Bounty

11. Wisteria

Chapter Eleven

WISTERIA

“Wisteria, wake up,” a familiar voice rasps.

Large, rough hands run up my leg, and I nuzzle into a broad, hard chest. The haze between wakefulness and sleep settles over me.

“No.” I swat the hand away, then roll over.

A warm body presses up to my back, and a hand wraps around my neck.

“I’m not asking. Wake up, we have things to do.”

I jolt awake, and am turned over onto my back. Jude’s large body hovers over mine, smiling. Or at least his version of a smile. His eyes never seem quite bright enough for a true, genuine smile.

As I scan the room, I realize this isn’t the room I fell asleep in last night. This room is softer, more feminine, with a dusty pink, cream, and rose gold color scheme. The furniture is white oak and seems expensive. It’s another real life magazine photo.

“How did I get here?” I ask him.

“Cain carried you in here after you fell asleep.”

Jude’s chest is bare, and I can see the white bandage over his shoulder from his gunshot wound. The entirety of the night rushes me, and I remember how angry I felt. How turned on I was. How I wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be okay, while also wanting to rage at him for daring to make me feel that way.

Only Jude can make me feel like I want to love him and hate him. It’s why he’s so dangerous—why I should keep my distance from him.

“Why are you here if this is my room?”

“Because when I came to check on you a few hours ago, you were crying in your sleep. So, I slept in here with you.”

I practically fall out of bed in my haste to get away from him. I open a door, and it’s a closet, with my duffel bag on the ground and the few things I packed hanging up.

He sighs, pointing to a door. “The bathroom.”

I shut the door behind me and pee, then wash my hands in scalding hot water to wake myself up. There’s a new toothbrush and toothpaste on the counter, and I use them to brush my teeth. I play with the charms on my bracelet, something I do whenever I’m nervous. My aunt gave it to me the day we left the farm and told me to never take it off. My mother wore it before me, and it makes me feel connected to them.

But now that I know they weren’t my real family, I can’t even find comfort in my old crutch.

The door opens, and Jude strolls in, like it’s completely normal for us to be in each other’s orbit like this. He stands behind me, his hands gripping the counter caging me in. There’s no space between us and his proximity messes with my head. His eucalyptus and woodsy scent makes me forget how much I can’t stand him.

“What are you doing?”

“Keeping an eye on you, so you don’t run off again. The last time you did I got shot.” He smiles again, and there is a lightness to his tone, as if he’s joking with me.

Jude doesn’t show me this side of him. We never laughed growing up—he always looked at me with such an intensity that I couldn’t help but feel its weight. Colin and Cain get his lighter side from time to time, but never me. My eyes land on the bandage and a wave of guilt crashes into me. Then anger and shame set in.

If I had just worn his clothes, or if he would have gotten my bag, he wouldn’t be wounded. If we weren’t so toxic, everything would be so much easier between us.

But forgiving means forgetting. How can I just forget years of Jude’s treatment? He claims he did it out of some misplaced passion, because he knew he couldn’t have me, but that doesn’t make it right.

He cups my jaw in his hand, angling it so I can see him in the mirror. Lean, strong muscles cut an imposing figure. His stark facial features give him a sinister vibe, although he’s still as handsome as he was six years ago. The confidence he had in his early twenties only grew.

My stepbrother has grown into the kind of man women drool over. And he wants me. The girl he threw in the lake. The teenager he practically stalked all over the farm, never giving me a moment’s peace. The young woman he gave that goodbye letter to…

“Hey, I was joking. We didn’t anticipate that happening,” he whispers, running his other hand over my stomach in soothing passes.

“Well I am overrated and obnoxious,” I quote his letter. His eyes flare in recognition as his jaw clenches. “Sorry you had to take a bullet for someone so disposable.”

“How many times have you read that letter?” he asks.

“Every time I missed you guys or deluded myself into believing one of you would find me and take me home, I’d take it out of my wallet and read it. So many times, I lost count.”

“Stay here. Don’t move,” he orders me. And even though I shouldn’t, I stay.

He comes back with my purse, then digs through it to find a lighter and the letter. He reads it, his brow furrowing at his own words. He frowns, then lights it on fire and drops it in the sink. He wraps his arms around me from behind as we watch it burn. An invisible weight is lifted from my chest as I see his painful words turn to ash.

“I wrote that because I knew that if you sent me letters, they would break my heart. They would make me find you. I even contemplated getting rid of my father and taking over the farm so I could bring you home. But at the time I thought that letting you go was better for you. So I wrote that so we’d both be strong enough to do what was best.”

He kisses my neck, and the gesture is so intimate and foreign from him that I shiver.

“You cared about me enough to set me free?”

“Yes, Wisteria Jean. I cared about you so much that I stopped the guys from replying, too. I wanted you to have a fighting chance to start a new life, and you’d never be able to do that otherwise.”

I turn around, so we’re face to face. “It’s not the life I wanted. I wanted to be here,” I admit, keeping the ‘with you’ to myself.

Jude may be acting like a new man, but I don’t trust him—people don’t really change. My momma always warned me of that.

“Well you got your wish, although under the worst circumstances.”

He runs his hand up my neck, then stops, his lips hovering over mine. I kiss him, losing myself in him. Kissing Jude is like a sweet surrender. I feel as if I’m handing myself over, and hoping I don’t get hurt in the process.

