Forced: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance (The Blackthorn Brothers Book 1) Read Free Page A

hospital, and then once he’d recovered and was about to get discharged, someone got to him…made it look like a medical emergency.” The tightness in his voice told me just how raw and difficult this was for him, especially when I knew just how close he and his dad had been.
    “I’m so sorry, Ash. Truly.” Without thinking, I crossed to his side and wrapped my arms around him as he held me tightly to him and buried his head in the crook of my neck.
    It immediately felt so familiar, even as I told myself that it didn’t change a thing between us. Even if he was hurting, our past was still fucked up, and I’d never be able to forgive him for the chain of events he set off by leaving. Feeling more sober about things, I pulled out of his arms, needing to put some distance between us before I did something stupid.
    “Listen, Wren… The men who killed my father are still out there threatening my family—even attempted to burn down my mother’s home, and nearly killed my sister-in-law in the process. I need to keep them safe—and your father has offered to help.” He let out a ragged breath and ran his hand down his face before pinning me with his green eyes.
    “So…why are you here, Ash? What does any of that have to do with me?” I did not like where this was going. Because I had no doubt it was going somewhere, if my father and Ash were involved, and I doubted I’d be happy with either of them in just a moment.
    “Wren…I swear this wasn’t my idea.” He closed the distance between us, though it only had me backing away, my heart hammering inside my chest. “Believe me—I know you want nothing to do with me.”
    “And yet, here you are.” What the fuck was he up to? And though I was trying not to panic, I was failing miserably.
    He let out a deep breath, and looked me straight in the eyes so I’d know he was serious. “We’re getting married.”
    I scoffed at him with a laugh. Because he had to be kidding. “Like hell we are.”
    “Neither of us has any real say in the matter, Wren. If I want your father’s help to make sure my family is kept safe and my dad’s murderer gets his due, he’s insisting that we get married.” He put out his hand to stop me when I started to protest, though he had to be fucking insane if he thought I was going to go through with any of that. “And since he knows it’s not a union you’d enter into willingly, he’s decided to cut you off financially if you don’t go through with marrying me.”
    When I cursed him this time around, I raised it to an art form—and sent more than a bit of that anger in my father’s direction. This could not be happening. Of all the asinine things. “I’m not getting married— period . Let alone get married to you, of all people.”
    “Yeah…you must have missed that part about not having a choice. Because if you think I’m going to leave my family open to another attack, you can guess again.”

 
     
     

     
    I knew she’d still be angry with me—just like I knew she wouldn’t want to marry me. Unfortunately for her, she had little say in the matter, as barbaric and backward as that sounded. But the truth of the matter was that she didn’t come from a normal family that followed the normal rules of society. And given who her father was, there was no real way out of this sort of life. She might try to escape it, but there’d always be someone there to pull her back into it—like me.
    “I know you’re not happy about this, Wren, but you have no choice. Who pays your rent? Who puts money in your account so you can buy clothes and go out drinking? Where does the money come from when you decide you want to go for a swim in Bali or you want to spend springtime in Capri? Who pays for that shopping spree in Paris and Milan? Because if you think your father won’t cut you off, you can guess again.” It was nothing but the truth.
    “I’ll manage just fine on my own. I don’t need you or my father to take care of me.”