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His face paled. “You think he’s okay?”
He’d just walked into a trap that we didn’t see coming. I was afraid he was already dead. Ian too. “I’m sure he’s fine. Harlow is the one we need to worry about right now.”
“I should take the troops north while you stay here since you’re Queen of Delacroix.”
“All I care about is your sister—”
“If she’s there, I’ll find her. You need to be here in case HeartHolme or General Henry sends word. Or Father returns.”
I didn’t want to stand around and do nothing. I needed to be doing something—like stabbing my blade through that asshole’s stomach for touching my daughter. But my duty was to my people as well as my family.
Atticus grabbed my shoulder and squeezed it. “Mother, it’ll be alright.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“And she’s smart and strong and fearless. That guy doesn’t understand who he just crossed. We’ll get her back—or she’ll get herself back.”
The tears welled in my eyes, impossible to control. “I’m so fucking scared.”
“I know.” My son squeezed me again. “But we’ll get her back. And if we can’t, you know Father will. They didn’t take her to kill her. Otherwise, they would have just slit her throat and left her behind—”
“Atticus.” I didn’t want that horrible image in my head.
“They took her for a reason—so we have time.”
14
HARLOW
My body suddenly jolted, and I rolled onto my side. I was dead asleep, warm and tucked inside the covers, but the bump had stirred my consciousness. My last memory hit me, fighting for my life in the middle of a kitchen, and my eyes snapped wide open.
I was in the back of a wagon, and a thick tarp was pinned over the top, trapping me inside. Hooves from horses sounded against the road, and the wagon shifted left and right as we crossed rough terrain. We were at an angle, going downhill.
I tried to spring into action, but then I realized my ankles were tied together, and so were my wrists. I twisted the rope, tried to slip my hand free from the tight bindings, tried to break through the strands with brute force, but nothing worked. I would scream, but he had my mouth gagged with a rope. I crawled to the bottom of the wagon and kicked the wood, hoping the flap would come free and I’d drop on the road and be left behind. Someone else would find me and return me to Delacroix.
But then the wagon came to a halt.
Shit.
“You’re smarter than you look.” The flap was tugged open, and then cold air immediately rushed inside. The sky wasn’t a pastel blue. It was covered with gray storm clouds as the air froze my lungs in place. His handsome face appeared, and he reached for the rope on my ankles before he dragged me back up and hooked me to the side of the wagon.
I tried to fight his hold, tried to scream past the gag, but nothing worked. There was clearly no one around anyway. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have stopped. I stomped my feet against the wood of the panel and tried to break it down, but all I did was hurt my knees.
“Have at it.” He lowered the tarp again and secured it closed.
I screamed through my gag, but it sounded pathetic, even to me.
“I suggest you rest while you can. It’s going to get rough soon enough.”
* * *
It seemed like an entire day had passed before he stopped again. The flap opened, and he looked down at me. “Look, we can play this out in one of two ways. You can appreciate my generosity by doing your business without a fuss, or I can treat you like a farm animal with no rights at all. Which do you prefer?”
I could feel the heat from my hatred radiating from my eyes as I stared.
“You’d rather hold it, then?”
I had to pee badly. And I was thirsty…and starving.
