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Iwas sitting in my car crying my eyes out and I had never even been a crier like that.

But two days ago my father sat me down in his office and told me I had to marry a man I didn’t know. He said that it wasn’t up for discussion. Just like that.

He said that shit like he was telling me what was for dinner, like my whole life was something he could just rearrange when it was convenient for him and this came out of nowhere. He knew I had someone I’d recently started dating and was really feeling, so I couldn’t understand this random demand he’d come to me with. A marriage wasn’t some shit to take lightly, but he wanted to make it seem as if it was a small deal.

I knew he wasn’t telling me everything. That’s what made it worse. My father, Tyree Taylor, had gotten himself into something deep and instead of handling it like a man he was laying it on me. Wanted me, his own daughter to walk into some stranger’s family and fix what he broke.

That wasn’t happening.

I loved my daddy. More than almost anything. But there was a limit and he had hit it two days ago in that office. I was giving him a break. I needed him to sit and think about his request while I disappeared out of his life for a while.

I wiped my face, started my car and backed out the driveway. I needed to get out of Dallas for a while. I had to leave long enough so I’d miss the wedding that I’d just fuckin’ learned about. I was about to show them that I really wasn’t doing this shit. I had to clear my head. Figure out my next move because I had things going on in my life that nobody knew about and a forced marriage was going to mess up everything.

I backed up and got halfway out the driveway before a black truck flew up behind me out of nowhere.

I slammed my brakes hard, my heart pounding from the damn wreck I had just avoided.

I looked in my mirror trying to figure out what was going on and before I could even process it, the passenger door of that truck flew open and a big, husky man jumped out moving fast and direct, straight toward my car.

Something in my gut said lock your doors.

I reached for the lock too late.

He snatched my door open and grabbed me out of my seat like I was nothing. He was throwing me over his shoulder. Iscreamed, yelled, and grabbed at everything I could reach. The steering wheel, the seat, the door, I was kicking and punching him as hard as I could but this man didn’t even flinch. He just put his hand over my mouth and I couldn’t do anything but breathe hard against his palm while he dragged me across my own driveway.

I was being kidnapped.

In broad daylight. In front of my own fuckin’ house. This was it. I was about to die.

“You can have it all! Everything I got. I’ll empty out all my accounts, please just don’t kill me, pleaseeee! If it’s the money you want, I can get it.” I cried, and this big ass nigga ignored me and didn’t respond.

He got me to the back of the truck, threw me inside and I hit the floorboard hard. I scrambled back trying to get away from the door and that’s when I realized somebody was already in the back of the truck.

He was sitting across from where I had landed, looking disgusted at me. Like I was the last face that he wanted to see. He was fine as hell, though. Handsome in a way that didn’t make him look any less dangerous. Dark eyes, jaw tight, looking at me like I was a problem he had to figure out how to solve. He had a scowl locked on his face while looking at me and wasn’t trying to hide it.

He didn’t say anything right away. Just stared at me like he was waiting on me to calm down.

I was shaking. Crying. Trying to catch my breath from being snatched out my own car.

“Sit down,” he said. Teeth clenched. Low.

I couldn’t even respond.

“Do you know who I am?” he asked.

I shook my head no. Was I supposed to know this gangsta?

He leaned forward and looked me dead in my eyes.

“I’m the nigga you ‘bout to marry.”

I stared at him trying to find something in his face that looked like he was playing.

There was nothing there. This was Kaseem Carter. It had to be him, sitting in front of me, and the nigga looked more dangerous than the stories I’ve heard.

“I don’t know what my father told you or what kind of arrangement y’all think you have,” I said, still trying to catch my breath. “But I’m not marrying anybody. Especially not somebody who just had me snatched out my own car, in front of my home. This is beyond crazy!”

He looked at me like I hadn’t said a word.