The Billionaire and His Castaway (Alexa Riley Promises #3)(16)

“You probably shouldn’t kiss me in front of them when they’re still so angry,” I tease, but he doesn’t smile at my joke.

“Now,” Mark demands, making me roll my eyes as I reluctantly pull away from Kenton.

“I’ll help Kenton here pack up,” Seth says with a smirk. I just narrow my eyes on him in a hard stare, and he drops his smirk. I’m not worried about Kenton. He’s just as big as Mark, who’s the biggest of all my brothers.

I don’t make it a few feet out of the hut and Mark has me by the wrist and is pulling me along. I have to half run to keep up. I try to jerk from his hold, but he keeps moving.

“We can talk here,” I say and jerk again but get nowhere.

“Not so sure we can,” he says and keeps moving, pushing through some trees until we are back on a beach where I see two boats.

“How’d you find us out here anyway? We got stranded.”

“Got stranded, you say? Can one get stranded on an island they own?” Mark says over his shoulder at me with a really? look on his face.

“What do you mean?” I shake my head, not understanding him.

“He owns the f*cking island, Maddie.”

“No.” This time I really do stop when we get to the edge of the water. “He would have told me that. He…” I trail off. That doesn’t even make any sense. “Maybe he doesn't know he owns it or something. It could be…” I run out of steam, having no idea where I’m going with this.

“Just like you didn’t win a trip,” he adds, and I snap my head up.

“Madeline!” I hear Kenton yell my name, probably having realized Mark didn’t take me just outside the hut to talk.

“Get in the boat, Maddie.” Mark pulls me. I look back over my shoulder, torn. I have no freaking clue what is going on.

“He’s rich. I have no idea how much power he has down here, but it’s clear as f*cking day he wants you and is willing to do anything to get that. Get on the goddamn boat so I can get you out of here. I need to get you back on some land that he doesn’t own. In a country where he doesn’t have a lot of pull.”

I nod, and Mark picks me up by the hips, places me into the boat, and jumps in after me. I watch the shore and see Kenton come running from the tree line, yelling my name. I turn my head and give him my back. I can’t look. The boat takes off across the water, leaving him and our island behind. Leaving so much more than that.

I sit and try to take in everything Mark said. I look over at him and his eyebrows are just furrowed together in an unreadable expression. It isn’t long until we’re back on the dock I’d left just the day before. The boat that had left us at the island is sitting there.

I see José look over at us, his eyes going wide when he sees me. His reaction solidifies my feeling that it was a set up. Everything. Then all the lies come crashing in, making me question everything he’s said to me in the past 24 hours. All of it.

Mark helps me off the boat, and we make our way into the hotel. “I don’t have my key,” I tell him, glancing over at the front desk.

“We don’t need one.” Mark hits the elevator button, and when the doors slide open, I get on with him. “I want you to pack quickly and get dressed. Don’t forget your passport.”

“You really think he won’t let me leave?” I look over at him.

“I’ve never seen him not get something he’s wanted in all the years I’ve worked for him.”

“You make him sound…” I can’t even find the words because they don’t seem right. That doesn’t sound like the man I’d spent the night with. The man who took my virginity. Made love to me like I was the most precious thing to him in the world.

“Cold? Manipulative? He’s one of the richest men in the world. How do you think he got that way?”

As the elevator doors slide open, I point to my door, and Mark pulls out his wallet and inserts a black key in the door, unlocking it.

“Even put you next to his private suite.” He shakes his head as he enters the room. I glance over at the only other door in the hallway, before following him into my room, where he grabs my suitcase and starts throwing things in.

I just stand there feeling completely numb.

“I don’t understand,” I mumble more to myself, but Mark stops packing and looks up at me.

“You didn’t check in last night, so I got worried. I reached out to Kenton, knowing you were staying at one of his hotels. I thought maybe it was just a coincidence.” He walks over to the nightstand, grabbing more of my stuff and tossing it on the bed next to my bag. “He couldn’t be reached, and the hotel couldn’t find you. So I started thinking. He asked about you a lot. Not sure how I didn’t catch it, but almost every time I saw him he’d ask.” He shakes his head like he can’t believe he didn’t see it before.

“So I made Neil dig,” he says, and I know what that means. Neil can find anything, and I do mean anything. “And he found a f*cking lot.”

“What?” I step towards him, wanting to know what my other brother found.

“He checks all your social media religiously, saves the freaking pictures. Hell, I even think he’s taken a few of his own. Then when I guess that wasn’t enough, he went further. Set it up to get you down here, and I’m guessing that didn’t work either.”