Promise Me Forever (Top Shelf Romance)

by Kate Stewart

  I tried again to walk away, but he growled impatiently and tugged me down onto his lap. I was facing him with nowhere to rest my hands but on his shoulder. “You shouldn’t have read the book.” I squirmed to get away, but he simply tightened his hold. “You would be dead if my family had caught you.”

  “What happened to you being their God?”

  I could hear the humor in his grunt. “I got lucky.”

  “You wouldn’t have let them hurt me.”

  “It wouldn’t have been up to me,” he warned unconvincingly. We both know Angel would have forsaken his crown to kill them for hurting me.

  It was the very reason I didn’t understand Angel bending to a dead man’s rules now. It was clear he no longer agreed with them. Maybe he never did. “Augustine doesn’t care about Alexander’s rules. Why do you?”

  Angel’s hands squeezed my hips as he leaned forward. His voice menacing as he whispered, “Did you just use another man to emasculate me?”

  “I don’t think that’s possible.” I waited until his hold loosened and he sat back to say, “But you aren’t their King, Angel. You’re their prisoner.”

  “Maybe. But I’ll wear their chains as long as it keeps you safe.”

  “Don’t say things like that.” I closed my eyes to block out the look in his eyes. It felt a lot like love.

  “Why not?” I didn’t answer him. How did I put into words how much I loved and hated him? I felt his lips on me and released a blissful sigh.

  “Why did Art kill my mother?” He paused from trailing kisses down the column of my neck and sighed.

  “She wanted to be with him, and when he wouldn’t leave my mother, she threatened to expose them.”

  “So he chose to kill her rather than face the consequences?” I pushed against his shoulders and stood to my feet. “I was practically an orphan because of him.” With my mother dead and my father avoiding me, there had been no one but Angel. He was the closest thing to family I’ve had since my mother was murdered. “How did she die?”

  He shook his head and stood up. I didn’t know what I would do if he walked away from me.

  But then he held out his hand to me. “Come on.”

  “No.” His hand dropped. “I’m not going anywhere with you until I have answers.”

  “The answers you need can’t come from me because I don’t have them.”

  “Then who does?”

  ANGEL HADN’T SPOKEN since we left Attica. The drive to Chicago had been long and uncomfortable, which he spent smoking. When we sat down across from my father, the tension only multiplied.

  “You know how to make your old man’s day,” Theo greeted. The growth covering the lower half of his face hadn’t been there the last time I saw him. His hair had also grown into a greasy shag. Suddenly, I felt all-consuming guilt. Two months ago, I came here asking him to help me steal from the most dangerous man in Chicago and then fell off the grid with no word.

  I took his hands in mine. I’ve missed their strength and warmth. “Daddy, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you I was okay.”

  “It’s fine, baby girl. You’re here now.” I’d believe that if his hands didn’t tremble.

  “What have you been doing to yourself? You don’t look well.”

  “It doesn’t matter now.” His attention shifted to Angel. “What brings you by?”

  I didn’t want to say the words because saying them meant never being able to take them back. “I—I know about my mother’s death.” Daddy’s eyes flew back to me. “I know Art had her killed because of their affair.”

  He turned his accusing eyes on Angel again. “You told her?”

  “She found the truth in the book.” They seemed to have some silent conversation that ended with Angel shaking his head and Theo nodding.

  “Baby girl, please understand why I didn’t tell you. Her death was hard enough on you.”

  “And you, but yet I never lied to you.” When he hung his head, I grabbed his chin and lifted until I could see his eyes.

  “How did she die?”

  “I don’t think—”

  “No,” I ordered before he could deny me. “No more lies. No more secrets. I have a right to know.”

  He once again turned his attention to Angel, who said nothing, did nothing but wait for my father to prove he was the man I held in my heart. “Victor suffocated her while she slept.” His voice was pained as his eyes glistened with unshed tears. I felt pain—not the torpid pain that eventually came because time was sometimes merciful—but the agonizing pain that immediately came because death was sometimes unmerciful.

