Chapter 57 Frustration Increasing
VINCE’S POV
Shit. I got away with it this time, but it won’t be this easy to convince her next time. I thought with a long exhalation.
Ashes from the cigarette fell as I was on the balcony all alone.
Alyssa was busy with work, granting me enough time to settle my score with this asshole before he pours water over my plans.
“What the fuck is your problem? I have paid you the money you asked for. What more do you want?” I growled, my hands curled into a rigid fist, wanting to punch him if he was right before me.
“That was my fee for silence.” He corrected me with a devilish chuckle.
“Not what I said should be enough to cover up for your little act of being her hero.”
“Stop it.” I warned.
“Think Vince, think,” He pressed, I bet he must be smirking. He knew he was piercing my sensitive nerves for his cold satisfaction.
“What if she came to know about this majestic show where she is merely a puppet?”
I hissed, “Stop twisting your damn words. It’s nothing like this.”
“If it’s not then how come she is becoming blindly devoted to you?”
He became utterly serious, reminding me of the consequences of the path I meticulously choose.
“If it wasn’t your stage, how come you are the hero you wanted to be?”
Gritting my teeth due to powerlessness, I contemplated my struck situation for the next few moments before relaxing gradually.
“.... Just tell me how much more you want me to feed this damn hungry mouth of yours.”
“Another million. By next week.”
My mouth gaped, “You-”
"Come now, Vince. A million is pocket change compared to the billions you own. Think of it as an investment in your happy ending."
With a wicked laugh, he cut the call, enjoying his little victory where he believed he had cornered me.
I stared at the darkened screen for a heartbeat before slamming it onto the center console, my jaw tightening, breaths hastening with complete frustration.
"Fuck!" Yelling, I pulled my hair, making them messy. Loosening my tie, I threw myself on the couch, rubbing my temples.
‘What should I do? How the fuck should I get away from this mess?’
“Vince?”
Then, a light tap on the window.
Vince froze. Through the glass, Alyssa waved her hand cheerfully as usual.
In the span of a single breath, the rage evaporated. He forced the tension out of his shoulders, unclenched his jaw, and wiped the coldness from his eyes.
“Alyssa? When did you come home?”
"Is everything okay? You look... Stressed." She asked sweetly, checking his disheveled form.
“Yeah… it’s just work getting the best of me.” Forcing a smile, I rubbed my temples while maintaining the perfect frontage of being collected.
I let out a slow, weary sigh, a perfect imitation of exhaustion, my thumb against her cheek with a tenderness that sparkled her eyes.
Alyssa’s expression softened instantly, "You push yourself too hard. Come inside? I will make some tea, and you can forget about the office for tonight."
She gave me an irresistible offer. Uncaring if she just returned from her, that she hadn’t even freshen up. All she saw I was exhausted and she must diminish it.
How could I decline?
"That," Vince chuckled, opening the door and stepping out to pull her into my protective embrace, "Sounds like exactly what I need."
Exchanging a heartwarming laugh, we went back inside but I couldn’t help but to glance at my phone which would ring one day.
It would be nothing but a ‘funeral call’ of whatever I was trying to build and before I could save myself, or her.
Everything would fall apart…
I must ensure such circumstances won’t arrive. If I have to do anything, I will.
The ransom demands had started small. A hundred thousand. Then half a million. It wasn't the money, I could lose that in a bad trade and not blink.
It was the messages attached to the transfers.
“Payment received for the hero’s fee,” the last one read.
“How does she worship the hero of her act?”
“Does she know you waited for the sob before you played your part?”
Every time my phone vibrated, my heart, my body vibrated too. My mind was barely functioning, I was staying distressed all the time.
“How do they look, Vince?” Alyssa, who was currently arranging white lilies in a vase, showed her masterpiece to me with a beautiful grin.
“Pretty. Just like you.” I forced out a smile, pinching her cheek. She blushed, placing the vase away.
“I will get our coffee.” She said shyly and went away.
I shoved the phone into my pocket, I felt suffocated, staring at the wall, trying to come up with a solution to this tribulation.
“Vince?”
Alyssa’s voice was soft, hesitant. She stepped toward me, her head tilted adorably, standing right before and snapped.
I blinked, gaining my senses and turned to her with raised brows.
“You have been staring at the wall for ten minutes. Is the coffee not right? I can make it again.” She asked worriedly, tugging my hair behind my hair.
“The coffee is fine, Alyssa, I am just thinking,” I sighed, my features hardening and unintentionally slapped her hand away.
She flinched and was about to pull back but I instantly reacted and grabbed her wrist, placing it over my cheek.
“I am sorry. I…”
“If there is…” She paused, pulling away a little, her hands on my chest, “Anything. I can do to help?”
And in the moment, something uncontrollably dark flickered in me.
If my world was going to burn, if the blackmailer was going to take everything, then I wanted her now. I wanted to merge her moans and subdue the distress.
My hands caged around her, pressing her against me, my lips grazing her neck. My hand landed on her elbow, breathing heavily in her ear.
“Careful, Alyssa,”
A dark smirk adorned my lips. Observing her small body tensing up in my arms, I lifted her effortlessly in my arms.
“You shouldn't make offers like that to a man as stressed as I am. I might just take you up on every single one of them.”
I felt her breath hitch, her fingers curling into my shirt with a burning cheek.
"Maybe that was the point," She trailed off, enhancing my heartbeats and desire.
A slow, impish expression spread across my face, leading us towards the room.
I started toward the bedroom, my gaze locked on hers, dark and possessive.
“In that case,” I kicked the door close before placing her down on the bed and taking off my shirt.
“Cancel your plans for the night. You are going to be ‘very’ busy taking care of me.”