The Arrangement Anthology 1(178)

“What’s that look?” I ask.

“You’re too sweet to me, always trying to protect my feelings, but I know who you were with this weekend. I saw you two together.” The floor of my stomach drops like someone cut the elevator cord. Before I can say anything, Henry stops me. “I knew you had other clients, but I didn’t imagine you were screwing him.” The idea of me fucking Sean obviously upset him.

I touch Henry’s arm lightly and look into his eyes. “Then don’t. Tonight there is no one else, it’s just you and me.”

He shakes his head. “It’ll never be just you and me. I should probably stow it and just shag you until I’m satisfied, but I can’t stand the idea of you being with him. Do you know who he is? What he’s done?”

Things are spinning out of control. My pulse pounds faster, so that it’s banging in my head like a drum. “I don’t really get a say in things, Henry. And I’m here with you now. I can celebrate with you now.” I try to touch him, but his hand flies out and he swats me away. The action surprises me and I don’t know what to say.

Henry’s voice sounds light, like it doesn’t matter, but it clearly does. “Yeah? And how should I take you? I’d rather not share the same woman with Ferro, but if I have to, tell me where he fucked you so I don’t get his leftovers.”

This isn’t like him. “Henry? What’s going on? You hired me. Did you really think you were the only client I had?”

“I wanted you to myself.”

“It doesn’t work that way.”

Henry grabs my wrist hard and yanks me toward him. When Sean did things like that it felt exciting, but right now warning bells are going off in my head. Something isn’t right, but I think I’m overreacting.

Henry’s jaw is clenched tight and his eyes narrow to thin slits. He hisses in my face, “Maybe it should.”

“You’re hurting me.” I try to twist away from him, but I can’t. My pulse freaks out. This is wrong. Something has broken in this guy’s brain—I see it in his eyes. Every instinct I have is telling me to haul ass out of there, but the guy has a lobster-like hold on me and he’s fucking twisting. I bend my arm so that my wrist doesn’t snap and yell, “Henry, let go!”

But he doesn’t release me. Instead, he gets up in my face. When he speaks, his breath washes over my face. I expect him to say something, like he’s hurting me on purpose, but he doesn’t. “You have to know what you did to me, how I felt when I called with good news and couldn’t see you for two days.

“So, I waited, and the entire time I thought about you—and what he was doing to you—and how you let him. That’s unacceptable, and I intend to show you exactly what I mean, love. You’re mine.” It’s like he’s possessed. He continues to twist my wrist so hard that the skin burns, forcing it up behind my back. He holds it there, driving me onto my knees.

I’m close to hysterically screaming. It’s climbing up my throat, accompanied by raw terror. Black didn’t seem to screen this guy for crazy, because Henry has bat-shit crazy coming out of his ears.

Mind racing, I decide to go with what he wanted in the first place—me. Henry wanted me to be his girlfriend. He took this arrangement instead, because it was the only way to get me. Now, I see that he’s not the charming guy I thought he was. Sean is devious, wicked, and maybe even evil, but this guy is insane.

And that’s the thing that scares me the most—crazy people are irrational—they do things that don’t make sense, and right now Henry is close to breaking my wrist. He doesn’t seem to realize that what he’s doing is bringing tears to my eyes and a tremor to my already strained voice. I try to talk him down, to bring him back enough to grab my bracelet and smash the black bead. All I have to do is get him to let go for a second.

Steadying my voice, I say, “I’m here now, Henry. I want to hear about everything. We can do anything you want—anything at all. Just let go of my hand and I’m all yours.”

His eyes blaze with fury. Holy fuck did I say the wrong thing. “No! You’re not! You were with him!” Henry makes a strangled sound in the back of his throat. He releases my wrist and throws me to the floor. “Do you know? Do you even know! That fucker ruined my life! He took her away and now he’s done it again! Because there is no way in hell that I am going to let that son of a bitch do it again!”

Henry continues to bellow at me. I have no idea what he’s talking about, but there’s a river of bad blood between Henry and Sean. Holy shit, it’s like a deluge of hatred. His eyes aren’t even focused anymore. Henry looks as nuts as he sounds. He’s ranting, with his hands flying, screaming at me like I planned to do this to him.