  I didn’t lose my mother. She was taken from me.

  I pulled my hands away and took a deep breath. “And my marriage to Angel?”

  His handsome features twisted until he was a broken shell. “I’d hoped that you’d never find out, or at least, not a day before I could explain why I gave you to him.”

  “I know why, Father.” I had never spoken to my father this coldly. “It was easier for you if I belonged to someone else. I wouldn’t need you anymore. You told yourself you were protecting me to ease your conscience, but you didn’t just marry me to Angel. You sold me to a dead man’s legacy. How could you?”

  “I’m sorry, baby girl. Please forgive me.” Through his eyes, I saw his heart breaking.

  But he’d broken me long before I’d broken him.

  “I don’t think I can, Daddy.”

  I would no longer be the naïve little girl who would climb on his knee to beg for his love and attention.

  “ARE YOU HUNGRY?” he asked after closing the doors of the estate. Angel barely kept his eyes off me during the ride home…here. He sat close, making sure we touched from head to toe. His mood was completely different from the car ride to the prison.

  “Not really. Um… can we talk in private?”

  He didn’t respond except to place his hand on the small of my back and lead me to one of the staircases. I didn’t speak, and neither did he as we walked through the east wing until we reached just another of the many rooms. It would be easy to get lost in a place like this. It was exactly the future I feared.

  The room he locked us in smelled like leather and smoke. He moved behind the desk made of burl wood, intricately carved edges completed with golden leaf detail, and a rich finish. I sat on a sofa that looked like it belonged in a castle five hundred years in the past.

  “What’s up?” The casualness of his question was forced. Just days ago, Angel had said he knew what was in my head as well as in my heart. If that were true, then he’d know what I was ready to demand.

  “I think it’s better for both of us if I leave.”

  “Why is that?” His voice was empty of curiosity, surprise, or anger.

  “Because of all the things you’ve done to me and all the things you will do.”

  I could see the first crack in his facade. “You promised you’d stay.”

  “I promised I’d try. But Angel, letting my father go left a hole in my heart, and I don’t know how to fill it. Staying here will only make it bigger.”

  I didn’t miss his flinch. “You know I can’t let you leave.”

  “I’m done being scared! If you have to kill me, do it or let me go.”

  His gaze narrowed. “What are you so eager to return to, Mian? That pathetic apartment and an empty stomach?”

  “Freedom.”

  “You’re not a prisoner,” he said through gritted teeth. It was nothing I hadn’t heard before.

  “No, I’m not a prisoner, Angel. You are. You’re chained to Alexander’s legacy, and that may be fine for you, but it isn’t for me.”

  “Even if you have to spend the rest of your days tied to my bed. You aren’t leaving. Three years ago, I let you go because I thought you’d be better off, and when you tried to steal from me, I found you starving, desperate, and the mother of a baby you can’t protect.”

  “Fuck you.”

  He scoffed. “You’re the same naïve girl you w
ere when you were sixteen, only this time you’re mine. You’re not leaving.”

  “If you don’t let me go, I’ll never stop trying to get away from you. Every time you walk out that door, you’ll wonder if you’re coming back to an empty home because, deep down, you know one day I’ll succeed.”

  “You run, I’ll chase. If this is how we spend our lives together, then so be it. I won’t let you go again knowing what will happen. I won’t let anyone hurt you. Not as long as my ring is on your finger.”

  With a yank, I ripped off his ring and tossed it at him. It bounced off his chest and fell on the desk. “The only one hurting me is you.” I saw his flinch just before I turned and fled. I hated him, not for making me stay but for the reckless part of me that wanted to stay.

  I was too busy fighting the tears as they came to see him until we collided. Thanks to his quick reflexes, he caught me before I could fall.

  “Easy, short stuff. You trying to take me out?” Augustine’s blinding smile broke through my tears. “I should warn you that I’m not a cheap date.” I was ashamed of the hiccup that escaped when I tried to force a laugh through my sniffling. “Now that was pitiful. I know you can do better than that. That was my best stuff.”

