“I told you all that I didn’t like him much.”
“Yes,” Caleb said. “But we thought that came later. Why did you marry him?”
“Because I was forced to.”
Aleki’s insides were being torn apart.
Fuck. All this time he’d loved her and hated her in almost equal measure. And she’d been living a life of fear. Just to keep him safe.
Didn’t she understand that was his job?
He’d accepted her rejection so easily. He hadn’t fought for her.
“Aleki, why don’t you put her down,” Caleb suggested.
He didn’t want to. He wanted to keep her in his arms forever. But it wasn’t just him and her now. He knew how Caleb felt about her. Even Wolfe was fucking obsessed with her. This was Vivi. She was different. She always had been.
She was theirs.
And now that they had her back, nothing would take her from them again.
He set her reluctantly down on the bed, knowing he couldn’t be selfish with her. In Escana, polyamory was the norm, not the exception. But this sort of relationship didn’t allow for much jealousy or hogging the pretty girl.
“Your father forced you to marry him?” Caleb asked once she was settled.
“William was the assistant district attorney at the time. I came home for the holidays and he asked me out. I didn’t really want to go, but I figured it would get me away from the house and my father. But his touch made me feel ill. I didn’t want anything to
do with him. I went back to Yale and forgot about him. Then my father decided to run for Governor. With William on his ticket as Lieutenant Governor.”
She twisted her fingers together. “I often dreamed of leaving. Going somewhere no one knew me. I figured if I could just finish my degree, I’d have better prospects. So I played the dutiful daughter in public when necessary and ignored him the rest of the time. I’d just graduated with my law degree and I’d gone home to pack up my things. I had a job and apartment lined up in Houston. My father said someone important was coming to dinner. That I should dress nice. I figured it didn’t hurt to cooperate. I arrived downstairs and found William there.”
She rubbed a hand over her face and the sick feeling in Aleki’s stomach grew. “Imagine my shock when my father informed me that we were now engaged. That he’d arranged it all. We’d get married in about a year. How the press would lap it up.”
“That fucking asshole,” Aleki spat out.
“What was in it for William?” Caleb asked.
“He was my father’s lapdog,” she said bitterly. “It furthered his career. He also told me later on that my father had something on him. Something that kept him doing what my father wanted. He never said what it was.”
“What did you do?” Caleb asked.
“I told my father no way in hell. I didn’t need his money or him. That I was going to leave.” She swallowed. “He told me that it would be a shame if something happened to my friends while they were serving.”
“Motherfucker,” Aleki muttered. “He used us to make you marry that bastard?”
“That was part of it.”
“Just part?” Caleb asked.
She looked at them all. Wolfe was now standing at the end of the bed, staring down at her like he’d never seen her before. Aleki was up and pacing, while Caleb sat closest to her.
“We can deal with your father, jelly bean. He’s not as powerful as he thinks. He’s the Governor, not God,” Caleb told her.
She shook her head. “That’s not all. If only it was just my father, I wouldn’t be so scared.”
“So what else is it?” Caleb pressed. “Does it have to do with why you were shot and ended up half-dead in an alleyway?”
“My life is so screwed up,” she whispered. Then she ran a shaky hand over her face.