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“What?” He pulled back, staring at me incredulously, my hand still on his chest. “Who the fuck told you that?”
I didn’t need to answer his question. I saw the realization in his eyes.
“She’s mad,” he murdered, and then his attention was back on me. “You believed that.”
“S-she… she told me they were buried here,” I whispered. “In the rose garden… She told me it was where I would inevitably end up, once you got sick of me… She told me she was the only one you kept.”
A slew of curse words rolled from his lips, and I stared with my heart pounding as he pulled me closer.
“Never,” he whispered. “I never hurt them. They were all freed. Four of them through the span of ten years. All of them former slaves, abused, hurt. I helped them, Harlow. I helped them.”
“Where are they now?” I asked gently.
“Marilou,” he said brokenly. “The first one. She is an artist… a sculptor. She’s a big deal now, lives in France. Cassandra. An actress. I helped her get her lucky break. Amalie. She has two children with a man I introduced her to. Twins.”
“And…” I whispered.
“Pia,” he finished for me.
He didn’t elaborate.
“You will find out,” he finally said. “Not yet. Not now.”
“What about Carina?” I asked him, watching him hesitate before he answered. “What’s going to happen to her? Was she a liability, just like Amber?”
“She…” his words drifted off and I waited with bated breath for him to go on. “She’s not who you think she is, Rose.”
That was all he said before pulling me into his arms.
“I will deal with Pia,” he promised me, and I realized with a start it was the closest I’d ever felt to him.
He almost seemed human, and I finally realized he did care about me, deeply so. It only left me wondering whether it would be enough to fix all the ways we’d broken each other.
“What about me?” I finally asked, and he tilted my chin back, making me look into his eyes.
“What about you?” he asked, his tone gentler than I’d ever heard it before.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked, my voice shaky.
He touched his tumb to my lower lip, gently dragging it down and exposing my teeth. I felt myself getting wet for him, my center swollen with the need for him to touch me, feel me, make it all better.
“Punish you,” he said softly, making goosebumps erupt all over my skin. “Show you what you did was wrong. Teach you some fucking manners. And what will you say when I do?”
I stared into his eyes, my heart pounding in my chest as I whispered, “Thank you, Master.”
“That’s a good girl,” Thorn said gently. “I knew you’d be a good girl for me, Rose. I knew you’d learn your lesson.”
I looked down at my feet, standing on the grass. I thought of how easy it would be to run away from him, to the edge of the cliff that separated us from the beach. One misstep and my sorry excuse for a life would be over. No more guilt about what I’d done to Amber and Carina, no more worrying about my future. I would be carefree as I floated down and my body broke on the rocks below us, and the last thing I would see would be his face. What a way to go…
And yet, when I willed my feet to move, they wouldn’t, stubbornly keeping me frozen to the spot and staring into Thorn’s eyes.
“I’ll take care of you,” he promised me. “Just remember how much I care.”
I didn’t ask him what he would do. I knew I wouldn’t like the answer, and I also knew I deserved whatever was coming. He pulled me against his chest and held my tightly, and I felt a huge weight shift off my shoulders when he held me. Maybe I was foolish, but I chose to believe him. I believed he hadn’t killed those girls, but the curiosity of what had happened with Pia made me want to ask so many questions I had to bite my tongue to stop them from coming.
As he held onto me, I realized I’d broken him, too.
“Don’t leave me again,” he ordered me darkly.
But under the layers of threats, anger and rage, I could see his vulnerability. Feel how afraid he was of me leaving again. And standing in the rose garden I looked up at him, and promised I would never run again.
This time, I wasn’t lying.
Chapter 20
Rose
I was given a date and time, a couple of days after arriving back at the Mansion. Now, the card with the invitation that was really an order felt heavy in my palm as I stood in front of the playroom. One of the maids stood behind me, and she nudged me gently, motioning for me to enter. I hesitated on the doorstep, my nerves getting the better of me. Once I set foot inside that room, my world would be changed forever.