  “Then you shouldn’t quit your day job,” I quipped.

  “There she goes!” He whooped. My laugh this time was real. “Anyone tell you you’re a smart ass?”

  “Anyone tell you’re rude?”

  “I might have heard it a time or two.”

  “You should work on that.”

  “Not gonna.” His smile was quick and easy, and I had the feeling it had charmed the panties off many women. It was too bad my heart, and my panties were forever wedged under Angel’s boot.

  “I better go.”

  “Not until you tell me why my cousin made you cry.”

  I hesitated. Would it be stupid to confide him in? If anyone would understand my need to decide my fate, wouldn’t he? “He won’t let us go.”

  He seemed to contemplate something before saying, “I can understand why.”

  I eyed him suspiciously until he chuckled. “I didn’t mean you.”

  “Ouch.” I feigned hurt before saying, “I didn’t know there was someone special.”

  He shrugged. “There isn’t. I just said I understand.” I couldn’t tell if he was lying. He was just that good at it.

  “You won’t live your life based on Alexander’s rules. Why should I?”

  “I can take care of myself.”

  “God, you sound just like him.” Deciding I was wrong about him, I quickly moved around him. Just when I thought I had an ally…

  I didn’t get far when his hand closed around my arm. His gaze bore into me, and in the emerald, I could see whatever demons Augustine kept locked away clawing at the walls.

  “Running won’t make you free.”

  Chapter 25

  MIAN

  ANGEL STAYED AWAY that night, and I pretended not to miss the warmth of having him beside me. I spent the hours alone until I fell asleep with Augustine’s words playing in my head.

  I awoke later than usual the next morning. Caylen was already up and standing against the crib railings. He smiled happily when I rose from the bed and babbled at me.

  “Mommy’s sorry she slept so long,” I cooed as I lifted him from the crib. “Are you hungry?” I was partially surprised he wasn’t upset. He was usually ravenous with a full diaper in the morning.

  “I fed him an hour ago,” the deep voice spoke. I spun around with Caylen in my arms and found Angel leaning against the wall with his hands shoved in his pocket. “Changed him too.”

  He was brooding, and I didn’t get why when I was the one being forced to stay here. “Thank you,” I grudgingly replied.

  He shrugged his voice flat as he said, “You slept like the dead, and he’s been up for a couple of hours.”

  I kissed Caylen’s fat cheek and placed him back in the crib. If he was taken care of, then I’d take the rare advantage of a long shower. “I’m going to shower then.”

  “I think we should talk first.”

  “We said all we needed to say last night.” I didn’t stop moving for the bathroom, but then he was there, keeping me from getting away. As usual.

  “What about all the things we’re afraid to say?” I didn’t dare look at him. He was not going to seduce me this time.

  “Maybe it’s for the best.” He was silent for a moment before sighing.

  “Maybe.”

  “Are we done here?” I still refused to look at him.

  “You and I will never be done.” I felt him move in closer until he towered over me. I let him wrap his arms around me because I couldn’t be this close and not feel his touch. “But I’m willing to compromise until you can accept the truth.”

  My eyes traveled up his muscular chest, past his strong neck, and over kissable lips until I found him staring down at me. “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll see. Just know it’s the only thing I’m giving you. It’s the only thing I can give you, and not because of the damn legacy.” He pulled me closer, and then I let him kiss me. “But because I just don’t fucking want to.”

  HE DIDN’T TAKE me back to Chicago. Michelle and Officer Garrett, who insisted I call him Tim, took me in after Angel let me walk away. Bringing me here had been his way of appeasing me so I wouldn’t run away and sadly, it worked. I may still be under his thumb, but I no longer felt trapped. I only felt lost.

  Angel had packed us up and kissed me on the Garrett’s porch as if he would never see me again even though his eyes promised he would. Then I watched him drive away.

  That had been a month ago.

