" Jessica. I need you to come home." My fathers voice sounded through the phone. I got nervous at his panicky tone.
" Dad whats going on why do I need to go home. It's the middle of the day, I have class. What's wrong?" I rambled. I tend to do that when I'm nervous. I paced in the bathroom. After Cameron had left I had received a phone call from my dad and he was breathing hard and sounded anxious, and angry.
" Just get home I'll see you there." Then he ended the call. OK then, I thought to myself as I exited the school and started the short run home. I can't forget to pick up Tiffany from school later. I reminded myself as I passed her preschool.
I finally arrived at school. There were a bunch of cars piled in my drive way. Slick black expensive looking cars that I would only own in my dreams. I slid my hand along the shiny black paint of the Audi r8. It was my favorite out of the 3 cars parked neatly parallel in the driveway. I slowly walked up to the front door. Who did those cars belong to. Was whoever owns them why my father was so worried? New questions kept popping up in my head making it impossible to think.
" Dad." I yelled once I shut the door behind me. " Dad are you, here...." I trailed off when I stepped into the living room. My father, Jocelyn, and 4 other handsome men in suits were seated on the couches. Completely silent." Umm Hello. Sorry I wouldn't have yelled if I had known we had company." I lowered my eyes, and a light blush coated my cheeks. Everyone was looking at me.
Jocelyn scoffed " Did you not see the cars in the driveway?" she said in a mocking tone. I would have said something sarcastic back but there was company, and I was raised to be polite. Especially in front of important people. I may not know who these men were but I could feel the power radiating from them.
" It's no problem." The most handsome of the men said standing up from his chair. " My name is Joseph Copland. I have a proposition for you." He didn't smile he just stuck his hand out for me to shake. I took his hand and instead of shaking it like I thought he was going to he lifted it to his lips and kissed the back of it. My eyes widened it. It sent tingles all the way up my arm into my chest. My heart was pounding rapidly in my chest. There was no chance of me calming it either. At least not in the presence of this beautiful piece of man.
" Alright." I gave a shy smile and pulled my hand back. I cradled it to my body and sat down next to my dad. He sat back down in his seat and leaned forward, with his elbows rested on his knees. He looked at me for a minute before he said anything.
"I want you." He said simply as if that explained everything. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. He wants me? What was that supposed to mean?
" What do you mean you want me Mr. Copland." He smiled slightly at me only for a second, and then it was gone as fast as it came. I got the feeling he didn't smile often.
" Yes. I want you. I want you to come back to my house, and live there with me." He leaned back and laced his fingers together casually. As if what he had just said was not completely preposterous.
" You want me to live with you?! I don't even know you. Why would I ever do that?" I looked at him like he was crazy. He kind of was to think that I would agree.
He narrowed his green eyes. Obviously not used to being told no. " You will come with me. Like I said I have a proposition for you." He smirked. " You will come with me and in return I will not fire your father and I wont completely destroy their lives. In fact I'll even throw in my protection as long as your with me no harm will come to any of your family."
I looked at him with my mouth hanging wide open. 1000 fly's could have flown in and I wouldn't have cared. " That is not a proposition. That's blackmail." I shut my mouth and glared at him. He glared right back.
"Your right it is more blackmail. But it sounds better if I say proposition. Either way, it doesn't matter what I say. You will be coming with me. I don't care what you, your father, or what anyone says. I override them." He said standing up. Done with the conversation.
I looked at my dad. He wouldn't meet my eyes. Jocelyn on the other hand looked me straight in the eye and smiled. " Who are you?" I whispered. My confidence was gone now that I realized that no one was going to stand up for me.
" I already told you who I am baby. I'm Joe Copland. Leader of the most powerful mob in the world." He jerked his head and his other handsome beefy men stood up and headed towards me.
"No. You can't do this." I looked him straight in the eye and stood up as well. Compared to him I felt like a shrimp. It was a feeling that at 5'8" I wasn't used to. He roughly grabbed my arm.
"Get your things. We are leaving in 15 minutes." He growled into my face.
I stood my ground and lifted my chin. " No. I will not go with you."
He let go of my arm and my other hand instantly went up to rub the spot. It was definitely going to leave a bruise. " Fine. But If you wake up in the morning and your whole family, including aunts, uncles, grandparents turn up dead. Just know that you could have done something to prevent it."
I shook my head close to tears. He couldn't do this to me. I'm only 18. " Why me." I said softly and lowered my eyes to the floor.
" Just go get your things. If your not down and outside in my car in 15 minutes I'm sending someone in after you." Then he left out the front door along with his attractive goons.
