King for a Day (23 page)

Con-con-cede what?

“That you are mine. Not because of the mark, but because your body and soul wish it.”

I wasn’t sure that’s what I wished. I mean—yes, my body wanted him in so many wrong ways, but my brain was still telling me not to trust him. He was a man who would do anything to get what he wanted. He was also damaged. Perhaps beyond repair. I wasn’t sure.

What if I don’t want that, King? What if I do not want to be yours?

He smiled and then rubbed his lips lightly over my cheek again as if he couldn’t get enough. “If you give me what I want, then I will give you what you want.”

I turned my head and met his eyes.
Did you just say what I think?

He kissed me lightly on the lips. “Yes. One night with me, and then you may choose.”

He was obviously one hundred percent confident that I wouldn’t leave him. Because King never made a deal he wasn’t prepared to keep.

Deal
.
Besides, I might not get out of this. But it’s nice to have something to look forward to if I do.

King chuckled softly in my ear. “Oh, I look forward to it, too.”

I rolled my eyes.
I meant my freedom.

“You won’t leave me, Miss Turner. You like being mine just as much as I enjoy owning you.”

I took a step back and stared at him, wondering how much more complex we could possibly make things between us.
So now what? Vaughn could be back at any moment.

King stood up straight. “Do you want to return? Do you trust me?”

I sighed.
I want to, but that’s not how trust works.

“Then tell me what more you need.” He again placed his hand on the back of my neck so I couldn’t avoid his powerful gaze.

I don’t know. More time?

I felt King’s fingers twitch. “Do you know why I chose you, Mia?”

I shook my head no.

“Because you are brave. Brave enough to stand up against me. Brave enough to hope for a man like me. Brave enough to go up against people who could crush you like a fly, all for someone you care about. You are far braver than I. So now, you need to be brave once again and take a leap of faith.”

I wanted to. Hell, my life was on the line. But could I trust him enough for this to work?

What will happen to me when I’m—
I swallowed—
dead?

“I do not know.”

How long will it take for me to come back?

“A day or two. But that is a guess.”

And if it works? What will happen when I wake up?

“You will call Mack. You will tell him what has happened, and he will come get you.”

And then what? What about you?

“I will be fine. There is nothing that Vaughn can do to me that hasn’t already been done.”

I’m not leaving you here to rot.

King’s face turned into an angry scowl. “You are not, and I repeat, not to do anything foolish, Mia. Mack will take you somewhere safe. You are to stay there.”

Indefinitely?

“I hope not, but if necessary.”

But my parents and Justin—

“Vaughn will believe you are dead. If he finds out you are alive, he will come after you. He will kill you on the spot. You are to stay out of sight.”

I saw his point. Of course I did. But leaving King or anyone to hang out to dry wasn’t my style. I’d rather die than hide while that psycho Vaughn hurt them.

I know I’m not like you and Vaughn. I don’t know how to think like a cruel person, and I can’t even begin to understand the ins and outs of the Club, but I promise, I’ll be careful
. My mistake last time was in believing I could play on their terms and go head to head. I thought I could be King for a day. But that was a completely naïve and ridiculous assumption. No one could be King except King.

King grabbed my wrist. “No. Mia. You will stay away. I forbid you to get involved again.”

But—

King gave me a little shake. “Let the chips fall, Mia. Let fate decide who lives and who dies.”

I’m changing subjects now.

“No!” he yelled. “You are to call Mack and do as you are told, Miss Turner.”

Ha! See. Now you’re going to ask me to trust you? And you know what? I do! I trust you to be a complete arrogant ass. I trust that you will always default to seeing me as your property.

“Because you are,” he growled.

I don’t know what time you’re from, King, but in this day and age, women aren’t pets. Your days of barbarianism are over! I own me. I decide what to do with my life.

“I don’t give a fuck about your modern-day ideals,” he yelled. “You will do as you are told, or I will pun—”

“Don’t you dare!” I stuck my finger in his face. “Don’t you dare say
it
, or so help me, I will kick that giant ghosty dick of yours so hard that—”

King unexpectedly smiled at me and then began to laugh. Not like a little chuckle or snicker, but a double over, can’t get a breath sort of laugh.

“What?” I said, but then replayed my words. I’d told him that I would kick his giant ghosty dick.

“Okay. Okay.” Then I started to laugh, too. “I’m not very good at insults, am I?” I snorted.

“No. In fact, you flatter me and my giant dick.” He stood up straight, still chuckling, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye.

“Did I make you cry? This is embarrass—” My thought was cut short by something I saw: King’s light flickered to green again, but this time it stayed that way.

I gasped.
Oh my God.

“What?” He continued shaking his head, chuckling the words “ghosty dick.”

You just turned green. Bright green.

His smile melted away. “Yes, I believe I feel it.”

We stared at each other for a quiet moment. I don’t know what he was thinking about, or if he was simply listening in on my thoughts, but I was struck with awe. I saw a glimmer of that man—whole, happy, full of life—he once was before his existence turned into a living hell. I don’t think I’d ever seen anything more beautiful than him in that moment.

The rattle of the gate outside the room broke our attention. King’s color instantly shifted back to purple, and his expression returned, cold and callous. He rushed to the door, slammed it shut, and leaned in with both hands. “Fucking hell.”

We were out of time.

I stood there staring at his broad back; his head hung low between his arms. It was now or never.

“I just saw what I needed, King. So do it.” Knowing that a part of the man he once was still lived validated my hope that I wasn’t crazy for caring about him. And King had been wrong. It wasn’t the dark part of me that wanted him; it was the good part of me. It saw that he wasn’t completely lost to his curse.

