“Oh shit; no wonder everybody is being so nice to us,” Judy whispered.
“Except for me,” Mano stared Judy down until she looked away and then returned his cold gaze to Page.
“Now, here’s how things are going to go, Kavya. Page. Wordsmith.” He let the fact he probably knew more about her than she knew about herself sink in before he continued. “I own you. I’m going to be on you like stink on shit, little girl, or in this case, a predator on prey. I’ll give you three guesses who the prey is.”
“I’m nobody’s prey,” Page growled. This guy was pissing her off with his arrogance and scaring her with his information about her. She’d keep the scared part to herself. No sense in letting the enemy know he had the upper hand. Too bad, he wasn’t some ugly stinky fucker. His alpha personality only added to his good looks, and the way he had scared the customer off was a turn-on.
Mano’s hand was around her throat so quick she never saw it coming. He was lightning fast, and he was pissed. Not a good combination. If she thought somebody was going to come to rescue her, she was sorely mistaken—wrong bar. There wasn’t a knight in shining armor to be found. He could probably choke her and pitch her dead body under the table, and no one would care. They’d just wait until closing time to help Mano dispose of it.
“I own you!” His lips were on hers so fast she didn’t realize she was kissing him back!
Judy sat gobsmacked—like a train wreck she couldn’t look away from. These two were the definition of chemistry, and the sparks were flying.
When he finished kissing her, he purposely smeared her lipstick with his thumb.
“You bastard!” she screeched as she stood up and attempted to wedge past him.
“Sit the fuck down,” he growled, raising the gun just enough to send a stab of fear through her.
She slowly sat down, picked up her phone, pulled up the mirror app, and grabbed her lipstick from her pocket. Her hand trembled as she fixed her face. She knew he had purposely done it to humiliate her.
Mano leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Good girl.”
“Fuck you!”
“That comes later. I can’t wait to hear you scream my name out.”
“I’ll be screaming alright; when I cuss your ass out.”
Mano slouched down in the booth with one hand lazily draped over the Glock, and both eyes targeted on his new toy. This was going to be fun. He hadn’t counted on chemistry between them. Beautiful women were the norm in his world, but chemistry was hard to come by.
Page straightened her body again, which caused him to squint at her suspiciously.
“So, what’s your name, Mr. 'I own you now'?”
“You can call me Mano, and I can’t wait to get mine all over that hot little bod of yours.”
“Pretty confident, aren’t you?”
He side-eyed her and answered, “Cocksure in this case.”
When she squirmed again, he just chuckled. There was something very sinister about his laugh.
“Tell me again why I let you talk me into this, Page.” Judy looked at her with eyes full of accusation.
“I didn’t talk you into it, you insisted. You were supposed to be here to protect me—to have my back. Now I wonder if you just wanted to see Antonio Wayne in the flesh.”
“And now…I wish I hadn’t been so dogged about watching over you. I swear you draw trouble like a magnet, and that man sitting next to you is trouble with a capital T.”
It was going to be a very long night…
Chapter Seven
No matter how long the ride home had been, it hadn’t been long enough. Looking at Mano seated in a chair in her bedroom with a gun still in his lap was unnerving. What the fuck had she gotten herself into? The soft light of the moon drifted through the curtains like a promise of safety from the darkness that inhabited Mano’s threats. Telling him, he couldn’t come in wasn’t an option when she had a Glock stuck between her shoulder blades. When he’d poked it into her back, forcing her through the door, she knew he was coming in invited or not.
Judy had given her the standard ‘I’m worried’ look as she hesitated at the bedroom door, and Page had assured her, she could handle things. Now, with him sitting so close with a gun in his lap, she was second-guessing her decision to let Judy sleep while she did night watch.
Page sat against the headboard clutching the duvet up around her chin as if it would protect her from the unwanted intruder.
She cleared her throat to gather up the courage she needed. “I think we should discuss this like adults. Why are you threatening us?”
“I haven’t threatened you. I’ve stated facts. You got a very close friend of mine killed. I plan on stopping you from killing anybody else. Do you have any idea how many journalists are killed every year? The Colombian cartel doesn’t assimilate to their story being told. It doesn’t matter if it’s true or not—you, young lady, are bringing heat and unnecessary attention to the organization.” He smirked and shook his head as if it was an issue she should already get. “We like to fly under the radar if you know what I mean.”
She would have had no problem with the way he was articulating things if he hadn’t been tapping a Glock against his lap as he spoke.
“And just how do you plan on making me quit? Are you going to follow me around like some psychotic stalker? This isn’t just a job for me; writing is my life’s blood. Writing is who I am, not just what I do. You’d have to kill me to force me to stop writing. I’ll admit you scare me because you work for the Colombian cartel, but I refuse to allow fear to stop me from my passion. Let’s just say it’s a hard limit,” she smiled innocently. “The cartel trusts me. I’m not quite sure why you don’t.”
“If you know I’m a psychopath stalker, you’ll shut that blog down. You’re endangering the lives of complete strangers. I don’t care if the cartel trusts you, I don’t. I see you as future trouble, and I don’t need problems in my line of work. You bring unnecessary drama to my life. That’s not a good thing, Page.”
“No way! The public needs to know those poor families are being forced to run drugs. They’re caught between the military and the cartel, and that’s what’s putting their lives in danger.”
He leaned in so close she could feel his breath on her skin. He smiled when her breath hitched in fear. “Then I guess you and I are going to be best friends,”—he hesitated before he finished— “with benefits.”
Page feverishly shook her head, “You can’t do that. You can’t just tell somebody they’re going to be your fuck buddy.”
He lifted the gun, holding it in his hand as he lightly brushed his thumb over her jawline, “I can, and I did.” He could feel his cock harden when he realized she was trembling.
There was something possessive in his touch—like he owned her. He had laid claim to her without her being aware she was his obsession. How long had he been watching her? She knew at that moment she wouldn’t be able to escape him. Giving up her blog was inconceivable to her. She would have to find a way to manipulate this man who held a grudge against her for the death of his friend. She hated the idea of him following her around, but anything was better than not being able to write. There was no way she was shutting her blog down. This guy was crazy, and the only way to fight crazy was with crazy