“Get ready and come downstairs. We can’t put this talk off any longer.” He says as he pulls back from our kiss. His words are still an order, but they’re said much gentler than before.

After he leaves, I take a deep breath, and send a thought out to the universe.

Please, whoever is listening, please don’t let these men break my heart.

When I enter the kitchen, Colin, Cain, and Jude are sitting at the kitchen island, talking to each other as they eat through a giant breakfast spread. The last time I saw them eating together, they were twenty-one and twenty-two. They had just started getting more responsibilities in the business, both facets of it. They were so proud of themselves. I wonder if they knew exactly how entrenched in the business they would eventually become…how much it would change them.

I break myself from my musings. It’s pointless because for better or worse, they are the business now. Jude said he runs this farm, and I have no doubt that Cain and Colin are his right hand men.

There’s a fourth, empty place setting between Cain and Jude. When they see me, they all stop talking and change the subject. Ah yes, no talking about the business in front of the women. Old habits die hard around here. Cain gets out of his chair and gives me a hug, lifting me off the ground.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispers in my ear before he kisses me lightly on the lips.

He sets me down on my stool, then makes me a plate. He remembered all my favorite foods—eggs, cheesy grits, and sausage links. With a side dish of fruit. Colin meets me at my seat with a cup of coffee, with milk and sugar. He kisses me on the lips, and a wave of electricity rolls through me. He wears a long sleeve, vee neck tee, and I can see black ink stopping at the hollow of his throat.

Jude hesitates before weaving our fingers together. He brings my hand up to his mouth and kisses my knuckles. It’s another tender, intimate gesture that will take getting used to. Cain and Colin must agree, because they glance at each other, having a silent conversation.

When I’m done eating, they clear the island. “Let’s go into my office,” Jude suggests.

His office sits right beneath my room. There’s a desk across from a large bay window that overlooks the same view of the lake and all the willow trees around it. There’s a sectional sofa, with a leather ottoman, coffee table and a matching sofa on the other side. I sit on the sectional next to Colin, and Cain sits on the couch. Jude meets us there carrying some files and his laptop.

“I want to preface this by saying that we discussed a few things ahead of time,” Jude starts. My hackles automatically rise from being excluded.

As if he can sense my change in mood, Cain says “Before you blow your stack, they’re good things, baby girl. We aren’t shielding you from any of this. Your life's on the line, so you deserve to be in the know and part of the decision making process, right Jude?”

I have the feeling Jude was outvoted, considering the frustrated look on his face.

“I guess so, although I would prefer you didn’t have to deal with this at all. We’re dealing with hardened criminals that have no moral code, no sense of loyalty. They attack innocent women and children…” he rubs the back of his neck. “That’s why you need to listen to what we tell you. If we say go inside, you go inside. If we tell you to hide, you hide. Do you understand?”

His gruff, dominant voice rattles me. I knew these people were dangerous, but hearing the seriousness of his tone and the stark expressions on their faces drives it home.

“Of course.”

“We’re serious,” Colin grits out. “I’m not losing you because you feel spiteful. You need to know we have your best intentions at heart. We aren’t holding you back—we’re keeping you safe.”

At first his words sting. Does he really think I’m that petty? But then after taking a moment thinking them over, I realize he’s sort of right. I can be petty, especially toward Jude.

“I’ll try my best to listen,” I promise.

“We think the reason The Skulls are after you is because your mom or aunt had something valuable to them. Something they passed on to you,” Jude explained.

Colin leans back in his chair, crossing his ankle over his knee. “We searched your home multiple times, your old job. We know you don’t have any safety deposit boxes and that you’re in possession of all Norma’s possessions. Do you have any idea what they could be searching for?”

I fiddle with the charms on my bracelet, trying to think of what could possibly be valuable enough to kill me for. The clanking of the metal pieces together don’t soothe or focus me like they normally do.

“Um…we lived paycheck to paycheck. Some weeks we barely had enough money for groceries. I have no clue what she could possibly have,” I respond.

They seem disappointed by the answer, but don’t express it.

“While you’re here, you can’t leave the farm until this threat is neutralized. I also want you guarded by one of us at all times,” Jude said. Colin and Cain nodded along.

“I understand not leaving—that’s smart. But why can’t I have free reign of the farm?”

“The Kings came through a secret perimeter gate that had a key code entry. I checked, and the lock wasn’t tampered with. That means someone let them inside, or gave them the code...” Cain rolled his lips between his teeth as Colin recounted his investigation.

“So they have a mole on the inside somewhere,” I finish his thoughts.

“Yes. The matter of your excommunication is an issue, too. After Jude announces your return, there may be some bad blood. You and Norma left on bad terms,” Cain’s voice is hesitant.

“I don’t think anyone would hurt you, thistle, but at tonight’s emergency gathering I’m going to announce your return. Make sure the community knows you had nothing to do with your mom and aunt’s actions, and that I expect them to treat you well,” Jude assures me.

The community at Harvest Farms is very hippie–everyone loves everyone, helps their fellow brothers and sisters, and goes to weekly gatherings. But if you are branded a traitor, or made a serious transgression, you are treated like a social pariah. I was so wrapped up in these three men that I never even thought about how everyone would take my return.

I don’t like putting my trust in Jude, especially given our toxic past, but he said he'd be different. The only way I’ll know if he’ll change is to wait and see.