King for a Day (5 page)

I supposed that, like me, Mack had a strange loyalty to King. Then I wondered how evil King could really be if two good people saw enough redeeming qualities in the man to care about him.

Maybe
we
are King’s redeeming qualities.

I looked back down at the ring in my hand and noticed it had an unusual shimmer to it, just like the one in that crown. But what did I know about diamonds other than this one was huge?
And King wanted me to find it.
There was no way any of this was a coincidence. I knew that for sure now. The little card that came with the key had the number ninety-two written on it.

Why does this all feel so contrived?
Like we were rats being herded into a labyrinth. In any case, we didn’t have much choice but to push forward and hope that a slice of cheese awaited us.

I shoved the ring deep into my jeans pocket and glanced at my watch.
Quarter to eight already? Where in the hell are you, King?

CHAPTER
THREE

8:00 P.M.

When I arrived at my mother’s flower-filled hospital room, I was thrilled to see her sitting up, laughing with my father and brother, watching something on TV. In fact, seeing them really made me hit pause and take a moment. Everyone was together, safe and alive. Happy. Well, almost everyone. I tried not to think about how, by this time tomorrow, things might be different. I might be out of their lives forever.

What would that do to my mother’s health? What would that do to my father?
Christ.
I couldn’t believe this. About six weeks ago, when Justin went on the run from Vaughn and disappeared, I’d been sick to my stomach, worrying how it might impact everyone. Now, my life was on the line, threatening everyone’s happiness.

Well, better me than Justin
. I couldn’t stand the thought of anything happening to my baby brother.

“Mia!” My mother’s powder-blue eyes lit up when she caught sight of me in the doorway.

“Hey there.” I made a little wave. “Nice to see you’re feeling better.” I moved to the foot of her bed. “Only one more day and you’re out, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yes. But your father says he’s not going to let me do any shopping, and the holidays are coming soon.” An image of them sitting around the table at Christmas dinner without me popped into my head. It felt like a knife in my heart. It would just kill them if I didn’t fix this.

I swallowed the sadness building in my chest.

“Something wrong, sweetie?” my mother asked.

I forced my mouth into a smile. “No. I’m happy, that’s all.” I looked at Justin, who wore black jeans and a sweatshirt. We had the same wavy blond hair, only his was pretty short. Mine was cut into a shoulder-length bob. I’d also had it highlighted a few months ago and hadn’t gone for a touch-up, so the color was growing out in a sad kind of way. I guess after everything that had happened recently, it didn’t seem important.

“Can I talk to you, Justin? Outside?”

His eyes shifted a bit. “Sure.”

I smiled at my parents. “It’s a little surprise we’re working on.”

He followed me out through the waiting area into the stairwell. “What surprise?”

I turned and looked at him, trying my best not to flip out. “King is missing. You have to tell me what you know.”

He didn’t seem at all shocked, which meant I’d been right. He did know something. Nevertheless, he said, “I don’t know anything. I already told you.”

“Tell me again, Justin,” I growled. “Because I’m in serious shit. If I don’t find King, 10 Club is going to confiscate his property. All of it.”

I hadn’t shown Justin my tattoo. In fact, I’d been wearing mostly long-sleeved clothes to cover it up. I hadn’t decided what to do when summer finally rolled around. Now, I guess I might not have to worry.

“Look.” I pulled back the sleeve of my red sweater. “I’m his property, Justin. Me.”

Justin’s green eyes widened. “Fuck! Mia. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“What would I say? That I agreed to be some crazy, rich guy’s assistant for the rest of my life to save you? What good would that do?”

“Motherfucker!” Justin ran his hands through his hair. “How? How did this happen?” he fumed.

Don’t get me wrong. Justin was my “little” brother, a year younger than me, but he was a huge guy, like my dad. He could’ve been a linebacker if he’d wanted, but his passion had been bones and stones, aka archaeology. Regardless, when he got mad, he was pretty scary.

“I’ll fucking kill him! Did King touch you?” Justin asked.

I wasn’t expecting Justin to be happy, but his reaction was much more emotional than I expected.

I held out my hands, trying to calm him. “No one’s touched me.”
Exactly.

“Don’t lie to me, Mia.” He grabbed my wrist. “I know what that means. It’s a brand members use to mark their significant other.”

My brain did a double take. “What do you mean, ‘significant other’?”

He shook his head. “Mia, you know exactly what I mean.”

“You mean spouse?” But that wouldn’t make any sense.

“No. Spouses can be divorced.”

I blinked several times, and my brain started to cramp.

“You really don’t know?” he asked.

“No. I really, really don’t.” But he was scaring the hell out of me.

“King claimed you as
his
.”

“Yeah, I know. As his
property
,” I argued, trying to avoid the slippery slope I feared was coming.

“No. It means you’re his
most
prized possession. It means he’s chosen you to…” Justin cleared his throat, “be
his
.”

I felt my blood pressure plummet. “Meaning?”

“It’s like,” he searched for the words, “you’re married, but there is no divorce option—only death.”

“What? That’s not possible. He doesn’t…We’re not…I mean—he would have told me…”I stopped my ridiculous thought right there. “Married?”

“Married isn’t the right word. It’s more like an extreme form of ownership. The Club members are allowed to make one person completely off-limits. Most of them pick someone they love or at least want. A lot. Romantically.”

Huh?
That couldn’t be right. It just…couldn’t. “How do you know all this?”

Justin hesitated for a moment. “I, uh…went to Vaughn’s place once. I saw another woman with a brand and asked about it. Hers was a ‘V.’”

