Chapter 16
LENNOX
Another week off the contract, and Sebastian hasn’t taken me anywhere, which is all right as I don’t want to have to answer questions about how we met and what our plans for a family are.
I glance at my watch and realize I need to get to Eleanor’s for supper.
I can’t imagine living closer; the almost mile walk usually gives me time to school all my emotions.
It’s chaos when I walk into the main house through the conservatory.
Out the window, trucks line the circular driveway, ranch hands come and go, and people yell over one another in the main hallway.
The formal dining room looks like it has been set up as a command center, with maps of the ranch spread across the table.
Walker paces the room with a phone pressed to his ear as he barks orders about property surveys and easement rights.
Caroline stands near the windows, talking into her phone, speaking in the clipped, aggressive tone she probably uses in oil negotiations. “I don’t care what the county records say. Those cattle were on our land, which makes it theft. Get me documentation going back fifty years if you have to.”
Nathaniel appears from somewhere, carrying a folder thick with photographs and witness statements. He nods at Caroline, then disappears into the dining room with Walker.
And Eleanor sits in her living room, perfectly composed despite the controlled chaos around her, sipping tea like this is just another Tuesday at the Drake Ranch.
“Lennox.” She looks up when she sees me.
“What’s happening?” I ask as I walk fully into the room.
Sebastian comes up behind me, puts his arm around my waist. “It looks like someone stole cattle in the night.”
“What?” I turn to look at him.
“Yeah, three bulls, and twenty purebred cows and calves.” He sighs and pulls me closer.
“Sebastian,” Walker yells from the other room, “get in here.”
“Go.” Eleanor waves him off. “I’ll keep Lennox company.”
I watch Sebastian disappear into the dining room, then sink onto the sofa across from Eleanor. My body aches from spending all morning in bed with Sebastian. I thought I’d get used to that feeling, but he seems to have new tricks up his sleeve to make me remember him long after we’re apart.
“You look tired,” Eleanor observes.
“It’s been a long couple of weeks.”
“Yes, I imagine it has been. I remember my first weeks in this place with Walker. I was so out of my league.” She pours me coffee from the service on the table between us. “Sugar? Cream?”
“Black is fine. Thank you.”
We sit in silence for a moment, the sounds drifting from other parts of the house. Eleanor studies me over the rim of her teacup with that assessing gaze I’m getting used to.
“You’re doing well, it’s obviously been an easier transition for you than it was for me, given how you grew up,” she finally says.
The praise should feel good. Instead, it feels like another trap closing around me.
“Eleanor—”
“Auntie Lenny.” Hadley’s voice precedes her appearance, the four-year-old barreling into the room with Harper right behind her.
“Hadley, inside voice,” Eleanor says automatically.
“Sorry, Grandma.” She lowers her volume by approximately zero decibels.
Eleanor leaves, and I’m alone with the twins, their warm little bodies pressed against my sides on the sofa. They smell like sunshine and dirt and something sweet—candy, probably, snuck from somewhere they aren’t supposed to help themselves to.
“Are you going to stay forever?” Harper asks suddenly.
“What?”
“Are you going to stay with Uncle Seb forever? Or are you going to leave like Mommy left Daddy?”
My chest tightens. “Your mommy died, sweetheart. She didn’t choose to leave.”
“I know. But she’s still gone.” Harper’s voice is matter-of-fact, but her hand finds mine, small fingers gripping tight. “Daddy says sometimes people leave even when they don’t want to. He says that’s just how life works.”
“Nathaniel is right.” I squeeze her hand. “But I’m not going anywhere right now. I promise.”
Two years. I can promise two years.
“Good.” Hadley snuggles closer. “We like you. You’re fun, and you know about horses, and you don’t treat us like babies.”
“You’re not babies. You’re four.”
“Exactly!” Hadley says, attitude sky high as she rolls her eyes. “That’s what we keep telling everyone!”
The moment is interrupted by raised voices from the dining room. Not quite shouting, but close. I can’t make out words, but I recognize Sebastian’s voice and Walker’s, both sharp with tension.
The twins tense beside me.
Before I can respond, the dining room doors burst open, and Sebastian strides out, his face dark with anger. He sees me on the sofa with the twins and stops, visibly forcing himself to calm down.
“Lennox. We need to talk.”
“Sebastian.”
“Now.”
