Journey
I had always beengood at pretending like I wasn’t afraid. Each time a couple would come to the orphanage to look at potential girls for adoption, I had always felt a small sliver of fear. My stomach would twist, my little hands would shake, and my eyes would fall to the floor if they even dared to look at me.
So, over the years, I became skilled in not showing my fear and not allowing disappointment to wash me away.
But I was afraid right now.
My stomach was in knots, and my legs trembled. I was on a cold, wooden floor, wishing that the planks below me would snap and I could crash to the dirt-covered ground and somehow escape. Sister Mary isn’t here. I’d had my suspicions, of course. I wasn’t completely stupid. But what else could I do?
“Where is Sister Mary? I won’t go until you let her go.”
The man, who I realized was Bain’s father, glared at me from across the room. “You think you have a choice? Your mother always did too.”
The question was choking me. He knows my mom? I shifted my attention to Bain who was staring at his father with a bored expression, as if he didn’t scare him in the slightest. There were too many things going on for me to focus on just one, but Bain had something to do with my past, and this man did, too.
‘Mom kept her from you from the moment she was born.’
They knew my mother, and although I’d been searching most of my life for someone to tell me who my mother was, or why I was an orphan, I didn’t feel the least bit comforted at the moment.
My head was resting on my bent knees as I tried to silently work through what was unfolding in front of me, and then I caught the slight flicker of surprise on Bain’s face. Two tall figures walked through the squeaky door, letting in a gust of cold air, and I suddenly jumped to my feet.
The glint of the knife against Cade’s throat blinded me as dread scratched at my tight throat. My hand flew to my mouth, and right then was the moment that fear took over. A reaction came from me that had been simmering from the moment I had to leave Gemma. My fight-or-flight response was completely obliterated, and my actions were driven from something deep in my soul.
I’d give up everything for him.
Our eyes caught, and he was clearly panicked seeing me across the room.
“Don’t.” Suddenly, a gun was pointed in my direction, and I froze mid-step. There was a faint growl from Bain, who was only a few yards away from me, and the man who had Cade at knifepoint sighed agitatedly.
“Do you think it’s in your best interest to point a gun at her? In my presence?”
A sickly feeling slithered down my spine, and my legs trembled again. In my presence?
Bain’s father immediately lowered the gun and ran a hand over his cropped head of hair. There was something in his eye that caught my attention. Is he afraid of this man? He was the one who had a gun, and I knew that a gun would always win in a knife fight, yet he submitted.
“So, this is her.” My head spun as I slowly wound my gaze past Cade, who hadn’t taken his eyes off me, and landed on the man who had him locked against his chest with a knife to his throat. I knew, without a doubt, that I’d be leaving this abandoned building with him if it had anything to do with saving Cade. I knew it.
“Yes,” Bain’s father answered. “I found her.”
“I thought she was dead.” His eyes ran down my body slowly, like he was sizing up an appetizer. In the worst way, I wanted to take a step back to get farther away from him, but instead, I stayed right where my feet were planted.
“She looks alive and well to me,” Bain’s father said with an airy tone, as if he were proud that he was handing over an eighteen-year-old girl to some psycho who had a knife pressed to someone’s throat.
“Yes, she does. She looks a lot better than I imagined eighteen years ago.”
The edge of my voice ran through the room like I had all the confidence in the world. My arms crossed over my chest as my chin lifted. “Is someone going to fill me in on what we’re doing here, and why someone has tried to kill me and later abduct me?”
“Someone tried to kill you?” the man asked, suddenly seeming concerned. So, it wasn’t him. “Don’t you worry. Once I find out who tried to kill you, I’ll kill them.” He winked at me, and my face fell. “Once people learn that you’re my property, you won’t be touched again.”
A choppy laugh left Cade, and my heart dropped. His words were somewhat muffled as the knife was pressed against his windpipe. “You think she’s yours, Slave?”
Slave.
“I have a fucking contract to prove it, and I paid a shit-ton of money, so yeah, she’s mine.” He tightened his hold on Cade, and I watched as his jaw grew sharper against the knife. “And who the fuck are you to talk back to me?”
Bain’s father smirked, and my eyes began to grow fuzzy. I briefly saw Bain standing back with his nostrils flared and his fists clenched, staring at him, too. “That’s Tommy Walker’s son,” he said, driving the sick smile further.
Slave’s empty eyes narrowed. “Tommy is in prison with Carlisle and Frank. Are their sons taking back what was once theirs?” He angled his head toward Cade’s throat like he was going to bite into his jugular. “Is that why you’re here? You want the clients back?”