Page 95 of Sweet Surrender
“Did he tell you that I fiddled with the brakes on your car as well? I’lladmit, it was difficult timing it just right so you crashedinto my car. And did he tell you I had cameras installed in your apartment so I could watch you? Or how I would break in to watch you sleep, and every time I did, I stole your panties? I’ve still got them, you know.”
I figured now was as good a time as any to tell her everything. Itwasn’t going to change anything, Savannah would be leaving here with me when this shit was dealt with, regardless of if she was pissed with me or not.
“You…what?” she whispered, her hand coming up to cover hermouth, and all the blood draining from her face.
I leaned forward in the chair making Savannah recoil fractionally. “I’mnot sorry for a single thing I did, sweetheart. You were drowning in a sea of debt and misery, and I took all that away so I could give you the world.”Her breath hitched, and as she opened her mouth to reply, I shook my head, silencing her. “You’ve heard the bullshit he had to say, now it’s my turn to speak,” I said firmly, letting her know in no uncertain terms that she was going to hear what I had to say, no matter what. “I’ve always promised to tell you the truth, Savannah, but I warn you, you might not like what you’re about to hear.”
She blinked several times but remained quiet. A few weeks ago, shewould have refused to listen, but my sweet Savannah had learned to obey me so well.
“Liam was in debt long before he met me. He told you he forged yoursignature on those documents so he could use the money to pay me off?” I paused, raising a questioning brow, and waited for her response. She nodded. “He was lying, and if you need to see the proof, I can show you copies of all the loan agreements with the dates on. He took out those loans simply because he was a greedy cunt. Did you ever meet any of his work colleagues?”
Savannah’s brows pulled into a frown before she shook her head, hereyes flicking over to where Liam was sitting, breathing heavily. Iwondered if he was more worried about what I was going to reveal, or when he’d be getting his next fix of whatever drug he’d become addicted to.
“The marketing company he worked for had high expectations of theirstaff, expectations that Liam couldn’t meet as an intern.”
“Intern? He told me he’d been employed as a marketing assistant,”she said, interrupting me. I let it slide on this one occasion, I knew she would have questions.
“Another lie,” I replied, enjoying a moment of glee as her lips curledinto a sneer the next time her eyes flashed to Liam. “Liam was an unpaid intern, but he made out to all his colleagues that he was part of a wealthy family. He took out the loans and credit cards in your name after he maxed them all out in his own name, all so he could buy expensive suits, cars, anything that would make it look like he was one of them and richer than he was. When he realized he couldn’t get any more money, he started gambling to try and win some of it back.” I kept my voice calm when on the inside, I was anything but.
“Sadly for him, he lost a lot of money in my casino one night,” Ipaused, reaching out to stroke my knuckles down her cheek, glad that she didn’t flinch this time. “I never believed in fate before then, I always believed you make your own luck in this life. But that night, I happened to be at the casino checking in on the business. And it just so happened that Liam brought you to the casino with him.”
Recognition dawned behind her eyes. “The Aurora in Portland?” Inodded, confirming that it was indeed the hotel I first saw her at. “I thought I’d been there before. But that night was months before Liam disappeared.”
“It was. Two months to be exact. Two months for me to put my plansin place.”
“I…I don’t understand,” she whispered.
I took her hand, giving it a squeeze. “I was informed by a member ofstaff that Liam had lost a significant amount of money, and I mean asignificantamount. It got my attention, and I intended to approach him and ask him to leave, but as soon as I saw him, something else got my attention. I should saysomeonegot my attention.”
I paused to smile at her, remembering the moment I first laideyes on her. In that moment, I’d been convinced my heart was going to beat right out of my chest. The feeling that had coursed through me at seeing her was one I’d never felt before, but since that night, it had never gone away.
“You were standing with him, staring at the floor as he berated youover something.”
“I remember,” she said, her voice soft, and her eyes glazing over as ifshe was returning to that night. “I told him I thought we should go because he’d lost a few hundred dollars, but he was shouting at me, telling me he wasn’t going anywhere until he’d won his money back.”
“It was more than a few hundred dollars, sweetheart. I suspect heplayed it down to keep you from the truth. It took everything in me to not storm over to you right then and snatch you away from him, but I couldn’t move.” I squeezed her hand again, drawing her eyes back to mine. “The minute I saw you, Savannah, it was like I was seeing things clearly for the first time in my life. I can’t explain it, but the second I laid eyes on you, I felt this overwhelming need to make you mine. To possess you. To own you. I’d never wanted anyone the way I wanted you, but there was just one problem.”
“I was already in a relationship,” she replied after a few seconds oftense silence.
“Yeah. I only had to take one look at him to know he didn’t deserveyou. I decided to let him carry on playing him, watching you both for the rest of the night. By the time you left, he’d lost even more money, and I had alreadyfound out that you were both up to your eyes in debt. I had someone look deeper into the accounts so I could understand where my bargaining tools were, and it became obvious that Liam was swindling you, and you were completely clueless-”
“Sav, he’s talking shit!” Liam bellowed again, having recovered fromFox’s punch. I didn’t need to give Fox another order to shut him the hell up, my best friend was already scrapping with him.
“What happened next?” Savannah asked when Liam’s shouts ofprotests turned to garbled murmurs, silenced once again by Fox.
“The next day, I approached Liam, and offered him a loan of$250,000, but with the condition he had to have a guarantor to pay the money back if he couldn’t. I was testing my theory to see if Liam was swindling you. Of course, he snapped my hand off, and within an hour of me giving him the contract to read over and consider, he brought it back to me, signed by both him and you.”
Savannah’s eyes narrowed on me. “I didn’t sign it,” she snarled.
I held back my chuckle. “Of course you didn’t, sweetheart. And Liamplayed right into my hands. He gave me the signed contract, agreeing to the additional terms that he clearly hadn’t read.”
I’ll never forget the day he signed that contract without reading it over.For all he knew he could have just signed a contract agreeing to be fucked in the ass by every man in the US Army.
“What were the terms?”
“Simple really. He had to pay the money back within two months,that was all.”
“Two months? That’s a lot of money to pay back in a short space oftime,” she replied, her brows furrowed in thought.
