Where is he taking us? I have my answer when he stops smack-bang in the middle of the river and lowers the oars into the boat. We’re floating with me facing the jetty and him the opposite shore.
I shoot him a puzzled look.
“Strip,” he says.
“What?” I look around. “Here?”
“Yes, here.”
He’s got that determined light in his eyes that says he won’t be reasoned with. Appeasing him, I unbutton my shorts and wiggle them over my hips. The movement rocks the boat, but he doesn’t seem worried about being capsized. He waits patiently for me to remove my T-shirt.
When I’ve stripped down to my bikini, he holds out a hand. “Give me your bag.”
It doesn’t make sense. “Why?”
He leans over and takes it where it lies at my feet, making the boat rock dangerously. I grab the edges, sucking in a breath when the cold water splashes over the sides and onto my arms and stomach.
He unzips my bag, takes out my phone, and dumps the bag into the water. I stare at the pink faux leather that drifts on the surface, unable to form a coherent thought as the contents sink to the bottom. I look on dumbfoundedly as the bag swallows water. The pink dunks under the surface, the color fading to a muddy, nude-pink before turning brown like the river.
Something is wrong.
Something is terribly wrong.
My heart hammers a beat between my ribs as I look back at him. “What are you doing?” I swallow. “Why did you tell me to strip?”
He looks me dead in the eye. “To make sure you’re not wearing a wire.”
He knows.
Shit.
“Ian, I can explain.”
“Quiet.”
He unlocks my phone and swipes across the screen, going through my messages or whatever. How did he find out? Did he have me followed? My mind races back to my meeting with Wolfe. Except for his men, there was only that driver. He took a photo of the falls with his phone like everyone does. Only, now I know better. He took a photo of me.
“Ian,” I say in a tremulous voice. “Why did you bring me here?”
He lifts his gaze fleetingly to mine. His normally expressive eyes are void of emotion. “This is a safe place to talk.”
It clicks into place—why he brought me out here in the middle of the river and why he dumped my bag into the water. He’s making sure our conversation can’t be transmitted in any way. He’s being careful to destroy any possible bugs.
“I love you,” I whisper, clutching the pendant around my neck. “You know that.”
It’s like a knife in my stomach when he doesn’t acknowledge the words. When he stills, I know he’s found the recording on my phone. I don’t even try to stop him when he presses on play.
He doesn’t spare me. He makes me listen to every word. He plays the whole conversation, right to the very end. When it’s finished, he extends his arm over the water, opens his fingers, and drops the phone.
Only then he lets me see what’s going on inside him. Disappointment burns in the depth of his brown eyes. The amber flecks simmer with hurt. I know what he feels, because I felt it when Danai handed me Wolfe’s note.
“Ian, I—”
A movement on the jetty catches my eye. Ruben. He stands on the edge like a soldier on guard. What he holds in his hands sends a bolt of shock through me—a sniper rifle.
Bitterness laces Ian’s tone. “I guess I shouldn’t have trusted you after all.”
My mouth goes dry as everything I need to tell him gets stuck in my throat.
I look between the rifle and Ian. That’s why he rowed us so that I’m facing the jetty. He wants me to see what’s coming. He summoned Ruben, knowing Ruben is skilled enough not to miss. I guess I shouldn’t have trusted him either. He didn’t row me out to the middle of the Zambezi to talk securely in a place that isn’t bugged. He rowed me to my grave. What better way to get rid of a body? He didn’t even have to dig a hole. Chances are no one will find me. The crocodiles will make sure of that.
Hurt blooms inside me, not because I’m about to die, but because he’s the one about to give the order. The knowledge slays me. It minces my insides and shreds my heart. I bleed long before he’s given Ruben the signal to fire the shot. In hindsight, our violent start couldn’t end in a different way. I hoped for a fairy tale, but villains don’t make heroes. I forgot about the most important rule my dad taught me. You reap what you sow.
I stare into his beautiful eyes, beautiful but cruel. He looks at me like he did the night he kidnapped me after the heist at Sun City—with no remorse.
Between taking a bullet or swimming for the shore, I stand no chance of survival. Either way, I’m dead, but I’ll rather take my chances with the crocodiles than being the weak, sitting duck he made me.
Ruben lifts the rifle. He takes aim.
I jump to my feet.
Dive!
The boat rocks. I lose my balance. It’s not my life that speeds past in front of my eyes, but a spectrum of emotions. So many emotions. Lust, love, life. All of them are wrapped up in regret, regret for us, for the full life my parents didn’t have and wanted me to live, regret for our baby.
