Donnie saw her breaking apart, and he reached across the table to take her hand. Paige wouldn’t let him, pulling away from him.
“I’m not part of the family. It’s all lies.”
He took the letter from her. “My father is intending to show you off on your eighteenth birthday bash.”
“Why?” The tears that had filled her eyes spilled down her cheeks. Donnie had never been affected by tears, but seeing them on her face, cut something deep within him.
“You’re his responsibility, and women are a commodity.”
“I’m not his fucking daughter. I’m not going to be sold off like cattle.” She turned to look out of the window.
He glanced over at Jake to see his friend was looking at his cell phone. Donnie wasn’t under any illusion that Jake wasn’t watching everything. He gave the appearance that he wasn’t paying attention, but that was indeed false. Jake had his eye on everything, just like Donnie did.
“Keep your voice down.”
“Fuck you.” She stood up, and before either of them could catch her, Paige was out of the door.
“Handle it,” he said to Jake as he passed.
Running out onto the street, he saw she’d already taken off across the road.
Without watching for a car, he ran across the road catching up to her and yelling her name.
“Paige! Paige, slow down.”
“Fuck off.”
They were drawing attention to themselves, which he hated. The last thing a Martinez needed was to draw attention.
“Leave me alone. I swear it, Donnie, I don’t want to say anything to you anymore. In fact, screw you all. I hate it.” Donnie figured she wasn’t really thinking about what she was saying. It wasn’t his fault that her mother screwed up.
She kept storming off, but he finally grabbed her arm, stopping her. “I said stop.” He hauled her against him. Any other time he’d have relished the feel of her soft curves against him, but today wasn’t one of them. He was more concerned about getting them out of view. Donnie saw one of the clubs owned by The Family and shoved her inside. He didn’t stop, nodding at several men as he passed.
“What are you doing? Let go of me.” She fought him, and he had no choice but to throw her over his shoulder. “Get the fuck off me.”
She kept slamming her fists against his back, telling him to leave her alone. There was no chance of that. He walked into the room where he knew there were no cameras to watch them. Putting her to her feet, he pressed her against the wall.
Paige didn’t stop there. His little hellfire of a stepsister kept on fighting him. He grabbed her wrists, keeping her locked to the wall. She continued to fight while Donnie just got horny as fuck with her wriggling body.
“Let me go.”
“I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry my dad is a complete and total bastard. I know you wanted to go to college more than anything.”
“I’ve been wanting it for years. I couldn’t wait, and he stole it from me. I’m not even his daughter, and he fucking stole it from me, Donnie. What did you do about it?”
“Nothing,” he said, admitting the truth without remorse.
“Why did you do it? Why? I’ve talked about it for hours, and you’ve kno—”
“No, I didn’t know, baby. I found out a couple of weeks ago what he’d done. I found the letter in his drawer.”
“Weeks? How can you have known?”
“There wasn’t anything I could have done.”
She shook her head, trying to pull away from him again.
“Stop fighting me.”
“I’m not part of your world, Donnie.”
Staring into her eyes, Donnie sighed again. He was forever letting her down. “From the moment Sharon brought you to my father’s house, you were part of this world. There wasn’t any getting out of it.”
“I can’t accept that.”
“You’ve got no choice. I can’t let you go. It’s too dangerous, and our enemies will hurt you to get to us.”
Slowly sliding his hands up to lock their hands together, Donnie no longer felt like he was restraining her.
“I don’t want to end up like Maria. If I get abused by a man who claims to be my husband, I’d kill him. I couldn’t take it like I’ve seen so many women do.”
“Look at me, Paige.” He stared into her eyes, wishing she’d stop breaking down on him.
“No.”
He did something then that completely shocked them both. Slamming his lips down on hers, he changed her thoughts. Taking her lips against his own, Donnie gave in to the need that had been building from the moment he first met her.
His body didn’t care that they were supposed to be stepsiblings. They were not related. Neither of them had the same mother or father. They weren’t even distant cousins. Letting go of her hand, he cupped her cheek as she kissed him back.