Chapter 41
LENNOX
I wake to sunlight and the sound of male voices. For a moment, I don’t remember where I am or what happened. Then it all comes rushing back: the basement, the rescue, the violence, fifteen people dead. I sit up gasping for breath and immediately feel dizzy.
“Easy.” Sebastian’s voice floats through the air. He’s already dressed, sitting in the chair by the window. “You’re okay. You’re home, your family’s downstairs making breakfast.”
“How long have you been awake?”
“A couple hours. Couldn’t sleep.” He moves to the bed carefully and sits beside me. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I lived through something I shouldn’t have.” I run my hands through my tangled hair. “Is my dad making breakfast?”
“He and your brothers. Apparently Cole knows how to make Grace’s pancakes, and your dad’s particular about his bacon.” A slight smile. “They’ve taken over my kitchen.”
“That sounds like them.” I try to smile back, but it feels forced. “I should get dressed. Face the day.”
“Or you could stay in bed. Rest. Let yourself recover.”
“I can’t hide forever.”
“You’re not hiding, you’re recovering. There’s a difference.” He touches my face gently. “Lennox, you’re allowed to take time to process.”
“And what if I don’t want to process? If I just want to… move forward?”
“Then you move forward. But eventually, it’s going to catch up to you. These things always do.”
He’s probably right. But right now, I can’t face processing. Can’t sit with the reality of what happened. So I decide I’ll move forward. Pretend everything is normal. Deal with the breakdown when it comes.
“I’m getting dressed.” I stand, ignoring the way the room sways slightly. “And then I’m going downstairs to have breakfast with my family, like this is a normal visit.”
Sebastian looks like he wants to argue, but doesn’t. Just watches as I pull on jeans and one of his hoodies, brush my hair and try to make myself look presentable.
Downstairs, the kitchen is full. My father stands at the stove with his cane hooked over his arm, flipping bacon. Cole is at the griddle making pancakes. Cage sits at the table, drinking coffee and looking exhausted.
“There she is,” Dad says, turning to look at me. “How’d you sleep?”
“Better than I expected.” I move to the coffee pot, needing caffeine. “You didn’t have to make breakfast.”
“Of course we did. Can’t have you going hungry.” Dad studies me with those sharp eyes that miss nothing. “You look pale. Are you feeling alright?”
“Just tired. I’ll be fine.”
Cole sets a plate of pancakes on the table. “Eat. You barely touched dinner last night.”
I sit and try to eat, but everything tastes like cardboard. My family watches me with concern that makes my skin crawl.
“Stop,” I finally say. “Stop looking at me like I’m going to break. I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine,” Cage says bluntly. “Nobody’s fine after that.”
“Well, I’m as fine as I’m going to be. So can we please just act normal? Pretend this is a regular family visit?”
The men exchange looks.
“Alright,” Dad finally agrees. “Normal. We can do normal things.” He brings his plate to the table, settles into a chair with the careful movements I’ve gotten used to. “Claire says hello, I talked to her last night.”
I choke on my coffee, and Cage shakes his head warningly at me.
“You okay, Lenny Lou?” Dad asks as he frowns at me.
“Yep, just the wrong pipe,” I sputter and avoid looking at the men around the table.
“So. Your ranch operations here. Tell me about them. What’s different from Montana? And how are those bulls doing that you bought from me?”
And just like that, we slip into ranch talk. Cattle breeds, pasture rotation and weather patterns. Normal conversation that lets me pretend yesterday didn’t happen.
* * *
After breakfast, Dad pulls me aside. “Walk with me?”
We go out to the porch, and he settles into one of the chairs with a slight grunt.
“Your brothers are going to head out this afternoon,” he says. “Ranch doesn’t run itself. But I’m staying for a few more days. I want to make sure you’re really okay before I leave.”
“Dad, you don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do. You’re my daughter, you went through hell and I’m not leaving until I’m satisfied you’re alright.” He doesn’t say any more; we just sit in the chairs with our coffee and watch the ranch.
Cole and Cage leave after lunch, promising to call, check in and come back if I need them. I hug them both tight, grateful they dropped everything to rescue me.
Dad stays, and while I don’t think I need a babysitter, it’s nice to have him around while Sebastian is dealing with resort problems and the fallout from yesterday.
I’ve never really gotten one-on-one time with Dad over the years, so I’m grateful for that too.
He takes over the guest room like he belongs there.
And that night at dinner, with just the three of us, the conversation finally turns to what’s been hovering unspoken all day.
