I didn't move when his hand dropped away from my face. I sat frozen against the headboard, my fingers gripping the sheets so hard they ached. My cheek still burned from his touch, though I wasn't sure if it was from the wound or the heat of his skin.
He straightened, looming over me, the storm in his eyes impossible to read. My heart thundered so loud it drowned out my thoughts.
"Why are you doing this?" I finally whispered, the words ripping out of me. "Why am I here?"
For a long moment, he said nothing. The silence stretched, thick and suffocating. Then he moved toward the window, his hands clasped loosely behind his back as though he had all the time in the world.
"You don't recognize me, do you?" His voice was calm, too calm.
I frowned, confusion knotting in my chest. "Uhmmmm…..Should I, I'm I supposed to?"
He turned then, and the faintest hint of a smirk ghosted across his mouth. It wasn't kind. It wasn't even amused. It was cruel.
"Alexander Cross," he said simply, like it was supposed to mean something.
And then the name hit me like a punch. My stomach dropped. My breath caught in my throat.
I knew that name. Everyone did. The billionaire. The tycoon who'd built an empire out of nothing. Ruthless. Unstoppable. Dangerous. The man who had singlehandedly torn apart my father's company years ago, leaving us in ruins. The name that had hovered like a shadow over my family ever since.
I stared at him, numb. "You….." My voice broke. "You're lying."
"Am I?" His brows lifted, and he stepped closer again. "You really don't remember me. That's almost insulting."
I shook my head violently, pressing back harder against the bed. "I don't…..no, I don't know you."
"Oh, you knew me once," he said softly, almost like he was savoring it. "Your father knew me very well. Your mother, too. In fact, they owed me so much by the end, I was surprised they managed to keep a roof over your head."
The floor seemed to tilt beneath me. My hands trembled against the sheets. "Debt?"
His smile deepened, sharp and merciless. "A mountain of it. All in your mother and father's name. And now… in yours."
I shook my head, tears pricking at my eyes. "No, no. She…..she never told me. They couldn't have…"
"She didn't," he cut in, his voice cold. "Because she knew what it would mean. She knew eventually the debt would come due."
My throat closed. Grief and fury twisted inside me until I could barely breathe. "So what? You send your men to kidnap me? You have me locked in some….some stupid gilded cage because of a debt I didn't even know existed?"
"Yes." The word was simple, final, as if it explained everything.
I stared at him, horror clawing through me. "You're fucking insane if you think you can just hold me here forever, I know people they come to look for me when they haven't seen me for a while." Shit saying that I thought of Ian he'll probably be worried sick looking for me now, he'll call and when I don't answer he'll come over and if he sees the broken door and gunshot piercing the wall and God the blood on the floor from my cheek, he'll assume the worst.
He didn't even flinch. Didn't blink. He only stepped closer again until he was standing over me, his shadow falling across the bed.
"You belong to me now, Isabella, your parents owed me" he said softly, like a vow. "And I always collect what I'm owed."