Chapter 2
Leah
My new warden stood on the porch, his eyes burning up my form. I ignored him for a few more seconds. I wasn’t sure if it was because I was too stunned by my new reality to move, or because my heels had become permanently stuck in this damned gravel drive. If questioned, I’d swear it was to prove I wouldn’t jump to his command.
I lifted a foot, the ground making a little popping sound as it finally let go of my heels. Seriously, he couldn’t get this shit paved? He’d clearly come into some money.
I made my way to the porch, grabbing the suitcase my brother had forgotten as soon as he spotted Kade. I was under no illusions that this man would carry it for me. I shot him a look, making it clear what I thought of his manners.
“You’re not here on vacation, princess.”
Princess . He just loved saying that. I’d been doomed to that nickname the second my mother decided to name me Leah. I’d begrudgingly lived with it, but it had never annoyed me as much as it did coming from this man’s lips at this moment. He’d never used it when we were younger, because he’d known how I felt about it. Now he was using it for that exact reason. He might as well have poked me in the eye.
I walked the final few feet, dragging along my rolling suitcase, whose wheels were also rebelling over the gravel. By the time I got to the porch, my suitcase looked as roughed up as I did.
I glanced toward the front door of the house, wanting to get this torture session over with and find my bed. The past twenty-four hours had felt like a fifty-round bout with Mike Tyson.
Kade shook his head. “You don’t go in there unless you’re invited by me, which won’t happen.”
“Don’t worry. I’m not looking to spend any more time with you than necessary.” Claustrophobia or not, prison would’ve been better. Hell would’ve been better. I’d spotted some new buildings on the property, so it wasn’t like I’d be stuck in a tent or something.
He turned and headed down the length of the porch, assuming I’d follow. I did because I had no other choice.
A breeze blew, dousing me in his scent. I had to stop myself from breathing deeper like a dog sniffing for scraps. He’d always smelled this good. It had been like his pheromones were concocted to tug at my insides and draw me in like a stupid, hormonal teen. I was older now and refused to let his smell suck me in again. I’d stamp out those feelings fast, even if I had to yank out my ovaries.
Farther down the porch, he opened another door.
“This is the only room of this building you are allowed to enter, and only when I’m present.” He pointed to my suitcase. “You can leave that out here. No reason to bring it in.”
He walked into an office that was overflowing with paperwork. It was piled high on every surface that lined the room. Someone needed a secretary, or an assistant. Even a few baskets or another filing cabinet. Something . I felt like the entire place was on the brink of a paperwork avalanche that might bury me alive. How did he function in here?
“Is there a problem?” he asked.
I jerked my gaze back to him. “Why would there be? You can run your business however you deem fit.” I didn’t hold back the judgment in those words. I’d never been the type to take a punch and not swing back. Being stuck here wasn’t going to change that. Being stuck in prison probably wouldn’t have either, so my odds of living through the next year were probably better here.
He watched me for a second, his face unreadable, before he took a seat behind his desk, letting the dig go. So far I’d score this round as a draw.
“Sit,” Kade said, like I was his dog. At least he pointed to a chair and not the floor.
“I’m fine,” I said, refusing to give up any points. We were still at a draw, but sitting would cost me. Even if my feet were killing me, I was not losing this first round. It set the tone for the rest of the fight to come.
I glanced at the top of his desk, which was one of the only areas not stacked a foot high with paper. A gossip rag sat front and center, with The Devious Debutante Dodges Prison in big, bold letters .
Who came up with these stupid headlines? Did they not know about the internet and how to do a basic search on someone? If they’d bothered to look me up, even for a second, taken a glance at where I’d grown up and how , it would become shockingly obvious that was a load of bull. Unless there was a new category that included former welfare recipients, I was as far as you got from a debutante.
Kade didn’t look like a regular follower of the trash mags, but he’d probably made an exception for me, the Devious Debutante . Knowing him, he’d picked it up and left it here to welcome me.
“Want to borrow it?” he asked, glancing at the magazine. “I’m finished with it.”
I could feel my first-round score slipping.
“Not really my genre. Didn’t know you were a fan of those types of magazines, but I guess reading something is a better than not reading at all.” I shrugged.
“I found this edition quite entertaining,” he said, not even flinching.
