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I lift my head and wipe my eyes. “He won’t be at peace until he balances the scales,” I whisper. “I get it, but I don’t understand it. I wasn’t raised with principles like that…I was raised to survive. Sometimes that means doing humiliating things like signing my body away in a contract with a man I don’t know.”
Westin looks at me and his brows furrow. He has a habit of scowling hard when he’s thinking. There are faint lines left around his eyes from it.
“I don’t know everything about your situation,” he says. “But, I think Sovereign gave you back your dignity.”
I open my mouth to argue that he’d made me sell myself for a mortgage, but then I remember his involvement goes further back. When I met Sovereign, I had no future. I was living in thehouse of a man who hated me. I’d told him I was afraid of Clint, that I was powerless, and he’d delivered me from evil.
Something that feels like hope flutters in my chest.
Maybe…maybe trusting him isn’t the same as when I trusted Clint.
Westin sits across from me with his hands loosely folded. He’s got scars on his knuckles the way Sovereign does. I study them, wondering if they’re from bar fights or barbed wire. For men like them, either is likely.
“You’ve known Sovereign for a long time,” I whisper. “Do you trust him?’
“With my life,” he says. No hesitation.
“How…how do I know he’s not just using me?” I’m struggling to get the words out. They feel like a betrayal after everything that’s happened between us.
His eyes soften. “You’re the only woman who’s slept in his bed. He’s not using you, Keira.”
My eyes shut and tears seep down my face. I want to just give in. God, I want to surrender myself to Gerard Sovereign. And I would if I just knew what lay on the other side of all his darkness and need for vengeance.
Who will he be when this feud is over?
Does he know how to live without pain?
We hear a faint slam in the distance. Westin’s gaze snaps to the door and we listen to the faint rumble of tires come up the drive. The engine of Gerard’s truck dies away and I hear boots hit the gravel. Low voices rumble and a pang shoots through my chest as I recognize one as his. The other I can’t place.
“He’s back,” Westin says.
I nod, wordless.
He looks to the side and in the corner of his eyes, I think I see something. Fear…maybe? Or is it hunger? Does he want this vengeance just as much as Sovereign?
I shiver, wrapping my hands around my body.
He stands. “Trust Sovereign and you’ll be safe. Understood?”
The wind whistles through the trees. He pushes open the door and I see the shape of two men coming in from the yard. Walking side by side, their hats pushed low on their heads. Pistols on their hips. Heading for the gatehouse.
“Do you want to go out the back?” Westin asks.
I shake my head. “I want to talk to him.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
GERARD
Jack and I step into the gatehouse and our conversation dies. Keira sits at the table, engulfed in sweats and her oversized coat. Her hair is tied up and her face is blotchy from tears. That doesn’t alarm me because she cries often, but what I don’t like is the half empty whiskey bottle before her. Other than the few drinks she’s had at dinner, I’ve never seen her reach for a bottle before.
She drags her sleeve under her nose.
Our eyes meet.
And right then, I know that she knows.
Everything.
