Nina is too easy to seduce. She’s still too obsessed after all these years. She loves Heath. That’s clear, but it would have been all too easy for me to get into her pants if I had truly wanted to last night.

She is going to fuck up all my plans before we even get home at this rate. I can’t let that happen.

I haven’t seen her in hours though. For all I know, she’s found a way to put us both out of our misery.

We are landing soon, so it’s time for me to get off my ass and go figure out what to do with her. I roll off the bed to start to get dressed. I should shower, as it would make me feel better, but I don’t. I don’t want to feel better. Maybe, if I let the pain consume me, I can do what I need to do.

I put my pants back on and then grab a clean shirt from the closet. I begin to put it on and feel the stabbing pain in my shoulder as I slip my arm in the sleeve. She got me good in the shoulder. It will take me several weeks to fully heal.

Good. I need to remember that she’s no angel. That she’s a fighter even if she is a terrible shot. I’ll have to remedy that situation soon.

I finish getting dressed, and then I step back into the main part of the airplane to face her.

I expect her to be asleep or planning her revenge on me and my family, but I find her doing neither.

She smiles at me brightly.

“Don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?” she asks with a smile still plastered on her sweet face.

“Don’t pretend that everything is okay when it isn’t. Stop smiling. You shouldn’t be smiling.”

“So, now, you get to tell me that I can’t even smile? I don’t think that’s fair.”

“Life isn’t fair. Get used to it.”

I walk toward the front of the plane to check in with the pilots to figure out when we are landing. When I return, Nina still has a bright smile on her face.

“Buckle your seatbelt. We will be landing soon.”

She smiles as she buckles her seatbelt. “When we get back to your home, will I be able to shower and change? This dress is uncomfortable and dirty.”

I stare at her with wide eyes. I don’t know what she is doing, but she needs to stop. Pretending like she isn’t being kidnapped against her will and about to step into a completely different world where she will be tested in ways she could never imagine is useless. It won’t help anything.

I ignore her and look out the window as we land. She doesn’t understand it, but it’s the last time I will have any freedom either. At least, until this is all over.

* * *

In the backseat of the car, I watch Nina’s eyes as we pull up in front of my house. Her eyes grow just as big and wide with wonderment as they did the first time she entered my house when her class was getting a tour for her art history lesson for the day. I don’t see any fear.

“What is your fascination with my house?”

She blinks rapidly, like I just turned into a monkey or something. “It’s not just a fascination; it’s an obsession. Your house is beautiful. It’s the most beautiful home I’ve ever had the pleasure of stepping foot inside of. It has architecture and history unlike so many homes in America that are just built for convenience. This home was built to be beautiful, just for beauty’s sake. It was spared no expense and has lasted hundreds of years. Through all the changes in the world. What isn’t there to love about it? Don’t tell me you don’t think your home is magical.”

I shake my head and then rub my neck. Nina looks very much like a woman, and for the most part, she acts like it, but she has a long way to go in understanding how things really work.

“I don’t think my home is magical or beautiful. And it’s definitely not something you should obsess over. It was built on the backs of slaves, like most of the world’s greatest buildings were. It served as a dungeon for many. A place of oppression for others. That history you speak so fondly of is nothing more than pain and suffering of other people. It’s nothing to be obsessed over.”

She frowns as she narrows her eyes at me. “It’s also your home, and it carries your family’s history and that of generations of people before you. It also represented hope and love for a lot of people. It represented freedom and a chance at a better life. It gave employment to some. Shelter to others. It was a place of fancy parties and people falling in love. Every place has a negative history. But you can’t focus on the dark without also seeing the light. Everything has two sides.”

When she speaks, I know she isn’t talking about the house anymore. She is talking about me. She thinks I have a light side along with the dark. She’s wrong. I haven’t had a drop of goodness in me in years. It died the day Nina’s life effectively ended. I’ve had a very different mission ever since.

The driver parks the car outside the mansion that holds more secrets than I will ever know. I can see how she finds it beautiful, but she’s just letting her naïveté through.

I step out of the car, and Nina follows. She looks like a mess in her wedding dress that is covered in dirt and filth. Her makeup is smeared all over her face. She looks broken already. Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe it will make my family think she is weaker than she actually is, and they’ll underestimate her.

I step back into my home that might as well be my own prison cell. That’s what it feels like every time I walk inside, but in a few months, that will all change. I will own everything. I will become the ruler instead of the captive.

I keep walking through hallways and past large rooms that hold beautiful paintings and history that Nina used to stare at like it was perfection when, in fact, they are nothing more than paint and canvas.

“Where are we going?” Nina asks as we wind down hallways and up staircases that she wasn’t privy to on her tour.

“To prove to my father that you are here and to learn the terms of your debt.”

I hear her gasp, but I don’t turn to look at her. I need to turn off my humanity now. If I have a chance at winning this fight, I need to not feel anything. Not her pain, fear, or excitement. Not my own heart racing or even the ache in my shoulder. I need to feel nothing.

I keep walking until I get to the family room in the back of the house. When I gave the tour seven years ago, I only showed the students rooms that were practically never used. I never showed the rooms that actually mattered. The rooms that we actually live in.

I open the double doors and enter the family room where my father is sitting in a large chair by the fireplace, waiting for me.

He cocks his head to one side to look past me to where Nina is standing in the doorway.

He nods his approval at me, and then he stands up and walks toward Nina.

