Page 77 of His Captive

“Sorrento is married?” She looks stunned.

“He was married,” I correct.

“He also inherited most of the businesses in town. The town was pretty much his. And I took them from him.”

Her face scrunches slightly with confusion

“Why?” she asks, so fucking innocently.

“Because, Sorrento took something away from me, something that couldn’t be replaced by money or power, and because I hated him and wanted to ruin everything he possessed.” She nods her head as she takes in what I tell her. Her eyes wide, innocent, and totally distracting me.

“What he took away from me wasn’t important to him. He took it from me out of spite, and so I did the same with his town.”

“What did he take?” Her voice shakes like she isn’t sure she wants the answer.

“He took the only thing that ever mattered,” I tell her, feeling the painful burn of loss in my chest all over again.

“And, you’re right…” I quickly move on before she asks any more questions.

“You’ve been dragged into all this unwillingly, you deserve answers that I can’t give you. But, I am prepared to offer you something better.”

Lysetta sits a little taller in her chair, suddenly looking intrigued. I skim my hand across my jaw and look back up at her, a big fucking mistake because it has me doubting what I’m about to do. Her brow creases together ever so slightly as I open the top drawer of my desk and pull out my check book. I swallow the pain, there are no choices here, not for me anyway. I have to do this. I’ve found value in something again, after so long, and I appreciate the rareness of beauty enough to realize that real love isn’t keeping for yourself, its letting it go.

The torn up pieces of my heart have never felt so far apart as I prepare myself for what I’m going to say.

I force my eyes from hers, picking up a pen and scribble her name on the check beside a figure for a sum of money that I’d probably earned before I even opened my eyes this morning.

Tearing it from the book and slide it across the table to her. Then I write out another, this time for triple the amount.

“What is this?” She lifts the first check from the table.

“That’s your freedom from Sorrento,” I tell her. “And this…” I slid the other check out to her and watch her eyes grow wide as she reads how much it’s written for. “…Is your freedom from me.”

“Ethan… I—”

I won’t let her finish. She has to hear me out. “I don’t want you to need me because you’re scared of him. If you choose to stay here with me, I want it to be because you want to. Not because you have to. There’s enough money there for you to pay what your father owes, and then set yourself up somewhere and protect yourself from Sorrento.”

“Why are you doing this?” she asks sounding hurt.

“If you’re gonna be mine, and I mean really fucking mine, Lysa, I want it to be because you gave yourself to me willingly. Not because I’ve kept you, forced you, or because you have to. You’ve always got a choice.”

She holds both the checks in her hands and stares between them. I silently will her to tear them up, and tell me she wants to stay with me.

“The more time I spend with you, the more I can feel it slipping away.” The confession comes tumbling from my lips like loose rocks falling from a cliff edge.

“What? What’s slipping away?” she asks, taking her attention from the checks to look up at me.

“My anger at everything. All the hate too. It’s what’s kept me functioning up till now. And you’ve made me feel like I don’t need it anymore.”

“Ethan.” She stands up and places the checks back on my desk.

“If I stay, what would this be? Will you still want to…” She tries to find a description for what we’ve been doing since she arrived. I can’t help her because hell if I know myself.

“I don’t know. I’ve never known normal because I never got a shot at it before. So I can only tell you what I’m sure of.”

“And what’s that?” she asks, softly.

“That I want to protect you, that since that first night you came here to steal from me you’ve been my priority. And that I need to control you, but I never want to change you.”

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