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A door on the opposite side of the room opened and Bradley walked in, his chin held high, no fear on his face.
Which seemed rather arrogant. In this room werefiveangry, capable men who wanted to tear him apart.
He undid the button on his suit jacket before lowering himself into a chair at the head of the table, then finally seemed to take note of us. “I am choosing to overlook all the problems you have caused me.” He paused to look first at Tor, then at Lorien. “And do not think I missed the altercation between the two of you. Luckily, no one else noticed and you all seemed more interested in bidding than continuing that, so I can pretend it did not happen. However, I assure you, any other infractions of my rules will be met with severe consequences. You all seem to believe you are above my law, that you do not need to adhere to the same rules as everyone else. I assure you, that is not the case.”
“Where’s Kenz?” Char asked, not bothering with his normal fake smile. If anything, his words were nearly sharp enough to wound without any other weapon.
Bradely let out a tired laugh, as though he were tired of dealing with us and our foolishness. “She will be here shortly. I am being nice and allowing you to see her once more before she is handed over to the winner of the auction.”
“And you think we’re just going to allow that to happen?” Vance asked. “That we’re just going to sit back while you give her away?”
“I hate to agree with that derivative playboy, but I’m forced to here. I have no idea what you pulled here, but I’m not about to allow my soulmate to slip through my fingers, not again,” Lorien said.
“She isn’t your soulmate,” I snapped.
“That has nothing to do with you.” Lorien waved my statement off as though it were entirely unimportant.
And just like that, we fell into an argument between us, with Lorien claiming he loved Kenz while Vance, Char and I argued that he didn’t.
Bradley spoke up, but to no avail.
Something struck the table hard, but it wasn’t just the sound that silenced us all. Instead, it was the fact that we turned our heads to find that Bradley hadn’t done it, but rather Kenz.
Seeing her made my chest tighten, and I wanted nothing more than to rush over, to pull her into my arms, to kiss her until I forgot the time apart, the future, the things we still faced.
When I went to do just that, however, the guards pressed in closer behind me like a reminder of my place, keeping me in my seat.
For now.
Kenz offered a strained smile to me, seeming to plead with that look for me to behave myself. “You need to quit fighting,” she said, her tone scolding.
“What are you doing here?” Lorien asked. “I thought you were getting handed over to a transporter—not that you were getting put up for sale again. What sort of trick is this supposed to be, Bradley?”
“It wasn’t me,” Bradley said with a shrug. “If you want to know what happened, ask Ms. Williams here.”
That had me swinging my gaze back to her, the meaning clear. The desire to kiss her was replaced by the desire to put her over my knee to teach her not to do such foolish things.
“He’s right,” Kenz acknowledged, but didn’t sit like Bradley had. “I met with Bradley and offered myself up to sell—not as Mackenzie Fox, but as my real self.”
“Why would you do that?” Lorien asked, his tone sounding almost…hurt?
“Because I knew what you all had planned here. I knew that this wouldn’t end, that you would either kill each other or get yourselves into trouble so that Bradley had you killed. Either way, this wouldn’t end, not until you were all dead.”
“That wasourchoice to make,” Char said. “We were willing to pay that price for you!”
“It was your choice, and it was my choice to do this.” She didn’t appear afraid, but maybe she was just hiding it?
No, not Kenz.She didn’t hide what she felt well. More likely, she was so worried about us that she hadn’t thought about her own future. She was the sort of woman who could put her own happiness aside for others.
And again, I knew there was no other woman in the world like her, no one who could ever make me feel like this again, no future without her.
“This is touching and all,” Bradley said, though his tone suggested he didn’t find it touching at all. In fact, he sounded as though he didn’t care in the least about any of this. “But we need to keep this moving. Ms. William’s agreed to this in exchange for allowing youallto leave alive. She offered herself as payment for the trouble you have all caused, as a form of consolation to resolve our issues. Since you all could not find a way to work out your problems, she found one. If, after leaving today, you all want to kill one another, I don’t really care. It is no longer my business. However, if any of you so much as approach her buyer, if you try to contact her, if you doanythingthat is against the wishes of the winning bidder, rest assured you will not live through that day. Do I make myself perfectly clear?”
“There isnoway I’m agreeing to that,” Lorien snapped.
“I’m going to have to side with Lorien on this,” I offered up. “I’m not going to ignore Kenz being sold off like a piece of property. Not a chance.”
Kenz spoke up, her voice lifting before anyone else could argue. She didn’t waver in the least, her words strong, her chin held high. “If you love me, you need to listen to me, to trust me. I knew what I was getting into here. I understood the risks and I accepted them. If you really care about me, if you love me like you claim, you need to actuallyhearme. Trust that I know what I’m doing.”
