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“The lands are yours. They belong to you. It’s your choice what happens to them. They won’t be added to Bastide territory.”
I glanced back at Hugo, but his eyes were full of the same confusion I felt.
“I refuse your bargain,” I said.
“What bargain?”
“I will not take these lands in return for forgiveness. My forgiveness is not for sale.”
“They are yours anyway,” he said. “The compound has been burned to the ground. Your father has been killed. I’ve avenged the threat to your life.”
The intensity rolled off him in heated, urgent waves.
My husband wanted to have that power over me again. The power I refused to give him.
“Please, Léonie,” he rasped. “I’ll give you anything. Anything you want for forgiveness. Any land on the earth. I will make sure you get it.”
“I don’t want a thing you could murder to get,” I almost snarled, stepping closer as the sun began to break through the clouds, and me matching him beat-for-beat, wild, untamed emotions spilling from me like feral things.
“You don’t even begin to understand what you’d need to do.”
“Then show me!” he groaned, pressing his body through the bars. “Show me what I'd need to do.”
“I have no idea.”
“I have a proposal for you—you and Ciel come back to the Bastide compound.”
I laughed.
“No. I can’t think of anything you could bargain with that I can’t get myself. I have everything I want.”
His eyes watched me hungrily. How sharp his cheekbones looked. Like he hadn’t been eating.
“My brother doesn’t. And I think you’ll bargain to get him what he wants.”
Oh shit
Hugo was beside me. “It’s already a no, brother. Why don’t you worry about your southern supply route?”
“If you come home with me, Léonie, and give me an opportunity to earn a second chance, I will strike a deal that would make the Savatier family, and my brother, wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.”
“No deal,” Hugo said instantly. “We will grow our business without you.”
“That’s not all. In return for you coming home, I will tell him how to find his lost love Romy.”
CHAPTER 19
Léonie
Hugo sucked in his breath so hard he almost stumbled, white-knuckling the iron gate.
“You’re a liar,” he rasped. “You’re just desperate for any leverage to get to Léonie. I won’t fall for it. I hid Romy’s tracks. Even from myself. I made sure no one in our family could find her.”
“I am desperate,” Étienne growled. “But I’m not a liar. Open this door and let me in and I can show you proof. All I want is a chance to convince my wife I’ve changed. And in return you will have a chance to find the woman you lost.”
I could have strangled my husband. How dare he play with Hugo’s emotions in this way!
My brother-in-law was already shaking his head and refusing to listen.
