Alle Kapitel von Too Late To Beg: Kapitel 21 – Kapitel 30

TAMSIN I opened my eyes. The reporters were still there, cameras still flashing, voices still shouting questions that blurred together into meaningless noise. But something had changed. James was covering his face with one hand, his shoulders hunched, and for the first time since he had dropped to his knees, he looked genuinely uncomfortable. I frowned. If he was embarrassed by the reporters, then who had invited them? They could not have ambushed us on their own. Someone had tipped them off. Someone had known we would be here. James suddenly shot to his feet and turned on the reporters with a fury I had not seen from him in years. "Get out!" His voice came out as a roar. "All of you. Leave now or there will be consequences." The reporters did not move. If anything, they pressed closer, their cameras clicking faster, their microphones thrust forward like weapons. James's assistant appeared from somewhere in the crowd, pushing his way through the mass of bodies wit

TAMSIN I stood there with Poppy beside me, watching Leo walk toward us with that steady, deliberate stride that suggested he had every right to be here even though I had not invited him. Poppy rolled her eyes so dramatically I was surprised they did not get stuck, then turned and walked away without a word, leaving me alone to face whatever Leo had come to say. He stopped directly in front of me, close enough that I had to tilt my head back slightly to maintain eye contact. Before I could ask what he wanted or tell him to leave or do anything except stand there like someone who had temporarily forgotten how to form words, he pulled me into his arms. I went rigid for half a second, my mind scrambling to come up with an appropriate response to being embraced without warning in Poppy's driveway. Then I closed my eyes. His smell was intoxicating. Something woodsy and expensive and entirely too familiar, and I could not lie to myself about the fact that being this close to him made

TAMSIN I got close to Isla and raised the baseball bat high above my head, every muscle in my body coiled with the singular intention of bringing it down on her smug, self-satisfied face. Before I could swing, someone caught my arm from behind. I tried to turn, tried to see who had grabbed me, but my other arm was seized as well, both wrists locked in grips strong enough to make my bones ache. Isla's lips curved into a smile that made my blood run cold. "You may have walked into my home easily enough," she said, her voice light and conversational as though we were discussing the weather. "But leaving will be an entirely different story." She gestured casually to the men holding me. "Pin her down." Two of them grabbed me more firmly, their hands like vises on my arms. A third reached for the baseball bat, trying to pry it from my fingers. I brought my knee up hard and fast, connecting with his groin with enough force that I felt the impact travel up through my leg. He

TAMSIN Leo placed me carefully in the passenger seat of his car, his movements gentle despite the urgency I could see written across his face. "Why no hospital?" he asked, his hand still braced against the doorframe as though he were reluctant to close the door and commit to whatever alternative plan I was about to propose. I was breathing too fast, each gulp of air feeling insufficient, my chest rising and falling in a rhythm that had nothing to do with exertion and everything to do with the poison coursing through my system. "Reporters," I managed to say, the word coming out broken. "They will gather. Another scandal. I cannot... I cannot handle another viral video." The thought of waking up tomorrow to find footage of myself being carried into an emergency room, drugged and incoherent, splashed across every social media platform made my skin crawl almost as much as the effects of whatever Isla had injected into me. "Tam, you need a doctor," Leo said, and I could hear th

TAMSIN The last thing I wanted was any kind of drama between the two men standing in this police station parking lot, particularly when one of them had just been arrested for defending me and the other had orchestrated that arrest. I forcefully pulled myself away from James's embrace and glared at him with enough heat that he should have spontaneously combusted on the spot. He immediately reached for my hand, his fingers closing around my wrist before I could step back. Before I could yank myself free, Leo grabbed James's hand and forcibly removed it from my arm. James finally turned his attention fully to Leo, his expression darkening with anger. "You may have gotten away this time," he said, his voice low and threatening. "But no one makes James Whitmore bleed and walks away unpunished. I will teach you a lesson you will not forget in a hurry." He took a step closer to Leo, clearly trying to intimidate him with proximity since physical violence had not worked out so well the