I wanted to stop and allow myself a moment to feel extreme pity for that woman because there could be no worse fate in this world than belonging to Vaughn. However, my mind was too busy reeling with powerful emotions of my own. King had branded me, but not just as his property. He’d branded me as his…his…I didn’t know what to call it.

“I didn’t agree to this!” I protested in vain. “And he never said anything.”

“Look at the man, Mia. Do you think him or any of the people in that club ask permission?”

“No. I saw him sleep with some random woman.” I didn’t actually see King having sex with her, but he had. And he’d made no apologies for it either. Not that I would expect one because we weren’t a couple. Still, the weirdest part had been that she looked like me, and I could’ve sworn he wanted me to see them together, that he’d wanted to make me jealous.

Justin slowly shook his head. “Only the person wearing the mark has to be monogamous, Mia. He owns
you,
not the other way around.”

Holy Christ
. I held my hand over my mouth. Did King really think he could possess me like this? As his exclusive sex toy, whom he could do with as he pleased? Then there was the issue that the tattoo could be used by King to track me down at any time. With it, he could also control me like a mindless robot by merely laying his hand over it.

“Did the woman say anything about,” I swallowed, knowing how ridiculous I would sound, “her tattoo’s powers or how to remove it?”

Justin looked at me kind of funny. “No.” He shook his head hesitantly. “The tattoo didn’t have any powers. Why are you asking?”

“Are you sure? Did you ask her?”

“No, Mia. But as far as I saw, it was a tattoo. Nothing else. Are you saying yours…does stuff?”

“Everything. For him, anyway.” I covered my face and groaned, putting all the pieces together. When King and I went to Palenque in search of Justin, King lured me to an ancient Mayan temple. Scared out of my mind, I passed out. And when I woke up the next morning, I discovered he’d tattooed me. Yes, while I was passed out, the bastard. Then he’d said that he “borrowed” some of the temple’s energy to unlock my Seer abilities and to mark me. But, of course, this was just another of King’s half-truths. Because he didn’t just mark me with a letter “K,” he’d somehow connected us with it. And now, I understood the full meaning. He’d performed some creepy, 10 Club marriage ritual and gave it the “King special upgrade.”
Dammit. The bastard even served me champagne that night before we left!

Then I started thinking about all of the other weird stuff he’d said. How he’d admitted once that he wanted me but was willing to wait like he had all the time in the world. It was because he believed he did. What was the hurry when he already owned me and saw me as his personal game of sexual chess?

Then, stupid me, I’d believed that his actions—saving my mother and my brother—were signs of genuine compassion. But the man was simply manipulating me, wanting to see if he could win me over. After all, it was always about the challenge for the Club’s members, wasn’t it? King was no exception.

Fuck.
And what an ass I’d been.

Justin floated his hand over my back. “This is my fault. If I hadn’t gotten involved with Vaughn, none of this would have happened.”

Oh my God. Vaughn…
This just kept getting worse. I hadn’t told Justin about the party or the fact that Vaughn attacked me and lost his arm when King tore it off of him.

“Well,” I said, “if you know how depraved Vaughn is, then you understand my life is over no matter what I do. If I don’t find King, Vaughn plans to take me.”
And pick the flesh from my bones, as he’d said.
“If I find King, then I end up being his prized toy.”

Justin looked livid. I
felt
livid. One man wanted to kill me. The other wanted to own me—inside and out.

Don’t give up, Mia.
Yes, my chances of living if I ended up in Vaughn’s hands were zero. However, my chances of living in King’s hands were good. If King survived, I would, too. That meant I’d also live to find a way out of being “his.”

Bastard can want me, but he’ll never have me.

“Justin, you have to tell me,” I pleaded, “anything you know. Anything at all about where to find King.”

He covered his face and groaned with frustration. “Fuck.”

“Stop saying that. Tell me what happened with Vaughn. King told me you were planning a trap or something.”

Justin bobbed his head. “Vaughn had been hunting me for weeks and finally found me. When he did, he made it clear that he’d kill me, you, Mom, and Dad because I welched on our deal and ran with the Artifact. He said all I had to do was call King and set up a meeting and use the Artifact as bait. That was it.”

“Then what happened?” I asked.

“Not much. I contacted King and set up the meeting. Later, though, he called and said Mom was sick. He also knew Vaughn was pulling my strings, but promised to ‘take care’ of him.”

I knew that wasn’t the entire story because with King, there had to be a deal. “What did he want in return?”

“Not much. He just asked me to deliver the Artifact and continue pretending to work for Vaughn.”

“And the last time you spoke to King? Did you see him in person?” I asked.

“No. He called. He told me to drop the Artifact at some address in London, which turned out to be an empty apartment. Then he said to get on a plane home.”

I scratched my head. “And you’re sure it was King calling you?”

Justin shrugged. “It sounded like him.”

“Did you get a look at the Artifact?”

“Yes. I’m the one who dug it up.”

“What is it?” I couldn’t believe Justin had actually seen it.

“A rock.”

“A rock?” I asked. I guess I’d been expecting an ancient tablet or some sort of holy relic like a grail. But a rock?

“Actually, I guess it’s more of a stone. About the size of a grape.”

“What does it do?” I asked.

Justin shook his head. “I don’t have a fucking clue, but when I held that thing in my hand, it practically burned a hole right through it. And…”

“What?”

Justin scratched his head. “I don’t really know how to explain it. It made me
see
things. Horrible things.”

“Like what?”

He stared at his feet for a moment and shrugged. “They were faces of people screaming and crying.”

I cringed. “What did they say?”