The Bosses Pretend Bride

The tall slender man stepped forward in a threatening manner. "My boss says we have to collect a payment and damnit we are going to collect it one way or another. Micky grab her, the boss will decide what is to be done with her since her father isn't present."

The large burley man named Micky stepped forward and reached out to grab her. Rory reared back out of his reach.

"Don't touch me!" She screamed. "Someone help." She turned to flee, but the larger man got to her first and grabbed both her arms. Rory felt her heart almost burst out of her chest in fear. She did not know what to do. She knew that she could not fight off one, let alone two, and she had no idea what they planned for her.

Rory was just about to give up hope when someone out of nowhere shouted. "Hey what do you think you are doing?" Unhand that lady right now."

Rory was tossed to the ground in favor of the stranger that appeared. "We have no quarrel with you." Rory could hear the thin man sneer through the ringing in her ears from the impact of the landing. She wanted to look up but was too afraid to see what was happening. Her body ached from the fall and her head felt fuzzy. All she heard was the sounds of fighting and someone screaming as she let the darkness take her.

The stranger who came to Rory's rescue took care of the thugs expediently. After a few good punches, they both lay unconscious upon the ground at his feet. "What did you get yourself into, young lady?" The man murmured softly as his gaze took in the unconscious female and the two unconscious men lying around him.

Jason Carrow, a tall, well-built man with jet black hair that was pulled back from his face with gel, and deep green eyes set in a chiseled hard-lined face. He looked back and forth between the three strangers that occupied his gaze. He exuded power and confidence in his well-trailed charcoal gray suit. He stood there wiping his hands with a towel. One of the men standing behind him handed it to him to clean up with.

"What do you want us to do, boss?" The tall, bald man asked from behind him.

Jason glowered at the two thugs then turned his piercing green eyes on the unconscious female. "Take these two to the nearest police station and inform them of their crimes. As for her, place her in my vehicle. We need to make sure she is unharmed.

The men standing behind him nodded their heads in understanding. Mitch, the bald man who spoke up, went to collect the woman, but Jason stopped him. " I will take care of her. Retrieve another vehicle and take these two where they need to go. I don't want their foulness stinking up my car while I occupy it. "

Jason said coldly as he went and bent over the prone body of the lady, lifting her as if she weighed nothing at all. He climbed carefully into the car with his cargo and laid her upon the empty seat next to him before climbing in and buckling them both up for safety.

Jason watched with disinterest as another car pulled up a short time later and the two beaten up men were tossed inside, none too gently by the men he had brought with him.

Once they drove away, Jason turned back to his driver, Larry, and told him to take them to his townhouse.

"Sir, you don't want to take the young lady to the nearest hospital?" He asked, sounding a little surprised. Jason just scowled at him from the back seat. Larry immediately knew to keep silent and do as he was ordered.

"Townhouse here we come." He muttered under his breath as he started the engine. They drove away from the small apartment complex Rory inhabited.

Jason looked down at the sleeping female next to him. He brushed her cheek lightly with the back of his fingers. She was quite lovely with her pale skin and rosy pink lips.

"Larry, do you know who those two men might be?" Jason asked his driver and a man who had been loyal to not only him but his late father as well.

Larry thought about it for a moment before answering carefully. "I believe those were Maronies men, sir. He is a small-time loan shark around here. He has made a name for himself by lending out large amounts of cash to people and when they can't pay it back, he recruits them or their families into his gang."

Jason frowned at his driver's words rung in his ears. So the man recruited people without consent. 'That just won't do.' Jason couldn't help thinking. Out loud he asked Larry why no one reported this or why he hadn't been charged with anything.

Larry looked at his employer in the mirror before answering in a disgusted tone. "The reason is the man, Mr. Maronie has not been found guilty because no one can testify against him. They end up missing if they try."

Jason didn't show a reaction on his face to his driver's words. Instead, he responded coolly "Let's make sure that something like that doesn't happen to her. It would be a shame to go to all that trouble in saving her for her to vanish in such a horrible way."

Larry said nothing as they drove towards the required destination. He rolled up the partition to give his boss some privacy.

Jason, on the other hand, couldn't stop gazing down at the woman lying next to him on the seat. He had to wonder what her reaction would be when she woke up.

He ran his knuckles across her soft, round, soft cheek gently. She made a tiny noise in the back of her throat at his touch. He quickly pulled away so to not wake her.

"I have to wonder, Miss Whitney, when you wake up and see me for the first time, are you going to remember me after so long?"