narcissistic prick was more than happy to give me exactly what I wanted if it meant he wouldn’t die.
Even if it meant sacrificing his own daughter.
Tess walks in with a determined look on her face. She looks like she’s ready for battle when she can’t know what’s about to happen. She’s wearing a baby pink sweater, bell bottom jeans, and a pair of fluffy slippers. Out of her work clothes and evening gowns, she looks warm and comfortable.
Completely pluckable.
I haven’t seen her in a week and something slackens in my stomach at laying eyes on her again. I take note of my body’s reaction with dispassionate interest.
Now that I know the perky tits she has hidden underneath all that cashmere, I want to rip it off her with my teeth.
“You rang, Father?”
She finally spots me standing arms crossed in the far corner of his office and her expression grows first alarmed, then wary. Heat splashes across her cheeks, whether out of surprise or arousal, I’m not sure. She narrows her eyes on me, seeming to forget that her father is still in the room with us.
That is, until he speaks.
“Congratulations, you’re getting married,” Alex declares.
The announcement has her head whipping back around to look at her father.
“What?” She exclaims, bewildered. “To whom?”
“To me, amor.”
I’d made my decision the moment she’d told me the senior citizen who’d danced with her thought he was going to marry her. That was the last time another man was going to touch her.
Outrage twists the features of Tess’s face when she sees my satisfied smile. She looks more horrified than she did standing next to Angelo Leone’s dead body.
She looks away from me, promptly dismissing me to focus her attention back on her father.
My eyelid twitches in response.
I’ll make her pay for that.
“You can’t be serious.”
He stares emotionlessly back at her, saying nothing. Shock makes her voice raise an octave.
“I don’t understand. Why? You said I had a year! It’s only been a month; Tristan isn’t even coming back until the summer. Why did you change your mind?” When he doesn’t answer, focusing back on his papers instead, she continues, words spilling out of her mouth a mile a minute. “I have a job, I have projects, I have plans. You can’t just make this decision without talking to me first!”
I stand quietly aside, watching this all unfold. Noble doesn’t even deign to lift his head and look at her.
When he still doesn’t speak, she rushes towards the desk and slams her hands on the surface to get his attention.
“You can’t do this to me! This is my life.”
“You’re my daughter, which means your life is mine,” he says detachedly. “I decide what to do with it.”
“Please don’t do this,” she begs, changing tactics. “Please.”
Her voice wobbles. If she was asking for anything other than not marrying me, I’d have moved heaven and earth to make it happen for her.
“It’s already done.”
A sob crawls up her throat but she swallows it before any tears fall, much to my chagrin. I want her tears. I want her anger. I want her smiles and her laughter.
I want it all. That’s why I’m taking it all.
Understanding dawns on her face as she seems to grasp the finality of her situation. Still, she refuses to accept it.
“If you’re intent on marrying me off this quickly then please, please, pick someone else. Anybody else. Not him.”
She doesn’t even look at me when she says it. My mood blackens in an instant like a rolling storm thundering through my body and mind.
“He’s a criminal!” Looking at her profile, I can see how panicked her eyes are. They touch on his arm, still wrapped up in a sling. “I-I know what he did to you, Father. I know it wasn’t an accident, that he actually attacked you. I saw him kill a man last week. He’s a murderer and you want me to marry him? Do you not care about me at all?”
I hate how small and brittle her voice sounds. He better not answer her question honestly, even if the answer is painfully obvious – Alex Noble cares only about himself.
I take a step forward and glare at him when his mouth opens to respond. He flinches and looks down at the contract Arturo had drawn up. He signs it and looks back at his daughter.
“If you know that, then you know this tantrum you’re throwing will only lead to unsavory consequences for you. Word of advice? I suggest you do whatever he wants.”
“I suggest you refrain from giving her any advice,” I snap. She’s no longer his to worry about, if he ever did.
Her eyes follow his uninjured hand as he picks up the contract and extends it towards me. Desperation mars her beautiful eyes. She deflates when I take it and smile at the large signature decorating the bottom of the page.
But her fight is back just as swiftly. She shakes her head. “I don’t care what agreement you’ve made or what paperwork you’ve signed. I won’t do it.”
With that, she turns on her heels and stalks out of the office.
“Tess!” Noble shouts after her.
“Let her go,” I order. “I’ll deal with her.”
He nods wordlessly and gives me an anxious look, probably wondering why I’m still here.
“Her job is important to her,” I note. “She gets to keep it.”
“But I–”
“She gets,” I repeat slowly, looming over him and setting a menacing hand on his shoulder, “to keep it.”
“Y-yes.”
I fold the contract and tuck it into the inside pocket of my jacket, keeping the paperwork that proves Tess is mine close to the thundering beat in my chest.
“This is only the first part, Noble. I expect payment for the interest portion to be sent to me by end of day.”
“I will.”
Marco walks into the office with his machete hanging loosely by his side and gives Alex a sadistic grin. I clasp his shoulder and look back at Noble. “You remember Marco from our little visit to your office. He’s going to stay with you until it’s done. Consider it my insurance policy in case you have a change of heart.”
With the debt settled and the financials ironed out, I leave and go in search of my runaway fiancée.
