Chapter One

   ANNIE 

The night was cool and the stars hung brightly in the night sky. The street wasn't that busy, probably because it was getting late. Just a stone throw away was a bar.

The bar where I work.

   It wasn't too fancy but it was lively and working there made me satisfied. I changed my clothes and took my phone from the counter ready to go home, my shift was over. I would have waited for my best friend, Cammie, but she wanted to go on a date with her boyfriend. That's what she calls him but we both know she doesn't like him… he wasn't her type.

  I headed home after saying my goodbyes to the other workers, contemplating if I should follow the long road or the short and safest one.

“The long one”, I muttered moving to the direction of the longer route. It was dark and assumed to be haunted when I was little, back then life was good. I had  played here with my  older brother and Cammie until we had moved to Spain.

My family wasn't poor, we were rich enough to travel to different countries every year, but we weren't too happy and close to each other. 

   Thinking of all these made me smile a little until I realised my rent would soon expire. My work as a bar attendant didn't pay so well that I had to do two different jobs to meet up with rent. It was tiring but I was well content with it. It was better than staying in that horrible home that I called ‘family’. Sometimes I wished that I had obeyed my mother and married the man she had told me to even though it was for business purposes, but I didn't want that drama. My life was already in a mess and marrying someone I didn't know was the worst.

    I sighed trying to take my mind off the thought of my family when I had a loud bang. My adrenaline wanted me to take to my heels but I stood at a place not moving.

“What was that?” I asked myself but sighed at the rhetorical question.

Part of me wanted to check it out while the other part wanted to turn around and follow the shorter route home.

   I walked quietly towards the noise and hid when I saw two people, one kneeling and the other standing.

“The Carlo's would be happy to hear of your death”, the one standing said. “Please, don't kill me! I beg you, please”. The other one begged, shaking as though he were cold. 

“Taking information from the Xavians?” The man scoffed and continued. “Pathetic. And thinking we won't find you and kill you. You must take us for fools, do you?”

“N…no… no, I don't!” He shrieked as the one standing punched him. I gasped and I could sense that he turned. Stupid me!

   I wanted to run, but this was getting fun, just like those dark romance, mafia, mercenary books I read. Seeing it in real life was fascinating and yet frightening. Suddenly, he shot him and the man fell flat on his back. That's when I knew I needed to run for my life, but quietly. Trying to move slowly I kicked an empty can.

“Who's there?” The man asked and I said nothing. I ran out quickly putting all the strength and effort I had until I reached the junction leading to the long route.

   I sighed trying to catch my breath. I didn't know I could run this fast. “ Fuck you, Annie”, I cursed still breathing heavily. 

“Hello, love”. Someone said and before I could look up, I was knocked out.

***

DYLAN XAVIER 

    I sat in my office looking at some files. I took out a cigarette and lit it putting it in between my lips. I thought of what to do with the girl who I had found out to be Annie Gregory the only daughter of Mr Connor Gregory. She wasn't that pretty but her eyes were a beautiful brown doe eyes.

“Fuck” I muttered throwing the cigar on the floor and stepping on it. 

  She had seen something she wasn't meant to see and it was either I killed her or kept her. I smiled a little, she was the kind of a girl I liked. Not too pretty, living a quiet life and not broken. I liked those kind of girls because I loved breaking them.

Toy?

I thought. If she was going to be my toy that would be more fascinating. She was going to wake up soon and I had to be there to tell her she was my prisoner… my woman. I grinned.

This was going to be fun.

***

ANNIE 

   I opened my eyes and shut them immediately it hit the light. I opened them again, my body was sore and my head hurt badly. Then I remembered. The long route, the two men , me running and someone knocking me out. I looked around suddenly realising that this wasn't my room. “I need to go home”, I muttered and stood to run away when an unfamiliar voice spoke.

“If I were you I would sit on the bed like a good girl”. I turned sharply to see a god standing before me. He was tall and had a chiselled jaw, his eyes were the darkest colour she had ever seen and his lips were thin lips . His beards were cleanly cut and his hairstyle moderate. He looked like a CEO until it dawned on me that he was the one that had killed the other man. I sat quietly and he grinned. 

“That's my love”, he said and I rolled my eyes, he wasn't going to have his way with me with his sexy voice.

“I'm not really interested in you, I just want to go home”, I said standing again. He looked amuse for a while then his face became ice cold.

“Home? You no longer have a home, Annie”, he said and I was surprised that he knew my name. Was he stalking me?

“How…”

“You saw something you shouldn't have seen, my love and I just wanted to end you at the spot then I thought, what beauty the lord has made!” He said and smirked.

“What do you want?” I asked, getting scared all of a sudden, I mean who wouldn't be?

“ I don't want anything from you, my little Robin, you just have to stay inside my estate, is that hard to do?” He asked and I looked around, the place was nice and extravagant, but he wasn't going to have his way.

“If you don't let me go, I'll have to run away myself”, I said and he chuckled. “You? Run away? Then I must be an amateur”, he said it with his gaze as if he wanted to kill everyone and anything in the room though it was just the two of us. I pouted my lips a little, the room was getting tinier and more suffocating by the second. What the fuck was happening to me? 

“I'd call the police!” 

“Then I'd kill you”, he said and I shivered. This was real, it wasn't a dream. He laughed lightly, making me look up at him.

“You still don't know who I am? You must be from the past then”, he said tossing me a newspaper.

  The news headline read ‘ THREE FOUND DEAD IN THE LIBRARY’

I roll my eyes. What did this have to do with me running away then I realised that he was going to kill me. I felt a chill and shivered. I turned the paper and it read. ‘DYLAN XAVIER SUSPECTED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING’

‘ A CARGO OF ARMS STOLEN. XAVIER A LINE OF SUSPECT’

    I knew all about Dylan Xavier, he was a threat to the country and yet he could walk freely and not be arrested. He was a mercenary… a threat to humanity and then I remembered the question this man before me had asked. 

   He was the threat! He was Dylan Xavier. I had unknowingly walked into hell.

Tears started flowing from my eyes, he looked at me as if I was nothing. “So you know who I am”, he said, his voice husky and calming me down a little. 

“My advice for you my kitten is to stay put, try and run away and your life would be so miserable you'd wish to die… but you wouldn't die”, he grinned and came towards me. He bent down and touched my chin, I shivered, his hands were cold.

“Welcome home, my toy."