CHAPTER FORTY FOUR

"Where are you taking me?" I've never been so confused in my life so much. Whether I should be celebrating my freedom or scared for my life.

I peeked at the man beside me and shifted further to the car door.

"Would you stop squirming, princess?" I snicker at the nickname.

"Princess? That was an upgrade from the last time we met." The piercing eyes at me make me forget how snarky my mouth can be.

"Well, you upgraded yourself as well. I should've known from our first meeting that you never belonged in the harem."

The word Harem brings chills down my spine. The old memories hit me like a truck. The first time being tied and mistreated like that by a guard. Then Arcadio lies in the middle of the room with those naked girls surrounding him.

"I didn't mean to take you back to memory lane, princess." The smirk in his voice told me how much he was enjoying it.

I glare at him, "Stop calling me that!"

"Tired of your throne already, princess?" He doesn't let me answer him. "Should've known by now that being with a mafia man doesn't seem to be all roses."

"What is it to you, huh?" I cross my arms in front of my chest. "You brought me with you in this car to have a girl's talk with me? Because if I remember clearly the last time you were trying to hurt me or should I say 'teaching me a lesson'?"

"Arcadio should've never interrupted us. Maybe you would've learned something called manners."

My body shivers a little imagining what would've happened that night if Arcadio didn't came. Rolling my eyes as a pretend I inquire, "Speaking of Arcadio. Does he know that I am with you, Mathew? Was he the one who send you to me?" The long pause didn't make that itch of being wrong to go away.

With the unanswered questing, I quietly move my head to the window and look afar. It was better to distract myself than to act on my impulse and start an unwanted fight that I will only lose.

I remember how much I wasn't scared after seeing the man who held me captured dripping with blood but shouted my ears out after seeing Mathew holding a gun at the same man.

"Stop screaming, princess, or I would have to drag you out of here and we don't want that to happen, right?"

My heart was so disappointed seeing him and not seeing Arcadio anywhere. I half expected him to be the prince saving the kidnapped damsel. But how I could forget that nothing goes as planned in this damsel's life, whether it is the love life or any part of life?

Mathew as a man of his word had dragged me out of the hellhole with his men and the kidnapper's blazing fires at each other. He secured me in the bulletproof SUV and we rolled out. The kidnappers weren't that quick to do a car chase because I got to know later that their car tires were punctured.

I also wasn't able to understand the motive behind the least-expected man to save me. If I were to guess I would've guessed him as the one behind the kidnapping, not the other way around. In the end, a part of me was glad to be out of that horrifying room. My mind wouldn't have bared to look at the dead man again or to bear that massive headache that was surprisingly gone that minute we stepped out.

The car suddenly stopped. Now the question of whether I was saved or trapped follows behind. Mathew moves out and opens the car door. "If you're trying to be chivalrous, don't be. Too late for that anyway."

His fingers hold my upper arm a little more harshly than before and move me out of the car. I have to stop blabbering about everything that comes to mind.

The house that we stopped in front of was so different from mine. It looked more like a vacation home than a prison. "Great! I should've known that you were only upgrading my kidnapping place." I exclaim as we get down in the driveway. The house looked so spacious. It's so weird seeing such a beautiful house covered with so much greenery and with no noise of traffic or pollution that made me question whether we were still in Delhi state or not.

"Who said anything about kidnapping?" Mathew raises one eyebrow at me.

I roll my eyes, "okay, then explain to me why am I still in these stupid cuffs and not in my home?"

Mathew sighed, "You were the one who tried to open the door and escape."

"Yes, prisoned people tend to do that. Your point being?"

"Well, I know that they don't try to pull that stunt while in a moving vehicle if they want to survive. Sorry for saving you." He grits his teeth.

I frown at him, "haven't you seen enough movies to know that it is better to jump than to be in the wrong hands?"

"Oh, and where was this lesson 101 when the real kidnappers took you away?" I so hate when he smirks.

"For your information, I was unconscious during that time don't blame that on me. What about the question of me being not in my home?"

"Let's just say that you owe me a favour." Stating that he walks inside casually putting his hand in his pockets.

It takes me a few seconds to realize what he had just spoken. Favour? Why do I owe him anything and that too a favour?

"Hey, I never have owed you anything. Forget about a favour!" I chase him inside the house.

Just as I entered the house the interiors of the house caught my view. I had always seen these interiors in a villa abroad never I expected to see such a house in India. The floor was all marble with the furniture being leather. Everything in this house screamed expensive. The place looked spotless that made me insecure when I looked down at myself.

"Why don't you freshen up and then we can talk about the favour?" The unexpected man suggests.

I frown. "Thank you but I would like to freshen up at my home. So I'm grateful for the offer but I'll take my leave." I turn my body towards the door.

Automatically the men that were standing at the corner beside the walls, stood in front of the door blocking my way. Mathew's chuckle echoed in the large room. "Even though you are our guest. You were brought here on my will and would leave with my permission."

"I should've known a sly man like you would have hidden agendas." I roll my eyes at him while crossing my hands in front.

"Good, your learning fast princess." He casually stands with his hands in his pant pockets. The suit he was wearing didn't even look that it went through a war.

"Look I don't know what you want me to do and with what favour your even thinking about asking me because for the last time I don't own you anything." Now this man had annoyed me to the brim. Especially the evil smile that he had, shivered my spine.

"I didn't think it would come to this extent but I suppose I was not expecting you to obey me so easily anyway." He doesn't let me interrupt and continuous. "I know what happened that night."

I raise one eyebrow when I ask, "which night?"

"The night when you killed Arcadio's guard."