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“Good. Zane won’t leave until he sees her so I’ll speak to her before we set up dinner. I need more information. Find someone to track him while he’s down here and listen in on anything he says or does.”
Ren nodded and headed off on his venture. I sat in my office for a moment, trying to figure out a way I could keep her safe. If she didn’t want to leave with Zane, I needed to find a way to have her tell me but also keep it on the downlow so Zane doesn’t riot.
I headed out of my office and down the hall to my bedroom where she sat with her ankles crossed at the end, and the book resting on my stomach as she read. When she noticed me, she put it down.
“You know I don’t need my room to be cleaned, I’m not that messy,” she said. I realized that Ren must have told her that it needed to be cleaned so she would move.
“It’s fine. Would you come with me?”
She nodded and hopped off the bed. I took her down through the back corridor that led into the back part of the garden. She looked up at the pomegranate tree she had asked about before.
“It’s huge.”
“It’s been growing here for a long time.”
“But didn’t you only just move down here like ten years ago?” she asked.
“Yes, but this garden was here when I got here. I didn’t tunnel underground and build this place, it was caused by a sinkhole. The only thing I did was build the mansion. The rest was here, including this tree.”
“Pomegranates are delicious. I have them in my salads from time to time.”
“It is also a symbol of this place,” I told her. “It’s safe. This tree withstood a lot from my brother over the years.”
“I didn’t think he came down here.”
“He can, it’s certainly not off limits, just like I can go up to his side of the city whenever I choose.”
“Why are you telling me this?” she asked. I loved how intuitive she was.
“Zane’s here,” I told her. “He’s coming to dinner tonight. He wants to talk to you.”
There was something in her expression that told me she didn’t want to leave. “How would that work if I am a captive?”
“You come to dinner, I tell him to leave my side of the city alone and you can leave with him. You would no longer be a captive.”
Disappointment, that’s what I saw. Did she not want to leave either?
“If you want to delay your return to him, I’ll have a bowl of pomegranate seeds in front of you. Take one and eat it. That will tell me to change the plan and keep you here, under my safety, until Zane’s plans are destroyed.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. An armor of defense making her stand up straighter. The sweet, funny girl was gone. The survivor was back.
I’d lost her.
She headed back inside, leaving me by the tree. Why did this feel worse than finding out my brother was planning on having my side of the city taken from me?
What had she done to me?
I grabbed the closest pomegranate and headed inside. My plan was crumbling around me and I was about to let go of the one weapon I had against Zane.
Chapter Six
Paisley
Ilookedattheburgundy dress Halen had left in the room after my shower. It was exactly the style I liked. My chest ached as I thought that this would be the last time I would spend in this underground palace that felt more like home than the hotel did. I don’t think it classed as a palace but it felt like one. I was a captive, someone who he had taken against their will, and yet I felt safe here. I felt like I didn’t want to go back to the land of natural sunlight.
The thought of seeing Zane again both ignited an anger in me that he was trying to destroy his own brother’s place and business, and one of happiness that he cared enough to rescue me but I knew it wasn’t about me. It was about what was his. I was his property, and as much as that annoyed the hell out of me, I knew that I was using him just as much as he was using me.
I slid into the dress, and marveled at the feel of the material, how it clung to every curve I had as if it were made for me. Zane never bought me dresses like this. They always had to be bright and tight. I’d gotten used to it, but the way Halen looked at me, the way he let me decide what to do even as a captive, and that I was allowed to choose to leave with Zane even though Zane would probably renege on his word.