  “I hope you like vanilla frosting,” Michelle said as she burst into the kitchen with a large white box. “I got chocolate cake for the party.”

  Today was Caylen’s first birthday, and Michelle had insisted on throwing him a party. Since tomorrow was Halloween, she suggested it be a costume party, and then promised it would be small and inexpensive when I protested. She had already done so much for us that accepting the above and beyond made me feel guiltier than I already did. She’d wanted a life away from Alexander’s legacy, and I had brought her back in by staying here.

  “Vanilla is fine. You really didn’t have to do this,” I pleaded in vain. She waved me off and set the cake on the counter. The house was covered in streamers and balloons with even more decorating their backyard where the party would be held. She had even invited all her friends and neighbors with small kids to celebrate my son’s first birthday.

  “I keep telling you it’s no trouble. I haven’t been able to throw a party like this since Tabitha turned twelve. Now all she wants are gifts and a day out with her friends.”

  “Thank you,” I said for the hundredth time since she proposed the idea.

  “You’re welcome, sweet girl. You and that adorable baby will always have a place here. I want you to remember that.” After a teary hug, I helped her finish getting the house ready for the party. Caylen was upstairs napping, but he’d be awake soon. I just hoped he wouldn’t be afraid of a house full of strangers. He’d always been good with people, so I wasn’t too worried.

  The party was in full swing an hour later. I was dressed as Cruella de Vil and Caylen was my little Dalmatian pup. Michelle had promised small, but it was anything but. I didn’t mind since everyone was nothing but kind. The two tables not covered with food were piled high with gifts for a boy they’d never even met. It made me wonder how much Michelle had told them, but I decided not to dwell on it. Caylen was happy. It was all that mattered. Michelle, Tim, and Tabitha were dressed as Morticia, Gomez, and Wednesday from the Addams Family. Tabitha had complained to her mom that she should have made her brother, Austin, come home so their getup would be complete.

  “These people are so nice,” Anna gushed. Tim had offered to pick Anna up and bring her so she wouldn’t miss Caylen’s birthday, and she’d come as Dany from Game of Thrones. �
�Do you know any of them?”

  “Not one. They’re all Michelle and Tim’s friends.”

  “To be honest, I’m not sure I know who half of them are either,” Tabitha grumbled as she played with Caylen. “But they brought gifts!”

  My laugh died in my throat. I felt punched in the gut. I couldn’t breathe when the patio door slid open, and he stepped through. His sudden presence arrested me as well as every woman there. He was back in the suit, looking much larger than life and more ruthless than death. Dark shades covered his eyes, blocking out the sun and every curious eye.

  “What is he doing here?” Anna growled.

  Tabitha, however, handed over Caylen and ran over to greet her older cousin. Tim and Michelle had already hurried over to speak to him quietly. Not once had he looked my way, but he’d know I was there.

  “I don’t know.” I could barely hear myself think over the sound of my heart racing.

  “Maybe Officer Garrett will arrest him if he tries to take you back.”

  We were still watching when Michelle and Tim cast worried glances our way. Their attention, unfortunately, drew Angel’s attention. I couldn’t see his eyes, but I knew they were on me. I started to think I’d never be free of his trance when Tabitha tapped him on the shoulder, forcing his attention away from me. I didn’t stop watching him though. He said a few words to his cousin and then handed her something I couldn’t see.

  And then he was gone again.

  Later that night, when the clock struck midnight, I didn’t call to wish him a happy birthday, and he didn’t call to make me.

  “I HATE GEOMETRY,” Tabitha groaned for the third time. She was sitting at the coffee table suffering through her homework while I fed Caylen dinner.

  “Just wait until you’re taking calculus,” Anna deadpanned. “You’ll be tempted to drop out of school.” Tabitha groaned and slammed her face in her textbook. Anna and Tabitha hit it off at Caylen’s party two months ago. She started sleeping over every weekend after Tabitha and Michelle insisted I invite her over the first time. Today, she was helping Tabitha study for her geometry test the next day.