“I don’t have a problem with that.”
I gauged her expression as she said it, and it seemed like she meant it.
“I have one question, though.”
I automatically tensed, afraid she would throw a curve ball at me.
“My father said I need to stay married to you forever. But is that really true? Ten years from now, will I really still be in danger? By then, his enemies will have moved on. I’ll be forgotten. Is it really necessary for this marriage to be infinite?”
The same thought crossed my mind months ago. I knew she was asking because she was seeking hope. She wanted to know that she might still meet her dream guy and settle down, that this arrangement wasn’t forever. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. When someone dies, the world keeps on turning. People shift their focus to other things.”
“That didn’t answer my question.”
“I know—because your question can’t be answered. I’m not a fortune-teller that can see the future. It’s possible the dust will settle and the world will forget your father ever lived. Maybe that will happen in two years, maybe twenty. Or maybe it’ll never happen at all. We’ll have to be patient and see. In my experience, the world moves on quickly. People adapt, chase the next big thing. And in the underworld, everything changes in a split second. They’ll find a bigger fish to catch and forget all about you.”
“So, you think our odds are good?”
I shrugged. “I promised your father I would stay married to you forever. So, at the end of the day, it’ll be your call.”
“So, I could walk away right now if I wanted to?”
“You can walk away whenever you want—but I don’t recommend it.”
“Does that mean people are after me?” She abandoned her coffee and breakfast, leaning forward over the table as she considered what I’d said.
I drank my coffee and ignored her question.
“Maverick.”
I held her gaze but continued to be quiet. “Let me worry about that, alright?”
Her eyes slowly fell when the truth hit her in the face. Her shoulders started to sag, and the fearlessness she always wore was long gone. She wasn’t the rambunctious woman with an attitude made of fire. Now she was scared…the fear written on her face. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you’re my sheep. You’re supposed to keep your head down and graze. I’m the wolf—and I’ll chase away the other dogs. That’s how this works. That’s why you married me.”
That didn’t chase away her fear. She still looked afraid. “Who is it? What do they want with me?”
To rape her—and then charge money so other men could rape her. “It doesn’t matter what they want—they won’t get it.”
She leaned back in her chair, disconcerted but also touched. Now she understood how instrumental I was to her survival. If I weren’t around, she would have been captured long ago. “Thank you…”
She didn’t need to thank me. I protected her because I got something out of it. Now I would continue to do so because I was a man of my word. “Don’t be scared, Sheep. As long as I’m living, nothing could ever hurt you…I promise.”
I was sitting at my desk at the factory when my father called me.
The last time I spoke to him, I told him I wished he were dead.
Knowing him, he would pretend it never happened.
I answered. “Yes?”
“Meet me at the barn.” He hung up.
I listened to the line go dead as my suspicion was confirmed. My father cared so little about me that wishing he were dead meant nothing. When I said those words, I meant them, but I also hoped it would spur a conversation, that we would finally discuss the demonic nature of our relationship. Everything would be out in the open and I could tell him how I felt…but now I realized that was futile.
Nothing would ever change.
My father’s soul died the day my mother did. All his love and compassion disappeared too. All that was left was a bitter and hateful old man.
I got into the truck and drove several acres until I reached the barn in the distance, the smell of the cows entering my nose the second I opened the door. The barn was enormous, big enough to house all of my animals during the worst storms.
I walked inside and stopped at the scene before me.
Two women were tied up, their knees against the pile of hay underneath them. Their wrists were bound behind their backs, and their mouths were taped shut. The older one had tears streaming down her cheeks. The younger one looked to be a teenager—and she was in a panic, screaming against the tape that kept her mouth closed.
I lifted my eyes and looked at my father standing over them. “What the fuck is this?” I shut the barn door behind me so no one else could see the criminal activities my father was up to—not that they would say a damn word.