“I guess when you don’t have much going on, it scratches an itch. I’m quite tired, so if we could wrap up this reunion? I’d like to get some sleep tonight.”
He leaned back, settling in instead of speeding things up. “Before I bring you to your room, we need to be clear on a few things.”
I made a point of sitting and said, “Then please, get it all out of your system.” I rolled my hand in his direction.
It had been bad enough to be told these things over and over again by lawyers who spoke to me like I was a toddler. I wasn’t sure I could stand to listen to them again, from him .
“I signed a lot of papers agreeing to a load of shit to save your ass from going to prison for that painting you stole. You are going to follow those rules to a T.” He straightened and then leaned forward, his chest rising and falling visibly. “That means no cell phone. No leaving the premises. You work a full day, every day. Other than that? You don’t take a single step unless you have my permission. Do you understand?”
“Why did you agree to this? Are you getting paid or something? What’s the deal? Just tell me so we both know the angle.” At least the pretense of whatever game we’d been playing was dropping.
There was a flicker in his eyes, a quick moment where he didn’t look quite so sure of himself, before he resettled and said, “I owe your brother.”
“No, you don’t. You don’t owe anyone anything.” Even when he was barely a man, it had taken him months to decide to try to get a loan to keep this ranch going. He’d stressed so hard over that decision that it had kept him up nights. He wasn’t the type to owe anyone anything, including my brother. “So what is it? You just get your rocks off bringing me here to torture me for some imagined slight a decade ago that you’re too petty to get past?”
“Imagined? It must be nice to rewrite history, but that’s not why you’re here. Watching you suffer is just a minor benefit to repaying your brother, who is a very good person .” He put such emphasis on those words that it was impossible to ignore the slight.
“As opposed to me, who is the scourge of mankind?” Yes, my saintly brother who always saw the best in everyone, including Kade. I’d been measured against him my entire life, but that splinter felt more like a stake right now.
Kade shrugged and threw up a hand. “If that’s how you like to define yourself.”
“You…” I shook my head, refusing to get pulled into a ridiculous argument. “Forget it. Say whatever you want. Get it all out of your system. You get a year to torture me all you want, and then I’ll go back to having a happy life and you can continue doing…” I glanced around, and then lifted a brow as I ran my eyes over him, pretending I found something lacking. “ You .”
He smiled. “A year can be quite a long time.”
This was exactly what I’d expected from him, and I’d get through it. I would because I had to, and I’d be damned if I let him know he could get to me.
“Make the most of it, because it’s all you’re getting from me.” I had to bite the inside of my cheek to not tell him to fuck off.
He got up and sat on the edge of his desk, his hand out. “Give me your phone.”
My brother had said I’d have to hand it over, but this was the toughest thing I’d done yet. I was relinquishing my ties with my world.
“Per the agreement I signed, you’ll get thirty minutes a week for a monitored phone call every Sunday.”
He dropped my phone in a drawer and then walked to the door, waiting there. The only reason he held it open for me was probably to make sure he could close it behind me.
“Grab your suitcase and follow me.”
“Where are we going?” I asked. The farther we walked from the house, the more I was reminded that nothing about me was gravel friendly.
“Showing you to your cabin, since the courts didn’t think the tent option would work,” he said, pausing for me to catch up.
For a split second, I thought he was going to reach for my suitcase. It had probably just been a twitch in his arm from some evil spirit that had rethought trying to possess this particular man and was trying to make a break for it.
“A cabin?” That wasn’t how I’d have described the larger building we were approaching.
“Yes. I can’t have a thief staying with the rest of my staff in the bunkhouse. It’s not fair to them.”
Didn’t matter how many times the word thief had been hurled at me. It still burned like a fresh brand every time. At least I’d gotten better at controlling the urge to flinch, hiding how hard it hit. I’d always detested thieves, and now I was walking around as one of the most infamous of them all. I’d gone from getting an invite to every hot party there was in New York City, being courted by the handsomest and most successful men, to being a pariah in one of the smallest towns in the U.S.
I’d really hit my lowest.
We walked around the larger building I’d spotted before, and that was when I saw it.
He stopped beside what could only be described as a shed, and I realized I hadn’t quite hit bottom yet.