“Chase?” She blinked a few times, her dark eyelashes fanning against her cheekbones like a freaking caress. “Chase, you’re not breathing.”

I sucked in air and started choking wildly.

Mil patted my back, her touch literally setting my skin on fire. I choked again, looked out the window, and watched my manhood fall into the sky along with my pride.

“Sorry, uh… bug.” I pounded my chest a few times to prove my ridiculously lame lie.

“In an airplane?” she asked, her voice dripping with skepticism.

“It happens!” I snapped.

“Okay.” She lifted her hands into the air and, thank God, removed her hand from my person. I stared at her hand midair and noticed a scar on her arm. It wasn’t a typical scar — it was like a burn of some sort.

“What’s this?” I grabbed her wrist and leaned in to examine the mark; it reminded me of a cigarette burn, but it was too big to be a cigarette and on closer inspection it had definite lines, like it was drawn on her. Like it was burned against that perfect skin with a hot knife or something.

Mil clenched her fist and tried to pull away, but I pulled tighter, making it impossible for her to do anything. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s something,” I half-snarled. Holy shit, who the hell would mark what was mine? I focused in on the burn; it was an old scar, not recent, but it didn’t matter. Not a shot in hell that it mattered. Her skin, her body, everything I touched was mine, not anyone else’s to tarnish. Rage like nothing I’d ever known poured through me. My heart slammed against my chest as my jaw clenched and flexed, causing my teeth to grind.

“Another bug?” Mil whispered, a smile appearing on her expressive face.

“Tell me—” My chest heaved. “Who did this?”

“Chase.” Mil’s voice was pleading. “Let’s not do this here, not now.”

“But—”

“Leave it, or I swear I’ll knife you in your sleep.”

I released her hand, a bit ashamed about how attached I clearly was to my anatomy, and looked out the window, refusing to talk to her, like a little child throwing a pity party.

Who the hell would touch her?

My first thought was Phoenix.

My second thought was how I’d find time to go to hell, raise his lifeless corpse, and kill him all over again.

And then a fuzzy memory surfaced.

That night, the night Mil and I had been together, Phoenix had been protective, so protective that it was a bit ridiculous. I mean, I was his best friend and he was still pissed. He hadn’t talked to me for weeks…

“Dude!” I slapped my hand onto the table. “You’re like a freaking dog with a bone!”

“Poor word choice, Chase.”

“Phoenix.” I dropped into the chair beside him. “It’s been a month. I said I was sorry, I offered to let you shoot me in the foot, I even wrote her an apology, by hand!”

“Not enough.” Phoenix leaned his elbows on his knees, both legs shaking with irritation. “You don’t understand.”

“Then make me understand.”

His head shook. “Can’t. Don’t want to, and it’s none of your damn business.”

“At least tell me she’s okay. You owe me that.”

Within seconds, Phoenix was on his feet, gripping my shirt with his hands as he used his body weight to slam me against the wall, still in my chair, I could only gape as his chest heaved, his eyes wild with fury. “I owe you nothing, you sorry piece of shit! You took the only thing she had! The only—” His lips trembled. “—the only thing that was keeping her close. And now? She’s going to have to go away. She already is.”

“What?” I shook my head. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Boarding school.” Phoenix released me and stepped back, exhaling a curse. “Don’t ask me again.”

“Ask you what?”

“About Mil.” He refused to look at me. “As far as you’re concerned, she doesn’t exist. You better cherish the one night you had, because it won’t ever happen again.”

“Dude.” I lifted my hands in the air. “I know!”

“No. You don’t.” Phoenix met my gaze. “Because if you did, you wouldn’t have done what you did. You would have known the cost of your actions. Because now… I have no one, but I can thank you for one thing.” His smile was tense.

“Yeah, what?” I grumbled.

“She’s free.” Pain etched in every plane of Phoenix’s face. His mouth relaxed as he nodded his head. “She’s finally free.”

“Huh?”

“Beer?” Phoenix didn’t wait for me to answer, just walked into the kitchen, leaving me confused as hell…

“Mil?” I whispered.

Somehow, in my daydreaming, she’d found a way to lean against my shoulder without being too irritated that the shoulder was attached to the person she had just snapped at. Her head was heavy, her breathing shallow. Damn, my questions could wait until we landed.

After all, we had a year of marital bliss.

That is, if we lived that long.

Damn mafia.

Mil

The smell of cigarettes burned my nose. I waited as the voices quieted and then something stung my face. My vision cleared for a brief second. Though I was still seeing double, it was better than nothing.

“Wake up, baby girl.”

I blinked a few more times, relieved to see it was my dad standing in front of me, not some crazy kidnapper. Though, why was it so dark?

A few rough men stood around my father, each of them looking worse than the next. They weren’t from our family — most of them were faces I’d never seen before.

“She looks young,” a hoarse voice said from behind me. “What is the price for this one?”

“Ah, this one.” My dad laughed. “She will be a special price.”

“How much are we talking about?” a second man asked. “The last woman I bought was tarnished, practically starved to death.”

“I said special,” Dad repeated. “Because attached to her is one thing you all want — and desperately crave.”

The room fell silent as my father’s eyes roamed around the room, stopping at each individual before finally settling on me. “Part of the family. Marry her, take her, and you will be welcomed into the De Lange family, no questions asked.”

“How do you figure?” someone brave asked.

“She’s my daughter.” My father chuckled. “Marry her, and you’ll be second only to my son.”

“But… that’s impossible. One has to be born into the family. Even some made men are never fully respected and—”

“Silence,” my father snapped. “So we lie, say you’re a cousin of a cousin, nobody has to know, and in the end nobody will care. We are the De Langes, after all. Each of you has been chosen for what you can offer.”

Silence followed.

My father cleared his throat. “Let the bidding begin at one point five.”

“One point five?” The man with the gruff voice asked.

“Million,” Father answered. “Do I hear two?”

I gasped for breath, nearly jolting out of my seat as the plane hit the runway.

“Are you okay?” Chase whispered to my left.

“Uh, yeah.” I cleared my throat and looked down at my hands. “Flying always makes me have weird dreams.”

“You were able to dream, all within twenty minutes?”

I leaned back against the seat. “What can I say? I’m special.” I flashed him a quick side grin and licked my lips nervously.

“Yeah.” Chase’s eyes penetrated mine. “You really are.”

Wow, could I wake up like this after every nightmare? My breathing picked up. I was annoyed that all it had taken were a few words of praise, and I was ready to jump his bones in front of everyone.

“Mil.” Chase’s smile grew. “You hot or something? You’re completely flushed.”

“Hot,” I repeated. “Yeah, really hot.” Holy crap. Someone punch me in the face ASAP. I laughed nervously and tightened my seatbelt.