Page 12 of Liberating Mia
He picked up the duffel, and with one last lingering look, he left.
Chapter Nine
Mia came awake slowly. She lay there, trying to figure out what had woken her. Something felt off, but she couldn’t quite place it. Reaching over, she picked her cell phone up to check the time. The room’s blackout curtains enabled guests to sleep comfortably no matter what time of day, so she had no idea what the current time was.
As the display lit up, she saw it was just a little after one o’clock in the morning. What on earth had woken her? Sighing, she threw back the bedding with the intention of using the bathroom. She turned the light on and got out of the bed. And almost came out of her skin.
No! It was impossible. Mia’s brain scrambled to make sense of what she was seeing. Her blood ran ice cold. Oh god, this couldn’t be happening. Maybe she was still asleep, and it was all just a nightmare.
“Good morning, my darling.”
Not a bad dream then. But most definitely a nightmare. Herworstnightmare. He was seated in the single armchair in the room, an ankle crossed over a knee. As always, despite the early hour, he was impeccably turned out. Not a hair out of place, not a crease dared mar his clothing.
Mia’s mouth opened but closed again without her uttering a word. Speech had deserted her. Then again, what was there to say under the circumstance?
“Aren’t you pleased to see me, Mia? I’ve been most concerned. I was worried something had happened to you,” Dylan murmured, the smile on his lips not quite reaching his eyes. Eyes as flat and cold as the shark he was compared to by business colleagues and associates.
“Dylan … I– you … how …?” Not a single coherent thought would gel in her panicked mind.
How the hell had he found her? She’d been so careful – never using her bank or credit card, not giving her real name when she booked in anywhere. Or at least she’d thought so. Obviously, she couldn’t have been as cautious as she’d thought, otherwise Dylan wouldn’t have found her.
“Well, darling, I have to say, I’m most disappointed with my rather lackluster reception. But then, I suppose I shouldn’t be. If you were that pleased to see me, you wouldn’t have run away in the first place, not so?”
He stood, unfolding himself from the chair, and Mia’s stomach clenched. She was in a world of trouble and had no idea how to get out of it. Without warning, Dylan struck out, landing a resounding slap across her cheek.
Mia fell to the bed, momentarily stunned. Shaking her head, she attempted to gather her wits. She started to roll away to the other side of the bed, trying to escape him, when she felt an unforgiving hand grab hold of her hair. The pain had her eyes watering.
Using her mane as leverage, Dylan dragged her back toward him until he could thrust his face in hers.
“Did you think I wouldn’t come looking for you? You cannot run from me, Mia. I told you before, and I’ll remind you again, you belong to me. And I keep what’s mine. Unless it becomes tiresome.” Up close, Mia could see the anger that bubbled beneath the surface reflected in his eyes. “You, my darling Mia, have now become tiresome.”
With a vicious yank, Dylan dragged her from the bed. She scrambled to find purchase to relieve the pain of dangling from her hair. But Dylan yanked again, throwing her back off balance. As she hung from her tresses, tears now streaming from her face, Dylan lashed out with the other hand.
Mia felt her lip split, tasting the iron tang of blood in her mouth. He slapped her again, and again, and again. The blows fell carelessly as his veneer of civility fell away and the insanity he hid from the world took its place.
Unexpectedly, Dylan released the hold he had on her, and Mia fell to the ground. She lay where she fell, her breath sawing in and out. Then he kicked her.
Pain exploded through her midriff, and nausea instantly washed through her. Was she to die here in this impersonal hotel room tonight as she’d witnessed the man die in Dylan’s conference room? If so, she prayed for unconsciousness to take her soon.
“I gave you everything, bitch!” Dylan screamed at her. “And this is how you thank me? You slink away without so much as a goodbye, like a thief in the night?”
Groaning in pain, Mia rolled to her knees. She held a hand out in supplication. “Please, Dylan– I’m sorry. I—”
“Shut up. I don’t want to hear your pathetic excuses. You don’t want to be with me? Fine. Let’s see how you like the alternative.” He stalked over to the door, snatched it open, and had a brief conversation with someone on the other side. Then he calmly strolled back over to the chair she’d found him in and took a seat as if the last few minutes had never happened.
He looked her over critically. “Look what you made me do now. That will bruise, and I won’t get a good price for you all marked up like that.” He sighed.
Mia stared at Dylan in horror. “What do you mean, you won’t get a good price for me?”
The door opened, and Dylan’s righthand man, Christoff, entered the room.
“There’s a twenty-four-hour drugstore down the road, Mr. Hunt. I’ve sent Cameron to get what you need, sir. He won’t be long.”
Straightening a cuff, Dylan nodded. “Thank you, Christoff. That will be all for the moment.”
“Yes, sir.”
She watched as he left the room, her mind screaming at her to run. But what was the point? There was no way Mia would make it out of the room. Even if she managed to evade Dylan, she now knew there was a least one person outside the door. And lord knew, she’d never escape Christoff.
