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If I dared to move, I had no doubt that Jesse wasn’t going to let me get away, not this time. He’d rather see me dead than in Atlas’ arms again.
Then he appeared, smirking like the cat that swallowed the canary.
“Which one are you?” he called out sweetly as I shuffled forward.
“Can’t you tell?” Eugene grumbled, still holding his nose where I’d socked him. “It’s clearly Bianca. Sweet Dahlia would never do something like this to her own father.”
“Maybe you don’t know Dahlia as well as you think,” I whiplashed. “Especially now that you’ve killed our mother.”
“Enough chitchat!” Jesse called, clapping his hands. “Get her washed. I want every ounce of Atlas’ touch scrubbed from her body.”
He visibly shuddered at the idea that Atlas had been with me, and I clung to the insecurity.
“Why?” I yelled as I was marched past him and through the gate. “You’re worried that you might get a whiff of a real shifter?”
“And if she continues to talk, put a muzzle on her!” Jesse added.
I clamped my mouth closed and stared at Joey, who looked apologetic for the first time.
“He obviously doesn’t mean that,” the young man offered lightly.
“Oh, sure,” I replied caustically. “He draws the line at kidnapping and assault.”
Joey’s face shadowed, and I stared at him, my pulse quickening.
Maybe he’s not a lost cause. He might be workable. He could help me escape again.
I gulped back the stone in my throat as I was led to the house.
“Really?” I said demurely. “He’s going to let me stay in his house after everything I’ve put him through?”
The trailers were far less secure, and I could plot my breakout from there. Joey answered in much the same way.
“There are more guards at the house,” he answered simply. “And he doesn’t trust you after the stunt you pulled.”
Abruptly, he stopped walking and looked at me, his face earnest.
“I don’t want to see you get hurt, Bianca,” he told me sincerely. “But you have to do what you’re told. You belong to Jesse. That’s a fact, and nothing you do is going to change that.”
I started to protest, but his intense stare stopped me.
“It doesn’t matter how much you fight it. He’s going to be your husband, and even if you don’t marry him, he still owns you. That’s just the way it is. Why can’t you just accept your fate?”
My stomach sank, the reality of his words hitting me like a physical blow. Everything he said was accurate. Although I’d had no say in it, Joey was right. Our father had sold us, rightfully, to Jesse. The tiger shifter had claim to us, whether we liked it or not.
But accepting it? That was a whole other thing that I wasn’t prepared to do.
Joey gently pushed me forward, and we continued walking toward the house. I noticed that the guards followed at a safe distance. I would have laughed at their fear.
What do they think I’m going to do to them?
Glancing over my shoulder, I saw my father and Jesse standing by the gate, watching me with suspicious eyes. Everyone was fixated on my moves, just waiting for me to act out so they could put me down.
Maybe Joey was right. Maybe I should strike a deal with Jesse, a deal where I agreed to stay if he left my sister alone.
I shivered to think that his scouts were out looking for her as we walked.
Atlas won’t let anything happen to her. I left her in good hands. I’m sure of it.
