Seducing His Legacy

A RUDE AWAKENING

Stepping out of the supermarket, the June heatwaves immediately envelope me uncomfortably.

I wasn’t one who liked summer that much, unlike most people. I preferred the rainy and windy seasons, perhaps, but I had to get out and do some shopping.

After last night, I happily slipped out of the bar with my cash and back home, and didn’t even realize when or how I slept off until noon.

Russel threw one thousand dollars at me yesterday, and that was almost more than enough to fix most of my problems.

Some of which included an empty fridge and kitchen.

Adjusting the shopping bags full of groceries in my hands, I unlock my house and step in.

It’s a bit dark because of the drawn curtains, but I try to find my way in the tiny space around until I put the bags down on my cracked kitchen table.

Within a minute, an arm wraps around my mouth, sending waves of shock and panic through me. They are followed by a cold metal push at my back; from how it felt, I knew it was a gun.

Its barrel pierces into me as this person leads me around my small apartment and into my cramped living room.

I can taste salt in my mouth. I was already crying, uncertain who this person was or what he wanted.

“Boss,” he calls, pushing me to my knees in the process.

I see another silhouette head to the windows before pulling the curtains open, revealing the figure which is seated on the couch in front of me.

Russel Carlton...

I gulp, feeling my heart start to race with an unhealthy rhythm.

How did he find me? How did he get in? Did he find out who I am? What I was trying to do?

The questions almost knock me out before any of these men even have a chance to.

I can feel my knees buckle beneath me, starting to feel too weak to sustain my already kneeling body.

.“Reddinson Carla Paige,” he says, standing up and signaling his man to let me go. Once he does, I gasp for air greedily, like I wasn’t going to be killed in a few minutes anyway.

“Worked at Rally Auditing Firm before she was fired for incompetence. She is twenty four years old with no college degree, but lots of skill in culinary, speech, and... manipulation,” he lines out, all while looking at my face.

“Oh, I almost forgot, is an ex lover to Calvin Russel, son of Carlton Russel. Does that make sense to you? Did I leave anything out? Maybe the fact that she seduced her his father!!” he yells, kicking my small coffee table next to him in the process.

“Did you really think I wouldn’t find out? Are you that stupid?” he whispers in my face, his eyes digging holes into me so deeply that I have to look away.

“Pathetic, I can smell your fright and sweat from miles away.” He huffs then smooths out his suit before gesturing to one of his men, and they pass him a gun.

“For there is a price to everything. And the wage of sin is death,” he adds, licking his lower lip before pulling out a white cloth and carefully cleaning the gun.

I fall to my palms, forming a crawling position. Half because I couldn't breathe past the panic any longer and my knees finally gave out, but mostly because I had to beg for mercy.

I knew that silly plan was absurd and dangerous but I surely didn't think it would bring me to an early grave today.

Pushing my hands towards his shiny shoes, I start rambling anything I can think of, anything that will get my life spared.

“Please, please, I'm begging you. I'm begging you, Mr. Russel. I didn’t do it on purpose. Calvin... he hurt me so much. He really did, and I let him go, but when I saw you that day... I just couldn’t stop my body from... from needing you. I swear—”

“BULL—f*****g—CRAP!!” he barks, pointing the gun to my temple in a flash.

“Please, please... don’t do this... I'm begging you—”

“Or what? You sure look pathetic right now compared to how much you begged for it last night,” he snarls, his men chuckling in the process too.

Having had enough, I raise my eyes to meet his face.

“Calvin stole everything from me. He took all my savings, everything I had worked for the past seven years. He stole all of it and ran off when I tried to confront him about why he was cheating on me,”

I say in one breath, trying to hold back the tears from the pain I have been through these past weeks.

“He took fifty thousand dollars from me. Fifty thousand!!” I cry, my voice raising a little in the process as I wail in front of these men.

“That’s not true,” Russel bites back, his voice now void of emotion.

.“Is it not? Do you really think I would come and try to seduce you for nothing? I NEEDED TO FEED, AND YOU ARE KNOWN FOR SPLASHING MONEY ON WHORES!!” I yell, failing to control my emotions while telling the truth.

Half the truth.

Pushing his gun further into my temple, he growls, “That doesn't give you the right to target me regardless. I hate being played with. You tasted fire, now let it burn you!” before c*****g the gun.

The sound of the click rattles through the room in a much more deafening silence than I ever expected.

Closing my eyes, I let the tears freely flow more, cursing whatever made me think this was such a good idea to start with.

With one last attempt at salvation, desperation gets the better of me as my fingers lower to my belly.

“I’m pregnant.” It comes out as a whisper, a quiet, trembling whisper, but it’s enough to make everyone in the room pause.

Russel draws in a sharp breath, like someone had shot him instead.

“That’s impossible!” he whispers.

“It’s not, sir,” one man says from behind me.It was impossible for last night to be the cause.

I couldn’t have possibly conceived overnight, but that was the lie I was ready to die with.

My baby was over five weeks now. He was bound to find out sooner than later that it belonged to his son, but until then, I would have a chance at life and possibly a chance to run off to another country too as soon as they left my house.

“How?” They oddly bicker amongst each other before turning to me.

“Did... did Calvin tell you what he is... what we are?” he snarls, grabbing my arm and making me stand up.

What? “What are you talking about?” I was genuinely confused.

Everyone in Seattle knew the Russels. Carlton Russel and his son.

They were almost like the lords of Seattle. Rich, notorious, and famous. I thought dating Calvin would have come in handy for me, but I didn’t realize that the rich steal most times too.

That’s what didn’t make sense to me. Seeing that I was oblivious to everything, he orders me to sit in a chair before pulling it in front of him, settling right in the opposite chair.

“Why should I spare you?” he asks, his eyes staring at me menacingly.

“For all I know, you are lying. You are trying to make me spare your life,” he adds, pushing closer to me. “But we will find out sooner than later.”

I hold my breath, silently praying this ends soon.

Standing up, he adjusts his tie. “You are to marry me tonight, before the break of dawn, if you want your life spared. Otherwise, let’s end it right here, right now.”

I gasp, almost thinking that he is joking, but the stone look on his face makes his words start to dawn on me.

“Take her to my East Coast Tombs. And call Arcadia, he has a ceremony to perform at midnight.”