Regret alone rushes through my mind in the split-second that separates life from death. My heart shrivels. It’s not giving up on my body. It gives up on my love.
Yes, I kept a secret, but Ian decided my fate without giving me a chance to explain. Everything between us was nothing but an illusion, a fragment of my imagination. It never went deeper than lust. My mind twisted the in-between into what it wanted to see.
It wasn’t real. We aren’t real.
That’s what kills me, not the shot that rings out or the pain that blooms in my side before I get a chance to dive. I don’t see Ian’s face as my body collapses sideways and my weight pulls me overboard. It’s better like this. This way, I can remember the way he looked at me when my mind played tricks, making-believe he loved me.
The coldness hits me first. After that, it’s the darkness. The roar of the water. Disorientation. Mauling. So much noise. Cold. Fear. Icy fear. Loneliness.
The lack of oxygen registers last.
I gulp, swallow water.
I fight.
I fight as air and blood flow from my body. I fight until the rivers takes me, and Nyaminyami claims another sacrifice.
~ TO BE CONTINUED ~
Afterword
Dear reader,
* * *
Thank you for embarking on Cas and Ian’s journey. If you enjoyed the story, please consider leaving a short review (only a couple of lines will do!) on your preferred vendor site. Every review makes a huge difference in helping other readers discover the book.
* * *
Review on your vendor platform.
Review on BookBub.
Review on Goodreads.
* * *
Cas and Ian’s adventure concludes in:
Stolen Love (Release date, 22 June 2021)
* * *
Don’t miss out! Click on the link to pre-order now.
Stolen Love (Book 3)
Once upon a time, a thief stole me in the middle of the night. He took what he wanted, gave me an illusion, and ripped it all away to claim his ultimate trophy. My heart may be physically weak, but fighting to live made me stronger. I won’t perish as easily as that. I’m turning the tables on him. After all, I learned from the best. I’m robbing him of what he stole from me.
* * *
For updates on my future books, special deals, and exclusive offers, please join my newsletter. You’ll find my Facebook group and social media links in About the Author. I look forward to staying in touch. :-)
* * *
Please turn the page for more books by Charmaine Pauls.
* * *
Hugs,
* * *
Charmaine
Also by Charmaine Pauls
Standalone Novels
(Enemies-to-Lovers Dark Romance)
Darker Than
Love
* * *
(Second Chance Romance)
Catch Me Twice
Diamond Magnate Novels
(Dark Romance)
* * *
Standalone Novel
(Dark Forced Marriage Romance)
Beauty in the Broken
* * *
Diamonds are Forever Trilogy
(Dark Mafia Romance)
Diamonds in the Dust
Diamonds in the Rough
Diamonds are Forever
Box Set
* * *
Beauty in the Stolen Trilogy
(Dark Romance)
Stolen Lust
Stolen Life
Stolen Love
The Loan Shark Duet
(Dark Mafia Romance)
Dubious
Consent
Box Set
The Age Between Us Duet
(Older Woman Younger Man Romance)
Old Enough
Young Enough
Box Set
Krinar World Novels
(Futuristic Romance)
The Krinar Experiment
The Krinar’s Informant
7 Forbidden Arts Series
(Dark Paranormal Romance)
Pyromancist (Fire)
Aeromancist, The Beginning (Prequel)
Aeromancist (Air)
Hydromancist (Water)
Audiobooks
* * *
Standalone Novels
(Enemies-to-Lovers Dark Romance)
Darker Than Love
* * *
Diamond Magnate Novels
Standalone Novel
(Dark Forced Marriage Romance)
Beauty in the Broken
Diamonds are Forever Trilogy
(Dark Mafia Romance)
Diamonds in the Dust
Diamonds in the Rough
Diamonds are Forever
Box Set
Beauty in the Stolen Trilogy
(Dark Romance)
Stolen Lust
* * *
The Loan Shark Duet
(Dark Mafia Romance)
Dubious
Consent
* * *
Krinar World Novels
(Futuristic Romance)
The Krinar’s Informant
Book Blurbs
Diamond Magnate Novels
(Dark Mafia & Forced Marriage / Revenge Romance)
* * *
Standalone Novel
Beauty in the Broken
Six years ago, Harold Dalton framed me for theft and sent me to jail to steal my diamond discovery. He gave his daughter to Jack Clarke in exchange for the excavation rights. Today I’m walking free, and I’m coming for him with a vengeance. Six years of cruelty make beasts out of men. I’m going to take back what he stole from me, and more. I’m not interested in his properties or shares. I don’t want his small change. I want his biggest asset. Beautiful, mentally unstable, Angelina Dalton-Clarke.