“Do it. Quickly. Before he puts you to sleep.” I placed my hands on his back, but he didn’t move. “King, it’s okay, I promise. I want to come back.”
The ring will work.

“Where are my little pets?” Vaughn called out for us. “I have a treat for you.”

King let out a breath and turned toward me, pressing his back against the door. He looked at me with those beautiful gray eyes, and I saw genuine fear in them.

I smiled and placed my hand on his cheek. “Now is not the time for doubts.” I stood up on my tippy toes and reached my lips up to his mouth.

King tensed at first, but then, like a switch had been thrown, he kissed me back, cupping my face between his hands. His lips moved over mine, needy and desperate. Our tongues slid against the other’s in frantic, delicious swirls. He pulled away, and I saw nothing but purple inside his pupils. Pain and sorrow.

“I will see you on the other side, Mia.”

I blinked and felt the horrific sensation of King slipping inside my body. The agony, the hell living inside him, was now inside me. I felt the unsettling sensation of him wrapping around my heart.

I gasped. Buried somewhere beyond the pain was the sensation of King embracing me gently from within, stroking my heart and telling me not to be afraid.

The door flew open, and Vaughn’s sickening smile greeted me. His dress shirt was covered with blood, and his pants were unbuttoned. “There you are, Miss Turner. Ready for a little fun?”

I opened my mouth and screamed as a jabbing pain hit my chest. My knees buckled, and I collapsed to the floor. I felt my body trying desperately to fight back against what was happening to it, but it was useless.

“No!” Vaughn screamed like a child who’d been robbed of his favorite toy. “You can’t do this! You owe me screaming. You owe me a special night!”

I smiled and closed my eyes, allowing the life to drain from my body.

“You fucking bitch! I’ll find your little brother, Miss Turner. He will take your place!”

The room turned dark.

CHAPTER
FIFTEEN

Honestly, I was hoping for more—an out-of-body experience, the ability to travel anywhere I liked, a glimpse of the infamous light. Didn’t happen. When I opened my eyes again, I was surrounded by darkness, my body wet, sticky, and encased in some sort of plastic. The only experience I got was two lungs screaming for air.

I pushed my hands through a small opening near my face and spread it wider, gasping for clean air. There was none available.

I reached to find cool, smooth steel. Same as what was underneath.
Where am I?

My fingertips continued to explore the sides and right angles of the tightly confined space.

Fuck. I’m in a meat locker! In a goddamned body bag!
These were King’s instructions to the body disposal service?

I screamed in horror and pounded my fists against the metal walls. “Let me out! Help!” I searched with my hands for a latch or hinge or anything near my head. Nothing. Maybe it was down by my feet, but there was no way to turn my body. “Let me out!” I shimmied down and kicked hard.

Then it struck me. Where was I? Who would be there to open the door? Was I still in Vaughn’s house? Had he even called the disposal service? My heart pounded like a drum of doom inside my chest as I tried to calm myself.

The door swung open at my feet. A man jumped back, cursing in a language I didn’t recognize but sounding just as terrified as me. That was a great sign because it couldn’t be Vaughn or anyone in his crew. They wouldn’t be freaked out.

“He-hello? Can you please let me out?”

More foreign words that sounded like cursing.

I pushed against the surface near my head and propelled the platform out. I sat up and savored the air filling my lungs.

The man in blue scrubs, who looked to be in his thirties, held a shiny scalpel in his shaking hand.

“It’s okay. Just…calm down.”
Fuck, I’m the one who just came back from the dead. I should be freaking out.
The smell of death and ocean coated my skin as did sand and salt. More than anything, I wanted to shower and get into some clean, comfortable clothes. And to get the hell out of there. First, I needed to call Mack. But there was something else I was forgetting. Something important…My memory clicked into place.

Fuck…Justin! Justin! Oh no.
Vaughn was going to go after my brother as punishment. And God only knew what Vaughn might do to King, too. Or try to do, anyway. The man had been furious—furious!—about being robbed of his special night with me.

The mortician spoke, but I didn’t understand a word.

“I’m Mia.” I pointed to myself. “Do you have a phone?” I gestured a phone with my hand to show him what I meant. “Phone call?”

He hesitantly nodded yes and pointed to a desk in the corner. He said something else, but I didn’t understand. I wiggled out of the horribly disturbing body bag—
ohmyGod
—and hopped up from the table.

Eyes bulging with disbelief, he held out the hand piece.

“Thank you.” I nodded and smiled tensely.

I immediately called Justin, but it went into his voice mail as usual. “Dammit, Justin. Answer your goddamned phone! Vaughn is coming for you. And…shit. If you get this, don’t tell anyone—
anyone
—that you got a message from me.”

Fuck.
I hung up, thinking that Mack might know what to do or how to track down my brother.

I was about to dial, but then realized I didn’t know Mack’s number. I only knew King’s cell and the number for the office. I tried both, but no one answered either.

“Shit.” Who else could I call?

Becca
. She was my best friend since I was little. If I could trust anyone, it would be her. But if I called, it could possibly drag her into all this.

I had an idea.

I dialed her number, and it rang several times. I almost gave up hope, but the heavenly sound of her groggy voice blessed my eardrums. “Helloooo,” she yawned.

“Becca. It’s me, Mia.”

“Mia? Oh my God. Where the hell are you?”

“I don’t know, but I need your help. I need you to hire a courier and deliver this phone number. Can you see it on your caller ID?”