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“Is that really necessary,” I said. “He knows I’ve been taken. Isn’t that punishment enough?”
“You’ve forgotten why I’ve brought you here, Kaja. I haven’t brought you here to offer you a new life and let you live happily ever after. You’re here so your father can experience the same kind of anger and pain he put me through.”
I trembled as I asked, “Does that mean you’re going to kill me eventually?
He glanced away. “I haven’t decided.” Then he fixed me in his gaze. “Him, though...him I will kill.”
My stomach churned. I couldn’t let that happen, could I? But what could I do to stop it? I was trapped between two powerful men, and all I wanted was my freedom. What did freedom mean to me? An ability to make my own choices. To live where I wanted. To spend time with whoever I chose. My father had never allowed that, and I highly doubted Leo ever would either.
He frowned at me, perhaps reading my thoughts. “Tell me why you chose to come with me to a strange country rather than stay there with your own family.”
I wanted Leo to understand my motivation. “He’s kept me prisoner my entire life, and that hasn’t changed since I’ve become an adult. He’s threatened to kill me when I’ve said I wanted something different from my life. Any time I left the compound, he’d have his men follow me. I was his property, just like his home or his car. He never saw me as an individual.”
Leo stared at me.
I swallowed, hard. “There’s something else, too.”
“What?”
“I think deep down, he blamed me for my brother’s death. He wished I’d been the one who died. He’d have been better off with a son...someone he could mould into being just like him. He tried with me, but he always knew I was different. He could teach me all the practical stuff, but if my heart wasn’t in it, he was never going to be able to change that.”
Leo’s tongue swiped across his lower lip. “Your brother died?”
“Yes, when we were children. I was seven and he was four. We were playing a game of hide and seek, and he got stuck in an old freezer. He suffocated before we found him.”
“I lost my brother, too, a few months ago. He was shot standing at the altar. He was supposed to have married Hallie.”
I frowned. “But Hallie is married to Tam. She’s expecting his baby.”
He gave a half smile. “Yeah, it’s complicated.”
“I’m so sorry, Leo. Your brother and then your fiancée. It’s no wonder you’re so...”
“So what?”
“Angry. So angry.”
He pressed his lips together and nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s one way to describe it.”
I reached for his hand and linked my fingers with his. He stood and pulled me to my feet, so we were face to face. Wanting to make a connection, I tugged him a little closer, and then I slipped my arms around his waist and rested my cheek on his chest and held him tight. He resisted for a moment, his body remaining a stiff board, but then he softened and wrapped his arms around my back and buried his face into the spot between my neck and shoulder.
I wondered who he’d been before he’d suffered so much loss. I wished I could absorb his pain from him, like through osmosis, sucking it out of him and taking it into me. I held him tighter, and he responded, pressing me to him, his shoulders dropping, his breath exhaling long and deep against my skin. The power of a real hug.
Could this be something real?
I didn’t want to let myself hope. He was so damaged, so broken. Could I be the one who could put him back together, or was I just setting myself up to be broken as well?
As though he’d suddenly remembered who I was and what he was doing, he untangled himself from me and stepped away.
“The loss of your brother isn’t something your father should blame you for,” he said, picking right back up on our conversation as though the last minute had never happened. “Surely it should be him who was to blame for leaving an old freezer where your brother could climb into it.”
I shook my head. “If you knew my father, you’d know he never takes the blame for anything. He’ll never admit he’s at fault, and he’ll never say he’s sorry.”