" Honey." My dad finally said standing up from his spot on the couch.
" Oh now you talk." I turned away from him and started up to my bedroom. I only had 15 minutes after all.
" I know your mad. But there was nothing that I could have done anyway. You have to know that." He said once we were in my room with the door shut.
" You could have said something. Anything. I was completely alone down there." I got a bag out from under my bed and stuffed clothes and shoes and toiletry's and anything else that I could need. I sniffed to try and keep the tears from spilling out of my eyes.
" I'm sorry. I'm so sorry honey." He pulled me in his arms, and hugged me tightly. I couldn't hold it anymore. I gripped his shirt tightly in my fists and cried hard. sobs left my throat loudly and there was nothing I could do to stop them. " You're going to be OK alright honey. You're strong. Stronger than me, any of us. You'll be OK. I'm going to do everything I can to bring you home again." He smiled down at me and wiped my tears with the pads of his thumbs.
I nodded and sniffed. "OK. You promise."
"Yes I promise."
I rushed to the bathroom to try and cover up that I had been crying. Once I was done it didn't help much but I was hoping that he wouldn't look at me. I really didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing that I had been crying. I grabbed all my makeup products and stuffed them in my bag as well and hugged my dad one last time. He had tears coming down his own face. I had to look away quickly. I knew that if I saw him crying I would make me start crying again.
"I love you dad." Then I left him sitting on my bed and descended the stairs. One of the large men was standing there.
" Do you have everything you will need?" He asked and went to take my bag from my shoulder.
" Yes, and I can take it myself thank you."
" I'm glad to see you finally go." Jocelyn said from across the hallway. she was smiling a wide smile.
I glared at her and stalked towards her. " Not as glad as I am to leave you." I turned on my heel and walked out the front door. " I walked to the Audi and got into the back seat. If I was going to be forced to leave I was going to do it in one of my favorite cars. Unfortunately that was also the car that Joseph AKA the bitch forcing me to live with him was in.
I set my bag down by my leg and then turned to the window and ignored him completely. Fortunately he didn't seem very interested in making conversation either. I sneaked a peek at him only to find him already looking at me. " Were you crying?"
" No." I turned from him and wiped my face again. "Why would you think that? I was only forced to leave my home and go live with some stranger, named Joseph Copland, that apparently is the most powerful man in the world. Oh and lets not forget threatened that if I didn't come with you that you would kill my entire family, then destroy my life. I have no idea why you would think I was crying." The driver was laughing. Joseph was smiling. That was not the reaction I was looking for.
" I like fiesty girls. That's kind of the reason I wanted you. I need someone to spice things up. All the others are boring."
I looked at him " Other woman." I stared at him with narrowed eyes.
" Yes the other woman I have around for my men and I to use." I looked at him with wide eyes. No way was I going to be a whore for him, let alone all of his men.
" No. No I don't want this. Not with you and definitely not with your perverted men." He looked at me with raised eyebrows.
" I don't believe anyone asked you what you wanted. And you don't know my men enough to call them perverted." He said with narrowed eyes.
" YOU don't know me enough to make me sleep with them." I narrowed my eyes as well and leaned towards him.
" The first rule Is that you will not challenge me. I don't like that. I can do whatever I want with you. Your mine. Whether you like it or not." He sat back in his seat and shred any emotion from his face and stared blankly ahead.
" I'd sooner die than have sex with you." I spat out.
" That can be arranged." He said simply. I huffed furious.
We sat in silence for the rest of the drive until we came into view of a large house that could also be classified as a small castle. I would have awed but I was to mad at Joseph to let him see that I was impressed by his home. " What do you think?" He said.
" It's ugly." I mumbled looking down at my feet. I was never a good at lying. He chuckled softly at my answer.
"You think so? Most people that come to visit say that it is quite magnificent." He said close to my ear.
" Well, I'm not most people." I said and moved as far away as I could from him. My back was pressed up against the window.
" No you aren't." He whispered then got out of the car. I sat there and refused to get out of the car. Despite the drivers pleas. Then his face appeared in front of me. " Get. Out. Of. The. Car." He said. He looked mad. I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest. That is until he grabbed my wrist and pulled my from the backseat out onto the driveway.
" Hey." I pouted.
" I'm not a very patient man." Then he walked off waving his hand motioning for me to follow him.
" Obviously." I mumbled under my breath and started after him. " Sorry I didn't mean to trouble you I just wanted to make a point." I said to the driver before running to catch up with Josephs long legs.