Page 67 of The Billionaire's Runaway Bride

“You don’t!” she argues vehemently.

She can’t understand the hard place I’m stuck in. I wish I could think of another option, another way, or some other loophole to rely on, but I realize with heart-wrenching anxiety that the saying is right. Sometimes, the only way to overcome an obstacle is to go through it. To face it, and I will.

“I’m sorry, Marian,” I repeat, hoping she’ll forgive me one day. The last thing I want to do is hurt her. I’ve already wounded Caleb. But Marian is too sweet and innocent to deserve any of this.

“This is for the best. I called Jeremy to use my voice. I wanted to communicate.”

Marian wipes her tears away, flinging her hand up. “And this is the resolution you thought of?”

It is. Jeremy said that if I surrendered, he’d leave Caleb alone. And it wasn’t an idle threat I could call his bluff on. Jeremy doesn’t have the wealth and power Caleb does, and he also doesn’t have the fame. Caleb’s reputation is already under scrutiny with his “scandals,” and Jeremy homed in on that specific vulnerability. He’s taking leverage where he can, promising to ruin the man I love by dragging him through the mud and making sure the bad gossip about him won’t die down.

I turn, no longer strong enough to face her pleas. Hitching my bag strap higher on my shoulder, I step down the first riser to the porch.

Wood creaks as Caleb shoves off the railing, and I pause on the steps, looking at him as Jeremy rushes up toward the porch.

The way Caleb stares at me is a slow and deliberate once-over. He’s committing me to memory, and I know his residual anger won’t fade any time soon. His voice is sober and serious after he licks his lips and speaks. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

Oh, Caleb…I hold in a sob at the pain in his promise. Even if he hates me, he’ll fight for me.

“You just have to call.”

Before I can nod, Jeremy grips my arm.

Caleb scowls, dropping his furious stare where Jeremy holds me too tightly. His fingers are cold and thin, like shackles.

He grunts, then smirks the evil expression I loathe. That smug smile he has when he’s glad he’s getting his way. “She won’t be seeing you ever again.”

I cringe and want to resist. I want to fling his hand off me and run to Caleb. Hearing such a harsh claim on me, and slotting those words into my mind, I hold in a cry of anger.

To never see Caleb again…

I sniff, trying to remember the fleeting hope I want to pray I might have. That maybe one day, I will see this rugged man again.

To give in to Jeremy’s claim is too much. I can’t speak up. I can’t do anything but stare at the one man I love and wish this didn’t have to happen.

The icy fingers squeeze my arm, and he roughly jerks me close. I stumble, almost falling. The bag of donated clothes that suit me so well swings. It knocks into Jeremy’s side, and he sneers at it as I hurry to right my footing before I fall. I wouldn’t put it past him to drag me over the ground.

“What the hell is this?” He yanks the strap so hard it tears. With a nasty scowl like he’s holding a sack of garbage, he throws it to the grass I’ll never mow again. “I don’t want that trash.”

Over the roar of my pulse in my ears, I hear Marian’s light footsteps on the porch. Jeremy doesn’t look back, his narrow-eyed gaze zeroes in on the car.

I peek. I can’t resist the pull to look back just one more time. Caleb holds an arm out, gently stopping Marian from rushing toward me. His eyes are locked on mine, and the pain and anger in them blazes so bright and hot I fear it’ll burn me alive.

It shouldn’t be like this. Marian was right, and I feel wooden and trapped in a moment of fear of a new kind. I’m not frozen in the panic of what awaits me, but in the chance I might be making a mistake. A huge mistake.

“Get in,” Jeremy orders. I slam against the door and clamp my lips shut.

It’s now or never. I can run back to Caleb or slide into the passenger seat.

“Get. In.” Jeremy leans close, bringing his rancid black coffee and cigarette breath toward my face. “If you know what’s good for you, you better get your scrawny ass in the car right now.”

I gulp. I’ve dug my grave. Antagonizing him won’t make a difference. It couldn’t be worse than what was already a hopeless situation.

He wrenches the door open, and I duck my head to avoid hitting the top of the car before he pushes at me. It’s a demonstration of everything I told Caleb and Marian, and I know with a hard weight of shame that they’ll pity me. Or Marian will. Caleb is so mad and hurt that I can’t tell what his reaction will be at witnessing Jeremy’s brutal mannerisms with me.

Did he mean it? I wonder it as my butt crashes into the stiff leather seat that’s freezing with the AC on full blast.

Caleb told me that all I had to do was call him and reach out. The decision is in my hands, and as I feel the hard ridge of the new phone I got, I’m glad I didn’t stash it in the bag Jeremy threw to the ground. At least I can take comfort in the fact I have a means to reach out to Caleb and Marian. Their numbers are the only ones I have stored in this device, and if I keep it hidden from Jeremy…

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