The Heiress and the Arms Dealer

MARRIED ALREADY?

CASSIE’S POV

At first, I thought that my mind was playing tricks on me, that right at the moment of my distress it decided to conjure up the image of the person I thought about the most, second, of course, only to Kennedy, but the more I stared at him – his smile, the way his eyes twinkled in that sexy way that I used to love – the more I came to realize that he was as real as the pain I was feeling just remembering him. I got mad faster than Mirabel fished out pot dealers in a new city.

“You asshole!” I screamed and grabbed the first thing I could – a flower vase that belonged to the hotel – before hurling it at him. He was as swift as always, dodging it easily, letting it shatter into a million irreparable pieces against the wall behind him.

“That’s good,” he said with so much excitement in his voice. “Trash up the whole place. No one would believe that you were kidnapped that easily without putting up a fight.” I threw the marble bowl on the center table at him, not because he said I should, but because I wanted to dent his handsome face.

“Okay, throw a couple pillows on the floor, then we’re out of here.” I scoffed in disbelief. He was acting like we were long time friends who spoke to each other on a daily. Like he wasn’t the bane of my existence.

“Get the hell out of here, right now!” For some strange reason, he took that as an invitation to come closer to me.

“I like that you’re still feisty, Cassie. It’s good to know some things never change.” I frowned.

“I do not want you here. I do not want to see you.”

“Neither do you want to get married to Leon of all people.” He was now very close to me, but I was too stubborn and too mad to move away from him despite how I felt, so I glared up at his face that was merely inches away from mine.

“You don’t know what I want.” He sighed, as if already tired of our little squabble.

I had pictured meeting with him again after all these years, and in the scenarios that I had drawn up, it always ended with me having the last say while he cried and begged on his knees. Or he got shot by my father on his farm. Nothing about him being confident and cocky ever came up in my head.

“The Vegas hotel,” he stated plainly. “I know that you want the Vegas hotel. I know the condition your grandfather set in order for you to get it.”

My heart and my mind were in overdrive. How the hell did he find out about it? Has he been following me all these years? Oh my, did he know about Kennedy too?

“Who the hell told you that?” I asked breathily. I was shaking already, my chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Concerning the hotel…” His eyes went down to my lips. He was staring at them thoughtfully and without thinking, he raised his hand to touch them but stopped halfway through. “You told me that yourself when we went to Vegas for our graduation trip, remember?” He sighed wistfully and erected himself, putting his hands in his pockets as he spun around the room while going down memory lane.

“You remember our Vegas trip? How we hit every casino we could find and ended up spending all the money we saved up to go there in the first place?” I hated how he could so easily remember a time like that with a smile on his face while it pained my heart to even think about Vegas. I had so many bad memories about that city, it’s a surprise that I still wanted to move there.

“We had to stay in one of those shitty, run-down hotels and we got wasted like we weren’t going to live to see the next day.” I folded my fists, feeling my tears fill my eyes. How could I forget a night like that. Back then, it was the best night of my life. I didn’t want to say I regretted it because without that night, I wouldn’t have had Kennedy, but I hated him so much for thinking about it so fondly especially after what he did to me then.

“I don’t know if you know this, Ronald, but you’re not exactly welcomed in this place. Everyone here hates you and the moment they see you, you’re being burned at the stake.” He laughed, a hearty, boisterous sound that was in a way soothing and irritating to me.

“You are right about that, which is exactly why we have to leave now.” He made a move towards me and grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the door.

“Get your hands off me!” I yelled and snatched my hand away. I hated his audacity. I hated that my body tingled at the touch of his hand on my skin. I hated that he was still very handsome and he still had an effect on me. I hated Ronald Spendley with all my heart.

“I understand how you feel about me Cassie, but we do not have the time for this. We have to leave right now before someone comes in.”

We began to struggle – him trying to pull me away, while I stood firm and fought against him. He wrapped his arm around me, jailing my arms making it impossible for me to break free. The huge dress I was wearing did nothing to aid in my escape.

“Let go of me, Ronald!” I grunted. He was much stronger than before.

“Stop calling me that, Cassie…ow!”

I head butted him, which made him loosen his grip on me a little, long enough for me to make my escape. Before my hand could grab the handle of the door however, he held my hair and yanked me back to himself.

“You know, when I pictured pulling your hair, we were in completely different circumstances than we are right now.” He was out of breath, which made me a little pleased. He was getting old despite his young age. With one hand holding me in place, the other made to undo his neck tie. My eyes widened in horror as I realized what he was about to do.

“I guess I really am going to kidnap you then, Cassie.”

My mouth was bound and so were my hands with the aid of my veil. He lifted me up on his shoulder like I was a bag of air and sauntered out of my dressing room while I let out inaudible screams and kicked uncontrollably.

Luck was on his side and we managed to make it out of the Palace without anyone spotting us. I was shoved in his truck ungraciously, my hair that took more than an hour styling already scattered and disarrayed. I was so furious my whole body shook while angry tears filled my eyes.

“Get this thing off me!” I said, but the sound came out muffled. After locking the doors and ensuring there was no way for me to escape from, he removed his tie from my mouth and I spat on him.

“Disgusting, but I’ll allow it. Could be something kinky I can get used to in the future.”

“You are a despicable, sorry excuse for a human being, you know that right?”

“Cassie…”

“You have no right leaving the way you did, after doing the thing you did and then showing up here on my wedding day, talking bullshit about wanting to rescue me and acting like you know me. You don’t know me, Ronald! You have no right to do this to me right now! You can’t just disappear on me and appear out of nowhere acting like you never left, making snarky and crude remarks and pretending like we are cool. We are not cool, Ronald! We are far from cool.”

“Cassie!” I stopped ranting when I saw the look in his eyes. I was breathing hard and crying and I was so angry I wanted to scream at him.

“I was trying to help you out before you ended up doing something you’d regret.”

“I don’t need your help, Ronald! I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing that for a long time now.” He smiled weakly.

“I know. I know how tough you are. I just…”

“Let me go, right now Ronald. This is the last time I’ll ask nicely. If my father or grandfather finds out I’m missing and that you’re the one who took me, they’ll kill you. You have no idea how long my dad has been waiting to do that.”

“Well,” he said as he slowly reached for the pigeon hole in front of me and pulled out a couple of papers. “I think they’ll appreciate my stopping the wedding before it could be completed. Leon especially, since no one would like that kind of embarrassment.”

He dropped the papers in my lap and grinned lopsided.

“What kind of embarrassment? What are you talking about?” He nodded towards the papers but I didn’t look at them.

“Just…you wouldn’t have been able to register your marriage, Cassie. You see, you can’t get married to someone else if you’re already married.”