Amy Blankenship - Night Light стр 12.

What was left of the calm feeling immediately fled and Jewel shook her head vigorously. “No, I have to go back! If I don’t, Anthony will kill me.”

“He can’t kill you if he can’t find you,” Steven reasoned in a voice that was so cold it sucked some of the warmth right out of the room.

“What about Father Gordon?” Jewel demanded her voice level rising. “If they go to him, they’ll find out where I am.” Jewel started pacing. “Daddy’s gonna be so mad and Anthony… I don’t want to think about what he’ll do.”

Steven had a flashback of the handprint-sized bruise she had been wearing earlier. “Why the hell would you protect your daddy when he obviously doesn’t protect you!”

“Who gave you the right to give a damn!?” Jewel yelled back more comfortable now that he was yelling at her.

“You know what? Fine,” Steven opened the bedroom door. “There’s the way out, go back to your fiancé and a marriage you’re being forced into because of Daddy’s inability to take care of business. No real father would ever sacrifice his children to pay off a debt he created.”

Jewel stared at the door and took an uncertain step forward before backing up and sinking down on the bed. She gazed toward the alarm clock and knew it was too late to sneak back in ether way. Two AM… that’s when the guards changed shifts and that had been the only time she could return without being caught.

“What do I do now?” Jewel asked and looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “Where would I go?”

Steven shut the door and knelt down in front of her. “How about you start by telling me everything?”

“Like what?” Jewel asked.

Steven gave her a small smile, “We can start with your last name.”

Jewel sighed, “My last name is Scott and my father manages a resort in Palm Springs for my… fiancé. God that word leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

Steven felt a huge weight lift from his shoulders seeing again how much she hated the fact she was being forced to marry this guy… not that he would ever let that happen now. “Okay, calm down and back up. Try starting from the beginning,” he suggested.

Taking a deep breath, Jewel calmly started talking, just letting it all go. “I was in boarding school when Daddy ran into some trouble at the resort. A government agent had checked in undercover and was trying to uncover all the mafia activity going in and out of the place. When Daddy found out what the man was… he was given orders to kill him.”

Steven nodded, “What happened?”

“Daddy waited too long to kill him… the agent had already given his superiors all the information. When the agent didn’t check in or whatever it is they do, the FBI sent more agents and Daddy was arrested. Anthony Valachi bailed him out of jail after he did something, probably bribed one of the top officials, and all the charges were dropped.”

“Now Daddy’s in debt to his boss. Not knowing how else to pay off the debt, when I came back from school, Daddy told me I was engaged to Anthony and he was actually happy about it.”

Jewel took another breath and swiped her hand over her eyes. “I don’t want to be married yet… I wanted to do something with myself, go to college and work for a living, maybe travel a little bit. This man is twice my age. Now I’m a prisoner, a slave to that bastard and my father’s mistake.”

Steven nodded and fought the urge to get up and pace the room. Losing the battle, he did start pacing. “I can fix this,” he stated firmly but kept pacing. His mind was going a mile a minute.

“Yeah right,” Jewel frowned, “you and what army?” She suddenly remembered the angel she had seen at the church and glanced up hopefully.

Steven recognized the name as the same guy Micah had gotten into a fight with a couple weeks ago before he vanished. Micah had thrown the man out of the club after giving him a face full of his fist, knocking the smart ass right out of his chair. Steven still had trouble not laughing when he thought about it.

Quinn hadn’t thought it was too funny though. Maybe Quinn had known Anthony was a big wig in the mafia and was trying to just watch out for Micah. As a matter of fact, it was the same night Micah had disappeared.

He glanced back at Jewel as he passed in front of her. She was right… Anthony Valachi had been twice her age and a self-righteous asshole to boot. There was no way in hell he was going to let her anywhere near that man or her abusive father… father… the priest at the church. Now that man owed him a favor, and with a little help from Dean… he was going to pay up.

Flipping open his cell phone, he clicked in several numbers and smiled as the other side picked up. “Dean, are you still at the church? Good, retrieve the priest and wait for me there.” He ended the call and closed the distance between him and Jewel. Dropping back to his knees in front of her, he took her hands in his, rubbing his thumbs soothingly over her soft skin.

“How far are you willing to go?” he asked in a steady voice as he searched her face.

“It needs to be more than just running away,” Jewel hated how her voice had sounded so tiny. She hadn’t meant for her fear to show through like that. She bit her lower lip wondering what Steven was up to.

“If we can do this right, you won't have to run any further than here.”

“What are you thinking?” Jewel started to pull her hands away but he held them firm.

“I’m thinking that you can’t get married twice.” Steven flinched when she jerked hard enough to gain her freedom. Pushing up from the floor, he stared down at her as she nearly crawled across the bed in her attempt to put distance between them.

“Listen…” he started.

“No,” Jewel almost yelled as she climbed off the other side of the mattress, feeling a little safer now that the bed was between them. Her face instantly went up in flames realizing the bed was between them in more ways than one if she agreed to go through with this insanity.

She snapped her gaze from the bed. “I didn’t want to get married in the first place! Why the hell would I marry you?”

Steven’s eyes narrowed at the insult but he wasn’t going to let her pride get her killed. If he had to scare the hell out of her then it would be worth it. Besides… at the moment, she was the only lead he had on Micah. Steven’s lip hinted at a devious smile now that he’d successfully added another reason for doing what he was about to do.

“Why marry me, you ask? Because if you can pretend that the marriage is real in front of my family and yours… then in the bedroom it will be in name only. And that army you were wondering about, remember I’m not human and neither are my family or friends. So when you’re jilted ex tries to retaliate… we will be waiting on him.”

“Why would you do any of this?” Jewel shook her head. “And what do you mean pretend?”

Steven held his hands out indicating the bed between them. “To answer your first question, I have a brother who’s been missing for a couple weeks now and the last person besides his family that he was seen with was your intended and it wasn’t friendly. So, what better way to get his attention then to yank his chain.”