Stealing His Princess by Goode, Ella (good books for 7th graders txt) 📗

me you have to convince. The tea and desserts were lovely. As for this”—she raises the box of diamonds—“I’ll put it away for safe keeping. Come and get it when things don’t work out with Mackenzie. Minus a small fee, you may have the entirety of it in return.”

It’s a wonder that Karin Vieth is still alive. There must be so many who would love to have stuck a knife through her cold heart.

After she leaves, I summon a guard to take me to Zero, who is at a warehouse not far from the Palace. He snaps to attention when I arrive.

“Is she here?”

“Yes. She arrived at 0900 hours and has not left.”

I check the time. It’s past lunch. “Has she eaten?”

“No, sir.”

“Send someone for lunch. An assortment.”

“Yes, sir.”

I knock on the door and then enter without waiting for a response. Mackenzie whirls around.

“God, you scared me.” She clasps a hand to her heart. She quickly closes the windows on her monitor and smiles up at me.

“It’s past lunch, and Zero said you have not eaten.”

“Oh. I didn’t realize. Sometimes I get caught up in my work.”

“What is it that you do?” She talks about this work a lot as if it is important to her.

“I manage part of the books. Not all of it because Karin doesn’t like one person in charge of all of the money, but I do some portion, and there are a couple of others like me who handle different branches of the Vieth business. I wouldn’t be able to do it all by myself anyway.”

“Interesting.” I wonder what job I can create at home for Mackenzie as this work seems important to her. “I’ve come to talk to you about leaving.”

“Oh?” She says it lightly as she turns away toward her large monitor. “So soon? I suppose the party is over, and you delivered the little girl to her grandmother, so you don’t have any reason to be here anymore.”

“You’re correct. There’s no reason to be here.” Zero walks in with the food. I take it from him and lay out the banquet on the desk. There’s fried chicken, pasta, pad Thai, and soup, but Mackenzie doesn’t make any moves to serve herself. Perhaps she needs to be waited on.

I prepare a plate for her and lay it in front of her. “I would like to leave in three days. That should give you enough time to pass your duties on to someone else, yes?”

“What are you talking about? I can’t leave here. This is my home.”

“If you are concerned with what Karin may say, I have worked it all out with her.”

“You told Karin I was leaving?” Mackenzie sounds shocked and alarmed. This conversation is not going as I thought it would, which befuddles me.

“Did you desire to be left behind? That would not be acceptable.” I reach out to cup her chin and bring her face around so that she and I can look each other in the face. I do not like talking to her profile. “I have had you, Mackenzie. You are mine now, and where I go, you must go as well.”

She twists out of my grip. “We had sex. That’s all. I am sure you have slept with all kinds of women all over the world.”

I jerk back at this accusation. “I’m Sov Charmont. I do not spend my seed in random women’s bodies. I have chosen you and you alone. You may very well be carrying the next Charmont, so it does not matter to me if you do not wish to leave. You are leaving if I have to take you by force.”

Chapter Eighteen Mackenzie

Sov’s pushy ways might do it for me in the bedroom, but this is entirely different. I don’t appreciate him expecting me to do as he commands outside of the bedroom. He wants me to give up everything for him. What is he willing to give up for me?

Even his comments about Karin only make me angrier. Would she so easily let me go? I’m torn about how I feel about that. I don’t want to feel trapped here. I never have in the past, but I’d like to think it wouldn't be so easy for them to part ways with me. Everything about the last couple of minutes sends my thoughts into a tailspin. And has me questioning if I truly belong anywhere.

“You’d never make it out alive, Sov. You don’t rule here,” I point out. We’re in one of Karin’s warehouses. I was actually a little surprised they’d let him in, but this isn't one of the main ones. How had this started off so sweet with him bringing me lunch? It turned so quickly.

“Would you like to test that theory?” he challenges.

“No.” I take a step back from him. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. My mind is already spinning, and now Sov has gone and tossed out the idea of me being pregnant. How had I not thought about that? It only goes to show how inexperienced I am in all of this. In life in general.

“Don’t back away from me,” he growls, not used to being denied anything. If he can’t learn to compromise or even try to, we’ll never make it.

“You’re being a spoiled brat, and a child is not a bargaining tool.” I hiss the last part. That hit a little too close to home for my liking. My father tried to use me as a pawn. Karin had saved me. Gave me a different life where I could choose what I wanted to do and not have things forced on me.

She also gave me a family. It might not have been by blood, but most of these girls are like sisters to me. It hurts to think of leaving them, but it hurts more that Sov can’t see that about me. That the only person he thought of when he came up with his plan was