It was my birthday?And I didn’t even know it?
How in the fuck?
I felt my jaw clench as my eyes searched and connected with Darren’s sly gaze, his curved mouth accentuating the look of deviousness as he watched me process my reality.
It was my thirtieth birthday.
When I was taken, I had been twenty-five years old, soon-to-be twenty-six.And now I was thirty.
And I did not even fucking know it until now.
The knowledge of it being kept from me made my blood go from freezing to instant molten lava.I directed the rage that I knew was flaring behind my eyes straight at Darren, but all he did was smirk in return and stupidly approached me.
“Happy birthday, princess,” he said, his mouth stretching into a wolfish grin I wanted to smack right off his face.
“Is it, though?”I muttered up at him so that only he would hear.
“Of course it is.Now smile and say thank you to your guests.A lot of effort and money went in to putting this together just for you.”
I almost rolled my eyes.“Was part of that effort spent on ensuring I didn’t even know what day of the week it was?Again?”
He chuckled as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and turned around to face the crowd with me.“You don’t need to know the damn day of the week.”
Someone started taking pictures of us, the flashing lights blinding me to the point of annoyance.Stepping out from under Darren’s arm, I approached Katherine, who smiled and reached out to embrace me in a hug.
“Happy birthday, Jaden!”she said, her wide grin bright enough to distract from the healing scars on her beautiful face.
“Thanks.”
After several birthday wishes from the rest of my “guests,” who were mostly guards and the crew from the ship, we all sat down for dinner as the yacht cruised around the bay.The conversation was light, the air filled with small bouts of laughter here and there, most of which I didn’t contribute to, that is, until the presents were brought out.I didn’t expect gifts, but apparently, I would have to endure additional torture in front of an audience.
Katherine was visibly eager when she placed her perfectly wrapped gift in front of me, the smile on her face beaming with barely contained excitement.Confusion hit me when I placed my hands on the box and found it a little cold, but once I opened it and saw what was inside, I couldn’t stop myself from belting out a laugh of pure joy.She had gotten me a large carton of Superman ice cream.
“Oh my God, this is awesome,” I exclaimed, a chuckle bubbling up my throat.“Thank you so much.”
Katherine’s smile widened just as much as Daniel’s scowl did.“You’re welcome.It was pretty difficult to track down, but Darren spared no expense,” she explained.
I tilted my head at Darren, cocking a brow at the reveal.He returned my gaze with a knowing smile and then lowered his mouth to my ear.“There’s an entire freezer full of it in the garage just for you,” he said smoothly.“I told you I’d find your stupid ice cream.”
“So you did,” I replied with a tight grin.“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”After kissing me on the cheek, Darren stood back to his full height behind me.“But you can also thank Sloane for locating the correct Midwest supplier.”
I glanced over at my bodyguard who smirked back at me, then stepped up to present a small box she had been hiding behind her back to place it on the table in front of me.
“Happy birthday, Jaden,” she said with a warm smile.
Picking up the box, I pulled off the wrapping paper and lifted the lid to find a single pair of brass knuckles in rainbow chrome.
“Oh, wow,” I murmured as I picked them up to examine them.They had little designs etched into the metal with small spikes at the tips of the knuckles.Sliding them over my fingers, I saw that they fit perfectly for the small size of my hand, so it had to have been custom-made just for me.“These are really cool.Thank you, Sloane.”
“You’re very welcome,” she replied.
When I glanced over at Darren, his reaction to Sloane’s gift was difficult to read, but given the hard look in his eyes, I doubted it had his full stamp of approval.
“I’m not sure that’s entirely appropriate, Sloane,” Carla interjected snidely as she stepped closer to place a gift bag in front of me.“Jaden is about to be a mother after all.She shouldn’t resort to such violent things.”
I rolled my eyes at her.“You’ve clearly never witnessed a mother bear protecting her cubs.”Violence was second nature.