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“His brother works for me now—and Benton doesn’t like it. I offered to let Bleu go, but Benton doesn’t want to interfere in his life… Otherwise, he would be no better than me. Truer words I’ve never heard.”
“Why doesn’t he want him to work for you?”
He gave a subtle shrug. “It’s not exactly a job that ends in retirement. It’s more of a sprint than a marathon.”
“But Benton would have stayed if he didn’t have his daughter, right?”
“Probably. But I guess fatherhood has given him a new perspective on life.”
I saw both light and dark in this man. He was a man willing to do anything to achieve his agenda, but he did have limits, unlike my father.
“This is the part where you ask me to leave.” He crossed one ankle on the opposite knee, getting more comfortable in the chair like he wasn’t going anywhere. “To walk out of your life and never come back.”
I’d known from the very beginning I shouldn’t get involved with a man like him, but here I was, six weeks later, needing our nights together more than I needed air or water. Handsome men who passed me suddenly appeared faceless, just a blur because my thoughts were wholly occupied by Bartholomew. “My father would have taken the girl himself and threatened to hurt her if Benton didn’t cooperate. And he would have kept that threat over his head every single day to ensure his compliance. He would have been a dictator and Benton a slave. You’re better than that.”
“Just because I’m not as evil as your father doesn’t make me a good guy, sweetheart.” His jawline was covered with a shadow that went down his neck. It had the same darkness as his eyes.
“You didn’t mean for Claire to be taken.”
“What I did was fucked up, nonetheless.”
“They told you they wouldn’t hurt Beatrice—”
“And I was foolish for believing that.”
“How is she now?” I asked.
Bartholomew stared. And stared.
I must have said the wrong thing.
“Gone. She abandoned Claire and moved to London.”
“Why?”
“She never wanted to be a mother. She’d wanted an abortion, but Benton asked her to keep it. She was tortured at the camp, and her mind broke once she came home. She was definitely unsuitable for motherhood then.”
What a sad story. What a terrible thing for Claire to go through.
“Maybe that outcome was inevitable—but I sure moved things along.”
My arms crossed over my chest, thinking about my own mother, how much she loved me, how she never wanted to leave me.
He looked away and let the silence go by.
Despite the horror of his tale, it didn’t change my opinion of him. “I don’t want you to leave.”
His eyes slowly came back to me.
“I hope things work out with Benton.”
“If you were the one stuck in that cult, I think you would feel differently.”
“Maybe. But I’m here now—and I can see how sorry you are.”
“No amount of remorse will be equivalent to the injury I caused. If I were Benton, I would do more than shoot me. He’s already shown me mercy I haven’t earned.”
“Because he loves you.”