“The sheriff called,” Sebastian says. “He wants formal statements from both of us today.”
“And the investigation?” I ask.
“Perfunctory. They’ll go through the motions, but Caroline’s got everything locked down.
By next week, this’ll be ruled a justified rescue operation and closed.
” He stops. “Marshall’s properties are already going through probate.
We’ll likely acquire most of their land and assets within six months. ”
“So you’re profiting from their deaths.”
“That’s how this works.” Dad’s voice is matter-of-fact. “They tried to take from us, but they failed. Now we take from them. That’s justice at this level.”
“That’s not justice.”
“No, it’s survival,” Sebastian finishes. “At this level of power and wealth, it’s all about survival. Eliminating threats. Making sure you come out on top. Thomas Marshall understood that, he just miscalculated how far we’d go.”
I push food around my plate, trying to process.
“I need to know something,” I say quietly. “Both of you. If they hadn’t taken me, if they’d just kept making threats, kept the range war going, would you have done the same thing? Eliminated them?”
Sebastian and Dad exchange looks.
“Eventually, yes.” Sebastian nods. “They were always going to have to be dealt with. Your kidnapping just accelerated the timeline.”
“So fifteen people died who were going to die anyway.”
“Not fifteen. Just the leadership. The rest…” Sebastian shrugs. “The rest were collateral damage. Wrong place, wrong time. They chose to stand with Marshall. That choice had consequences.”
The coldness in his voice makes me shiver. This is the man I married the day of the auction.
“I think I need to go lie down.” I stand abruptly.
“Lennox,” Sebastian starts.
“I just need some time. To think. Please.”
I leave before either of them can argue, go upstairs to the bedroom and close the door, and sit on the edge of the bed, trying to breathe through the panic clawing at my chest.
A soft knock on the door. “Lennox?” Sebastian’s voice. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah.”
He closes the door behind him and leans against it. “Your father went to his room. Thought we might need privacy.”
“I don’t know what to say to you right now.”
“Then don’t say anything. Just let me say something. And you can process it however you need to.” He moves closer but doesn’t touch me. “I love you.”
The words hang in the air between us.
“What?” I turn and stare at him.
“I love you. I knew it before they took you. Watching that video of you being dragged into their SUV, drugged, helpless…” His voice cracks slightly. “I knew at that moment I’d do anything to get you back. That isn’t the contract. That’s love.”
“Sebastian.”
“I know the timing is terrible. I know you’re processing a lot right now.
But I need you to know, what I did yesterday, what I’m capable of, that’s who I am when someone threatens what or who I love.
And I love you, Kathryn Lennox Drake, completely and desperately.
In ways that probably aren’t healthy but are absolutely real.
“I’d kill a hundred more people if that’s what it took to keep you safe.
” He kneels in front of me. “I’m not asking you to say it back.
I’m not asking you to be okay with what happened.
I’m just asking you to know, you’re loved.
By me. What I did yesterday, that’s what love looks like to me.
Dark, violent, uncompromising love that eliminates threats before they can hurt what I value. ”
“That’s not normal love,” I say, letting my eyes drift to the floor.
“No. But we’re not normal people. We don’t do anything the normal way.” His hands frame my face. “So tell me. Can you live with being loved this way? By a man who’ll go to war for you? Who’ll kill for you? Who’ll burn everything down to keep you safe?”
Can I? Can I accept this dark, violent, overwhelming love?
I think about the terror in the basement.
The relief when I heard gunshots. The gratitude when the man kneeling in front of me found me.
The way Walker killed without hesitation to protect me.
The way Sebastian is looking at me now, like I’m the most precious thing in his world and he’ll destroy anyone who tries to take me from him.
“I love you too,” I whisper. “God help me, I love you too.”
His expression transforms. Relief and joy and something fierce all mixed together. “Say it again.”
“I love you.” I grab his face. “I love you because you’re trying to be better. Because you let me see you vulnerable. Because you brought my family when you could have handled it on your own. Because you love me enough to kill for me.”
“Lennox.” His voice breaks.
“Shut up and kiss me.”
He does. Desperate, hungry, needing connection after everything we’ve been through. I kiss back just as hard, needing him just as much. His hands come up to hold my face, and they’re shaking, and that undoes me more completely than anything else could.
He strips my clothes off with shaking hands, and I do the same for him, pushing his shirt from his shoulders, running my palms up the warm planes of his chest. I slow down without meaning to.