The Camp (Chateau 2)

Whether Melanie actually wanted to marry him or not didn’t make a difference. I got what I wanted. It was such a relief, a load off my shoulders. I was powerful enough to keep her safe, but I would never make her happy…not here.

“But if she returns to this camp and pulls another stunt like she did last time…I’ll execute her myself. If she does anything at all to interfere with business, I’ll kill her. I suggest you make that very clear to her.”

After everything we’d been through, I didn’t think that would be a problem. Raven knew there was nothing she could do to change the situation. Even if she came back and burned the camp to the ground, it would just be rebuilt in a couple months, and the process would start all over. But I also knew that as long as this camp continued to function in this manner, it would haunt her until her dying day.

Fender grabbed his glass and took a drink. “I thought you would be more cheerful.”

My eyes dropped for a moment, thinking about the best way to phrase my words, to give myself the best chance of success. “There are other ways of running this camp, better ways.”

His gaze turned cold, like he already knew what I was trying to do.

“We could replace the girls with paid labor, and we could threaten—”

“No.”

Damn, I’d barely gotten past the first sentence.

“If I won’t do it for Melanie, why would I do it for you?”

At least Melanie had tried.

“I told her I would honor one of her demands, but not both. Raven will be free, but the camp will continue to run flawlessly as it has for years. There is no better system of operation—and we both know that.”

The only reason I’d mentioned it to him at all was because it was important to Raven. But I knew it was futile. I wouldn’t move against him, but convincing him with just words was ineffective. It didn’t matter how strongly opposed I was to all of this; it would never change. I’d tried for years and years. When Raven was free, she might feel differently; she might learn to let it go.

Fender returned to eating. There were a few stalks of asparagus left, so he grabbed each one by the base and bit the tip, crunching the vegetable between his teeth.

I didn’t agree with a lot of things Fender did, but he was my brother, and my loyalty would always be ironclad. That was why I started to feel guilty, harboring this secret from him when I should’ve told him months ago. “Melanie only came back to you to save Raven.” I would’ve kept that information to myself, but now that my brother intended to marry her, I couldn’t just look the other way.

He continued to eat, as if that information were irrelevant.

I studied him, waiting for some kind of reaction.

When he reached the bottom of the stalk, he tossed it back onto the plate. “You kept this from me.”

“I didn’t think it would matter to you. I didn’t realize your feelings were so profound until now.”

He rubbed his hands together as he looked at me, serious but not angry. “You’re right. It doesn’t matter. That woman is mine, and I will have her so no one else ever can. Whether she truly wants me or not, it doesn’t change what I want. Together, we will make strong sons and beautiful daughters. She will be the woman in my bed every night, and every man who sees her on my arm will wish he were me. She serves a purpose, and she does that very well.”

“If this is what you want, I’m happy for you.”

He reached for his glass and held it at the top, his fingers resting down over the rim. “Maybe she did only return to me because she wanted something from me. I was foolish not to see it. But she fucks me so good that I really don’t give a damn.”

Twenty-Seven

Where You Go, I Go

I decided not to tell Raven.

If I told her this was the last time she would be in the camp, waiting for the week to pass would be excruciating. It would give her hope, and that would make every day at the clearing and every night in that small cabin all the more unbearable.

I also didn’t want to tell her Melanie was marrying my brother.

I knew she wouldn’t be happy about that.

I failed to understand my brother’s fascination with that woman. I could understand the physical lust for a few months, but a relationship for a lifetime? That simply baffled me. Would you want to spend your life with a woman with no brains and no courage? Yes, their children would be beautiful, but they would also be idiots.