Annika Remo, a beautiful and innocent young woman, hides a painful past while living with her unsympathetic uncle and aunt, relying on her fantasy novels to escape. Unbeknownst to her, her uncle has put her on a dangerous blacklist. Matteo King, the...
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Annika Remo
I tried to tell myself nothing was going to happen as I felt my heartbeat race. Matteo look's down at me as I hold his arm, scared to death. Shivers creep through my body. I don't know what they want from me but I was begging him with my eyes not to give me away to those strangers as tears raced down my tinted red cheeks.
Nostrils flaring, he stood in front of me, fist clenched as he looked back at the men standing in front of us. "She won't be going anywhere," His voice was so powerful and thunderous. He became a different person from who I was hugging seconds ago. His eyes had warped into a miserable black.
"We don't want to cause any trouble King, but she has to come with us," Terror washed over me. What do they want from me?
One of the strangers went to grab his gun and shoot but Matteo was faster, in one swift movement the guy had a bullet through his head. My heart was hammering in my ears as I tried not to scream from the blow. I press my head to his solid back as I fisted his jacket in my hands. A feeling of dread crept up from the pit of my stomach.
The other guy had his hands up, placing his gun down. "She is Elijah's daughter, and when he found out she was on the black list he ordered us to find her," Matteo tenses, at his words as his chest puffed up and down from rage.
Is he talking about me?
That's not possible, my father died in a car accident and his name wasn't Elijah. My eyes stung as the ruthless wind raced past them. All this doesn't make any sense. Right now, I'm stuck somewhere between what if, what might, what could have, and what never will and all I want to know is what actually is.
I'm good at figuring out how things work, but I don't know how this happened. How suddenly I'm holding onto this guy for safety, how I'm afraid of a simple sentence a stranger sets in front of me.
"That's impossible, my father is dead. My parents died in a car crash. If they were alive, they wouldn't have left me with my uncle," I say softly, moving away from Matteo and standing upright. The stranger looks into my eyes with sympathy.
Matteo brings his gun down, placing back behind his waist. My throat tightens and I take a short intake of breath at his next words. "I'm sorry Miss Annika but I can assure you that your father is very much alive" A great sob escaped me and I covered my face with trembling hands as I shake my head disagreeing at his information.
He wouldn't leave me, he promised me a thousand times that he wouldn't. This was his headstone, I cried for him. I said goodbye to him. I died for him. His words were cutting into my wounded heart more. I didn't believe my father would ever leave me. I won't believe him. He wouldn't do that.
I swiped at my eyes but the tears came anyway. "I don't believe you. My father wouldn't leave me, knowing what I was going through," effort to say the words that were bottled up inside me. He stepped closer.