The command in his voice makes something cold settle in my stomach. The twins scramble off the sofa, clearly sensing this isn’t a conversation they should be part of.
“We’ll go find Daddy,” Hadley says, already tugging Harper toward the hallway.
“See you, Auntie Lenny. Be nice, Uncle Seb,” Hadley says as they disappear around the corner.
Then they’re gone, and Sebastian is crossing to me with predatory focus. He grabs my wrist and pulls me to my feet.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Not here.” He tugs me toward the hallway, through the palace, out a side door I haven’t seen before. We emerge into the late afternoon heat, the formal gardens spreading before us, and he doesn’t stop until we’re far enough from the house that no one can hear us.
“Sebastian, you’re hurting me.”
He releases my wrist but immediately cages me against the garden wall, his arms braced on either side of my head. His face is inches from mine, and I can see fury burning in his dark eyes.
“Dad wants to ride onto Marshall land with every ranch hand we have and search for our cattle ourselves. Consequences be damned.” Sebastian’s hand comes up to my throat, not squeezing, just holding.
Claiming. “And Nathaniel agrees with him. Caroline agrees. Even James agrees, and he never agrees with Dad on anything.”
My mind reels, and nothing about this makes sense. “But that’s exactly what they want,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady despite his hand on my throat. “They’re baiting you into doing something illegal.”
“I know what they’re doing!” His grip tightens slightly. “I know it’s a trap. I know we should be smart about this. But do you know what it’s like to sit in that dining room and tell all those men that we can’t protect our own property because we’re afraid we might get sued?”
“Sebastian.”
“They’re calling me soft. Saying California made me weak. That I’ve forgotten what it means to be a Drake.” His face is so close I can feel his breath. “Dad actually said that having you here makes me think too much instead of acting.”
The accusation stings even though it isn’t true. He knows it’s better not to ride in there guns blazing, but pride and money are all a man like Sebastian has, and his pride has just been called out.
“You made decisions that hurt them, now they’re making decisions that hurt you. Tit for tat, Sebastian. He basically told you that the other day.”
He releases my throat and steps back, running both hands through his hair. “This is Texas, Lennox. Not Montana, not California. Out here, you protect what’s yours, or you lose it. Legal channels take months, or years. By then, the Marshalls will have stolen everything that isn’t nailed down.”
“So what are you going to do?”
His smile is cold, dangerous. “We’re riding onto Marshall land tonight. Finding our cattle. Taking back what’s ours.”
“That’s exactly what he wants.”
“I don’t care.” He moves back into my space, his body pinning me against the wall. His mouth crashes into mine, brutal and selfish, like he’s taking every ounce of life from me to propel him through what he is about to do. When he pulls back, his eyes are black with fury and need.
“And you’re coming with us,” he says.
“What?”
“You want to see the real me? What we really do here? The parts that don’t get discussed in legal briefs and proper channels?” He slides his hand down my body, rough and claiming. “Tonight you’ll see exactly what it means to be married to a Drake. What we do when someone threatens what’s ours.”
“Sebastian, this is insane,” I whisper.
“This is reality.” He grabs my hand and starts pulling me back toward the house. “Change into dark clothes. Boots, jeans, something you can ride in. We leave in two hours.”
“I’m not going on a cattle raid,” I say firmly, trying to stop myself from moving by digging my heels into the ground.
He spins back, and the look in his eyes makes my breath catch in my throat.
This isn’t the man who kissed me gently under oak trees last week, or the husband who has introduced me to his family ranch with pride.
This is the man who bought me at auction.
The predator who fucked me into submission. The monster I almost forgot he is.
“You’re my wife,” he says quietly. “Which means you go where I go. Do what I say. And tonight, I say you’re coming with us to get our cattle back. Understand?”
I should say no. Should fight him. Should remind him that I’m not his property to command. But his hand is on my throat again, and I can see the dangerous ledge he is walking. Push him now, in this state, and I’m not sure what he would do.
“Understood,” I whisper.
“Good.” He releases me and continues toward the house. “Two hours, Lennox. Be ready.”
I stand in the pasture between the houses, my heart pounding, my throat throbbing where his hand had been, and watch him disappear back into the palace.
The soft version of Sebastian is gone.
And I have no idea if he’s ever coming back.
Seven hundred and eighteen days left attached to this man, and I’m not sure I’ll survive even one more night.