Page 11 of Risky Behavior: Submitting to the Ruthless Guard

“No, I’ll be fine. I’ll message you if anything comes up. Have you been in to check on her?”

“Was I supposed to?”

I just shook my head. “Never mind. Have a good night.”

I moved the chair he had in front of the door to the side and unlocked Talia’s door. With a quiet knock, I opened it and peeked in.

“Hey there,” she greeted me from where she was sitting in bed.

“You doing okay?”

“Yeah. I just figured I should lie low if I have the flu.”

“Good call.”

Talia had come up with a series of excuses that seemed to have worked so far. The hardest was the flu diagnosis, but I got the name of the doctor that serviced the staff at Carter’s estate and paid him off when he got here. He was more than happy to share that Talia had come down with the flu when Carter had requested her presence. It had bought some time, but not a lot.

“I take it Anderson didn’t come in?”

“No, the only reason I knew he was out there was because he plays that dumb game of his with the sound on and it drives me crazy.”

I took my usual seat at the small table in the corner and opened up my laptop. I had gotten in the habit of just leaving it here, and as far as I could tell, Talia hadn’t once tried to use it. It didn’t make sense to me why she wouldn’t. If I were in her position, then I would have done everything I could to get out of here, but she seemed to have just given in to her fate.

“I have some news.”

“Good or bad?”

“Both. You can have normal meals again, and I’ve negotiated some workout clothes so we can start running if you want. Carter previously approved a few different areas on his property that I can take you to. It won’t be anything like before you got here, but it will be something.”

“Shouldn’t I have had the chance to decide if I wanted to hear the good news or the bad news first?”

“I’m more of a ‘rip off the bandaid’ kind of person, which brings me to the bad news. He’s keeping up the schedule of your meds. In addition to that, Nadine, one of his escorts, leaves this coming weekend, and he’s expecting you to attend a fundraiser with him.”

“Wait, what?”

“He’s keeping up -”

“No, not that. The part about the fundraiser.”

“Nadine is leaving. He is expecting you to go with him.”

“Like hell I will.”

Talia threw back the covers and popped up out of bed. I watched as she began pacing the small space between where she stood and the bathroom door. “Does he seriously think I would willingly go somewhere with him? He has to be insane to think I’d agree to that. After what he did to me! The balls of this fucking asshole have to be huge. I mean I’ve never known an asshole to have balls but his has to have a pair. Fucking dick.”

She was muttering to herself and flailing her arms around like she was about to take off in flight. It was so ridiculous I couldn’t help but laugh. Talia turned to me the instant she heard it.

“Are you laughing at me? You better not be laughing at me, Leo Rand!”

She had closed the space between us and had a finger pointed right in my face as she started yelling at me, so I caught her hand in mine.

“I’d watch where you point that finger, Little Bird. Next time it gets that close to my mouth, I may just bite it off.”

Talia pulled her hand away from me and I watched as what I said sunk in. She squinted her eyes and tilted her head before speaking again.

“Why Little Bird?”

“What?”