Candy Crush by Tami Lund

sorting out the memories in her
head.
    “After about a year, I started working for
him. He ran a pretty large empire. Landscaping businesses, property
development, all sorts of different businesses. I was his office
manager. Another thing I realized in retrospect was that he wanted
to have total control over me. I moved into his home, I worked for
him. I was always very close to my family, and by that point I
hardly ever saw them. Miguel didn’t like me to be away from him or
his life. If I went shopping, it was with one of his sisters. Even
when I did get to visit my family, Miguel insisted on going with
me. The first time my brother came into town – he lives in New
Orleans – and met Miguel, Emmett managed to pull me aside and tell
me the guy was bad news.
    “But I was so infatuated, with both Miguel
and my new life, that I ignored him and all the signs. Miguel is a
very good looking man – kind of looks like you, but with dark
eyes.”
    She half turned and glanced at Brandon. He
forced his face to remain impassive as he continued to
systematically massage her shoulders.
    “He also gave me anything I wanted, and I
admit to enjoying shopping more than the average girl. Even though
my life with him sometimes felt oppressive, on the surface, it
seemed perfect, and I felt stupid questioning my good fortune just
because I sometimes felt like a prisoner in my own life.
    “Anyway, as his office manager, my
responsibilities were really little more than being a secretary. I
wasn’t supposed to have access to anything financial or, I realize
now, anything incriminating. It was just his way of keeping me
under his thumb. Part of it was just his personality, but probably
part of it was he didn’t trust me, either. He liked to have total
control over everything in his life. But the problem was, I’m a lot
smarter than he gave me credit for, and I started noticing stuff. I
didn’t like what I found out. His empire was a lot more extensive
than it appeared on the surface. There was lots of illegal stuff
buried in there.
    “Definitely gun running, definitely
illegally importing immigrants, probably drugs. Stuff that I had no
interest in being involved in. I couldn’t let him know I knew, and
I couldn’t just walk away. I had to convince him that he didn’t
want me anymore, without making him too angry, so that he would
just discard me, basically, instead of take more drastic
measures.”
    She shuddered again and Brandon stopped
massaging and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. She leaned
back and rested her back against his chest.
    “I can’t believe I’m telling you all of
this.”
    “It’s okay. I’m a good listener.”
    She hesitated for a few moments before she
resumed speaking again.
    “I tried all sorts of stupid things to make
him not like me anymore. I started acting kind of bitchy all the
time, like I wasn’t really grateful for everything he’d done for
me. I got sloppy at work. I was in charge of keeping up his house
and yard – I think he liked the idea of pretending to play house
with me – so I did things like cancel the cleaning service, and
then complain about how dirty the house was. I switched the weed
killer and fertilizer so half the flowers in his yard died. Just
annoying little things. I think he really was starting to get
frustrated with me, and I’m pretty sure he was just about ready to
cut me loose.”
    She paused again, and her eyes were
unfocused, as she relived that period of her life in her head.
Brandon began stroking her hair.
    “About two months ago, Miguel called me into
his office. It was just the two of us, which only really happened
when we were, uh…” She trailed off and a blush crept up her
cheeks.
    “I get it, Gabriella,” Brandon said softly,
and there was just a trace of amusement in his voice, as if her
embarrassment over the fact that she had been having sex with her
ex-boyfriend was funny.
    She cleared her throat and continued her
story. “I thought this was