“I’m not going to eat until you answer a few of my questions.”
He shrugged. “Then I guess you’ll go hungry.”
“I thought you wanted me alive to hand off to the cartel.”
“You don’t need to be healthy. Just breathing.”
Damn it. She wasn’t getting anywhere. With a sigh of exasperation, Mia opened her mouth. He slipped in a fry.
“Damien.”
“E—use me?” Not the most ladylike of questions, but Mia could have cared less. As long as she stayed tied to a chair, she could talk with her mouth full.
Her kidnapper tried not to smile. “My name is Damien.”
Oh. The name shouldn’t have meant anything to her. But it did. Damien. Just knowing it changed something between them. He might still be a killer and a kidnapper and a bad, bad man. But he had a name. A damn sexy name.
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome. Now you need to eat.”
Damien fed her the rest of a hamburger and a whole carton full of fries. The empty gnawing in her stomach finally disappeared. As he stood to clean up, she braved another question. “So why my father?”
“Hmm?”
“Why did Marcelo want my father killed? Did he disobey orders?”
He snorted. “Marcelo didn’t want him to die. Angelo was supposed to scare him. Rough him up a little. Remind him who was boss.”
“Marcelo.”
“Exactly.” Damien balled up the empty wrappers and scooped everything into the trash. “Angelo should have checked for a gun first thing.”
“Is that what you would have done?”
“Damn straight.”
She shouldn’t like his answer, but she did. “You don’t bullshit people, do you?”
“Not usually.”
She smiled. “Neither do I. Guess we have something in common after all.”
“I have nothing in common with you, honey.” He turned around and leaned back on the counter. “You’re a modern day princess. I’m a murderer.”
Mia glowered. “You don’t know anything about me.”
“I know your father was the district attorney. I know you have a huge house full of shit I could never dream of buying. I bet you went to the best schools. Had the nicest car. Tons of rich boyfriends.”
“Try again.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not. My father might have tons of money, but I’m not part of his life.” She shook her head. “I wasn’t, I mean.”
“Then what were you doing in his closet?”
“None of your business.”
Damien pushed off the counter and walked past her. “Told you so.”
Mia tried to turn around, but she was trapped by the restraints. She managed to swivel her head. “I was there for a photo-op. I hadn’t been to my dad’s place in years. I haven’t lived with him since my mom died.”
He paused in the doorway but didn’t turn around. “Your mother’s dead?”
“Cancer almost ten years ago. I was fourteen.”
“What happened then?”
Mia snorted. “My father shipped me off to boarding school. Sold the house. Got a girlfriend. Then another and another.”
She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice if she tried. “He only calls when he needs to parade me around like a trophy. I’m his box checked. Kid: One. All I’m ever good for is the media.”
Damien spun on his heel. “Is that why you haven’t cried?”
“Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m going to start blubbering.”
He stepped back into the room. “But you watched your father be murdered. He died in front of you. That would shake anyone up.”
She’d give anything to cross her arms and turn around. Damn chain. “I’m not sorry he’s dead, okay? You happy now?”
Damien stepped closer. “Why not?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
He sat down in the chair. “It does to me.”
“Loosen these ties and I’ll tell you.”
Without another word, her kidnapper leaned over her and tugged at the ties around her wrists. His chest hovered an inch from her face, his shirt gaping low enough to reveal a swirling mass of tattoos across his chest. Mia swallowed.
How’d it get so hot in here?
He smelled of greasy food and rain and she realized for the first time that he’d lost the hoodie, but never changed clothes. Muscles stood out in stark relief on his arms, rippling and flexing as he loosened the ties.
A chain dangled from his neck with something attached to it. A…locket? She opened her mouth to ask when he rose up.
“Is that better?”
Mia tugged up her arms and they moved a few inches. “Yes, thank you.”