“My beautiful Nina. It is so good of you to finally join us. Let me introduce myself. I’m Enrico Carini. You sat at the dinner table with me once before, but you weren’t really concerned with meeting me at the time. Now, I think you should be very concerned with learning who I am.”

Nina narrows her eyes at my father as she walks proudly into the family room. “No, I’m not particularly concerned with who you are other than learning enough to point you out to the police when I escape. Or, at least, remember your face when I put a bullet between your eyes.”

My father chuckles as he turns to me. “You weren’t lying about this one.”

I nod but don’t react otherwise. Just keep my composure. Get through tonight, and then I will have some freedom.

My father forcefully grabs Nina’s hand. I can see the pain and disgust in her eyes as my father holds on to her arm and guides her over to the table.

She looks to me like I’m going to save her, but I don’t do anything. The sooner she learns that I will do nothing to save her, the better.

“Take a seat, Nina,” Enrico says, pushing her down into a chair at the table.

“This is illegal, you know. You can’t just kidnap me. You will pay for this. My husband won’t stop until he gets me back.”

Enrico laughs. “I don’t doubt that he will. But he will fail, as have hundreds of husbands before him.”

Nina’s eyes widen. “You’ve done this hundreds of times before? You’re sicker than I thought.”

Enrico nods. “It’s a tradition that has gone back hundreds of years. You just happened to get caught up in it. But you have one thing very wrong if you think this is illegal. What we are doing is very legal.”

He glances to the piece of paper in front of Nina. She jumps up in her seat when she sees her signature at the bottom of the paper.

“You forged my signature on some document. So what? It doesn’t mean anything.”

“We didn’t forge anything, Nina.”

“I would have never agreed to anything as twisted as whatever this is,” Nina says.

“Fear will make a person do things they never dreamed of,” I say, stepping forward.

She won’t believe it if it comes from my father. I know that much. But, for some stupid reason, she trusts me.

Nina shakes her head, but I already see the hint of realization at what the truth is hidden beneath her long, dark lashes.

My eyes guide hers back to the document she signed seven years ago. The document that saved her yet sentenced her to death at the same time. All it did was prolong her life.

She starts reading and realizes all the things that I already know the document contains.

That she offered up her freedom for seven years in exchange for my family saving her from Clive and Erick’s family the night that they put something in her drink and tried to kidnap her themselves. That she had two choices. Pay seven million dollars or pay with seven years of her life. She doesn’t have seven million dollars. She doesn’t even have one million dollars.

Nina skips most of the fine print of the document, her fingers tracing her signature that rests on the bottom of the page along with my signature and the rest of my family’s signatures.

I know the moment it finally sinks in that she can’t escape this. That this is completely legal even if the law wouldn’t really support it. We have enough power in this country to get away with anything. Including owning her for seven years.

She takes a deep breath as she realizes that she is the one who got herself into this twisted mess. I tried to warn her. I tried to keep her out of this, but she didn’t listen. Now, she has to pay the consequences.

She looks back at the document.

“It even says the date you would come for me. It has yesterday’s date on it.” She rubs her head, trying to remember. “That night is fuzzy.” She stands up from the chair and starts walking around the room, trying to remember that night.

“I remember drinking the shot that had the drugs in it. I remember your face of terror as I drank it,” Nina says, looking at me.

But all I see is my father’s disappointment on his face.

She rubs her head some more. “I remember you all being there. And I remember yesterday’s date. It’s why…” She hesitates.

I smirk. “It’s why you picked yesterday as your wedding day.”

She nods and wraps her arms around herself, trying to comfort herself. Like that is going to help. She doesn’t understand that she is surrounded by monsters.

And that she can’t save herself anymore. She had her chance seven years ago. But she let her obsession with me get the best of her.

“So, the document is real. Now what? You’re going to rape me and make me your slave for seven years?” Nina looks directly at me.

My father laughs. “Basically. But you aren’t just Arlo’s slave. You belong to all of us.”

Nina’s eyes don’t hide the fear well. If she is going to survive here, she needs to hide her fears better than that. My family lives for fear. They love twisting and playing with others’ minds. They love the control they wield over people. And they won’t stop until they destroy her. That’s the game.

“Matteo, why don’t you introduce yourself to Nina? I don’t think she remembers you,” Enrico says.

I watch as Nina looks at my brother. She doesn’t recognize him even though she has met him before. I can tell from the shock in her face of seeing another man who is almost identical to me. Matteo has longer hair now, and he took a knife to the face that left him with a bad scar under his eye, making it easy for people to tell us apart now, unlike when we were younger. It makes him look menacing. Terrifying. And he is. But that’s not his game. He won’t seem terrifying to Nina. He’ll convince her that he’s sweet and loving, unlike me.

I look deep into Nina’s eyes as she stares at my brother. I see the instant lust and obsession starting in her eyes—the same way it did with me the first time she saw me. She wants him just as badly as she wants me even if she will never admit it. And I can’t stay here and watch her obsession begin. I love my brother. I would do anything for him. But the pain of watching her fall for my brother is too much for me to bear.

I feel my blood rushing fast through my body as my anger and jealousy creep to the surface. I glance down at my shoulder and see that my wound is opening again. I should have it properly looked at and closed. But I won’t. I relish this kind of pain. It will keep me from doing something incredibly stupid.

Nina doesn’t look at me when the blood spills out onto my shirt. She’s too infatuated with my brother and the thought of having sex with him to care about anything else.

I sigh and leave before I have to witness anymore. She’s strong. I know that. But I’m still afraid that her obsession is going to be the end of her.