Escaping The Mafia King

They got back to the mansion and Varys was true to his word. He marched Hope into her room and using a pair of shackles, cuffed her to the bed. "I don't know why you keep pushing me. I hope it was worth it, that call you made."

"For what it's worth, I wasn't calling to reach him. I just wanted my uncle to know I was safe," Hope replied. She hadn't objected to his treatment of her at all, she'd accepted all of it.

Could she be telling the truth? The hope of her not trying to run from him flared to life inside of him. He wanted to believe her. All he wanted to do was find solace in her arms and ignore the rest of the world even existed, if only for a while. He could recall how fast her heart had beat when he'd kissed her.

But she'd lied to him already before. What if this was just another of those? What if his Hope was truly lost and gone? "As soon as you got me to leave you used my phone. If you truly were worried about that, you'd have asked me."

Hope sat on the bed hugging her knees as she watched his every move. "Varys, be honest, would you have allowed that?"

He stared down into her challenging gaze. If a man had looked at him like that, he'd have had him beat. But he couldn't imagine treating her like that. Still, her words had merit but the answer was obvious. "No."

"And why wouldn't you?" she asked. "Answer that and you'll understand why I had to do what I did. Besides, I don't want them searching for me anymore."

Everything inside of him froze in place as if time itself had frozen. Was he jumping to conclusions? No, he couldn't be. But her last words had him stuck. If she didn't want them searching for her, didn't that mean she was agreeing to be his? Or was there another layer that he wasn't getting?

"Why wouldn't you?" Hope demanded again.

himself out of it by force as he focused on her soft voice. His fragile little Hope. "I wouldn't trust you to be honest with me," he replied. "That you're trying to get hold of that husband of yours, to go back to

left

to prove that to me. All I can see is that as soon as I gave you one chance to breathe without

over there. If anything, you're the one that should be blamed. All I wanted was to let the one

seriously telling me that I should be blamed for giving you a phone to make sure you're okay while I left your side?" He shook his head so hard his hair flopped into his

constantly blaming me, Varys," she

this? No one else ever dared, and yet here was his Hope, constantly picking a fight with him. He wanted the calmness back, the quiet

she continued to stare away from him. Why was she being so childish about this? When all he wanted was to wrap his arms around

"Varys?"

willing to go through with this and finally act with some sense. "What is it?" he

for taking me out, but I need some time to be

slammed it shut behind him. His guard was sitting on the other side of it, not the least bit

into the room and

Fucking Hope.