* * *
Worth billions, she’s the wealthiest widow in the country, and also the craziest. Her self-harming tendencies had Jack declare her incompetent before he put a gun to his head and blew out his brains. Lina isn’t allowed to touch a cent of her riches. Her father manages her finances. He has all the signing power. As her husband, that chore will fall to me. But if she thinks I only want her for her money, she’s sadly mistaken.
* * *
Diamonds are Forever Trilogy
* * *
Diamonds in the Dust (Book 1)
Men like us, we see things.
We do things, things that make us unfeeling.
* * *
That’s the price of power and money, of living la belle vie and running the French mafia. Then she came along like a pretty wildflower pushing through the cracks on a dirty pavement—fragile yet resilient, a breath of beauty among the filth. She was supposed to be just another job, a nameless person I was to pluck from her life and hand to my brother, nothing but a pawn in the gamble of our diamond business.
* * *
There’s a psychological label for men like us.
We lack empathy and guilt.
We do things to have what we want, things that make flowers wilt.
* * *
Diamonds in the Rough (Book 2)
Girls like me, we know how to survive.
We each have our own little ways, but we acquire those skills at the same tender age.
* * *
If you ask me how many times a person can die, I’ll tell you many times. As many times as a man stabs you in the stomach with betrayal and wrings out your heart with lies.
* * *
Girls like me, we live.
We don’t get a choice.
We step over the cliff and fall.
Eat, sleep, die, and repeat.
* * *
Diamonds are Forever (Book 3)
My love is wasted like gemstones in the dust, walked over by an oblivious shoe. It takes many suffering years and layers of mountains to squeeze carbon into a precious stone. Now that I’m polished and hard like a diamond, he doesn’t get to kick me back into the dirt.
* * *
Men like him don’t love women like me.
They don’t love.
Period.
* * *
But he made me.
He’ll live with me.
Because diamonds are forever.
* * *
Box Set (Book 1, 2 & 3)
* * *
Beauty in the Stolen Trilogy
* * *
Stolen Lust (Book 1)
Ian Hart is the most notorious criminal in the country. Like the thief he is, he came in the dark and stole a night of my life.
* * *
He left me with souvenirs. Disaster and fear are my new realities. I’ll forever look over my shoulder, terrified he’d return, because when he took me, he stole more than just a few hours of my time.
* * *
His crime has consequences neither of us could’ve imagined. If I’m to escape the nightmare of my life, I have to outsmart him. If I’m to survive, I have to outwit every enemy he’s turned against me, including Ian himself, the most dangerous and cleverest man I know.
* * *
Stolen Life (Book 2)
Ian Hart stole a night of my life but he took so much more. His obsession pinned a label on me. His lust put me in an impossible situation. Now I have to choose sides. I have to decide between right and wrong. Only, no matter what choice I make, each comes with dreadful consequences. There’s only one way this can end—how every tragedy ends.
* * *
Stolen Love (Book 3) – 22 June 2021
Once upon a time, a thief stole me in the middle of the night. He took what he wanted, gave me an illusion, and ripped it all away to claim his ultimate trophy. My heart may be physically weak, but fighting to live made me stronger. I won’t perish as easily as that. I’m turning the tables on him. After all, I learned from the best. I’m robbing him of what he stole from me.
Standalone Novels
* * *
(Enemies-to-Lovers Dark Romance)
Darker Than Love
* * *
Once upon a cold, dark night, a Russian killer stole me from an alley. I’m dangerous, but he is lethal. I escaped once. He won’t let me do it twice.
The revenge is his. The betrayal is mine. But so are the lies to protect the ones I love.
We’re cut from the same twisted cloth. Both merciless. Both damaged. In his embrace, I find hell and heaven, his cruelly tender touch destroying and uplifting me at once.
They say a cat has nine lives, but an assassin has just one. And Yan Ivanov now owns mine.
* * *
(Second Chance Romance)
Catch Me Twice
If a man tells you he’s no good for you, best heed the warning. I learned the hard way. I had Jake Basson’s baby. He left to chase his dream. Now he’s back, demanding
a second chance, but why should I give him anything after four years of nothing? No correspondence, no news. I finally have my life back on track. Jake has never been uncomplicated. He never follows the rules. I should’ve known he’d play dirty in his war to win me back. He caught me once. I’m not going to let him catch me twice.
Stolen Life Page 21