29. Sebastion #2
“I promised.” I hold the phone between my ear and shoulder, tug the door open, then I mercilessly yank Scarlett across the threshold.
“I’m taking Scarlett to the kitchen now so she can eat, then we’ll head toward the rec room.
Give me a heads-up before La Bruja moves so we don’t butt heads and make bad shit worse. ”
“Mm.” He grunts in the back of his throat. “Will do. Kinda mad I don’t get to be in on the Jameson Bro rec room with Scarlett party, though. I wanna be her friend, too.”
“She doesn’t wanna be friends with any of us.” I lead her toward the kitchen and peek back at her terrified eyes. “Not even me.”
“Especially not you,” Mav teases. “You’re a prick, after all. I’ll come find you later, maybe. Is she, uh…” He hesitates for a beat. “Is Scarlett okay? I know I joke about her crying, but that was kinda brutal.”
“She’s surviving. Barely.” I lead her into the kitchen and sigh when she merely skids to a stop and abuses her thumbnail.
“I’ll see you later.” Lowering my phone and ending our call, I slip the device into my pocket and come around to face her.
Toe to toe. Nose to… chest. I fold a little lower and search her fearful eyes.
“My mother is busy on the other side of the property right now. Mav is watching her and doesn’t expect her to head this way for a long time.
” I cup her jaw and pull her bottom lip free of her nibbling teeth.
“Eat something, Scarlett. You already weigh too little, and you’ve been living in a state of stress for weeks. ”
She shakes her head and drops her eyes. “I’m not hungry.”
Yeah. Cause anxiety kills your appetite!
“So I’ll make you a protein shake instead.
” I turn and pull a massive tub of protein powder from the cupboard, then a gallon of milk from the fridge.
I move to a different cupboard and grab out a mixing cup.
And all along, I keep her in my peripherals.
She’s apt to run. “Putting all the crazy drama of letter writers and bitchy moms to the side, I kinda wanna show you around my home. This is where I grew up.” I make fast work of mixing a tall cup of protein, shake the shit out of it, then I open the lid and pour the contents into two smaller glass tumblers.
“Here you go.” I bring both across and force her to take hers.
If she won’t, she’ll have to drop it onto the floor, and if she makes a mess like that, she’ll have to explain to Mom why.
Sucker. “Come on.” I wrap my hand around hers, partly because I kinda fucking want to, though I’ve never walked on my property with a woman’s hand in mine in the past. But also because if I don’t, I’m convinced she wouldn’t walk.
I need her to walk.
“Sebastion.” She digs her heels in as I pull her into the hall and past my bedroom door. “I don’t want to.”
“The only person you don’t want to see, won’t see you.
I’ve got eyes on her now and an alarm system in place that’ll keep you out of her crosshairs.
In the meantime,” I lead her to the end of the hall and around to the right, then instead of taking her to the massive grassy area out back, I drag her through an opulent set of reinforced glass French doors and feel the wings of pride and smugness when she stumbles to a stop.
But this time, it’s with wonder and awe.
It’s with stunned approval as she stares down the barrel of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
“This is basically the main hub of the property. When we’re not working or holed up in our rooms, we’re out here.
Pool’s for anyone to swim in. It’s warmed in the winter, but even then, it’s still pretty fuckin’ cold, so I don’t bother until March. ”
“Wow, it’s…” She glances around, too distracted to notice the arm I drape over her shoulders. “This is not what I was expecting.”
“Figured.” I sip my drink and bring her to the right of the pool. “Tennis courts over there. Pool houses scattered all over. They’re private for anyone who wants to get changed or whatever. Basketball courts.”
“This is just…” Disbelieving, she keeps her head on a swivel and looks everywhere at once. “I was expecting…”
“Barbed wire fences and killer attack dogs? This isn’t Alcatraz, Princess. No one is forced to stay here.”
“No one? At all?”
I shake my head. “Free will is a beautiful thing.”
Says the guy willingly traumatizing women with a hoodie.
“And all the people here…” She angles back the way we came. “All of those men you run into the grass all day long; they choose to stay?”
“They do.”
We’re a little too exposed here, not in view of the medical wing, but within view of anyone who might leave the medical wing and turn this way, so I continue our quasi-tour.
“Does anyone ever choose not to stay?”
“Rarely.”
“And those who leave? You just… let them go? Even though they know the whereabouts of this super-secret hideaway in the middle of nowhere?”
“Even then. We have safeguards in place to mitigate risk, and a lot of my job is to travel around the country and check in on anyone who knows. Just like I traveled to relieve men of the codes in the first place.”
“So you stalk and threaten the defectors?”
“Jesus.” I stop by a pool house door and swing it wide. Lobbing her inside without spilling a single drop of either of our drinks, I follow her in and close the door with a noisy slam. “I’m not stalking anyone, Princess. Nor am I threatening them.”
“But—”
“You continue to judge me by the reputation I cultivated in the first damn place, but that’s not how this shit goes.
These men? They work for us because the pay is damn good and the benefits are even better.
Living here beats a regular nine-to-five, no matter which way you look at it, and it’s especially tempting to the single, male, twenty-to-thirty-year age range, which, coincidentally, is the exact demographic we like to give muscles and firepower to.
Those who try this out and decide to leave, leave, and now and then, I take a peek at what they’re doing to ensure they’re not selling our secrets.
” I set my drink aside and crowd her against the wall.
I can’t help myself. I can’t breathe quite right unless it’s her breath I inhale.
“Here, to those men, my mother’s name is Arabella Jameson.
Only. And those of us who know, never speak the name Aster in front of company.
Richard had no clue she was alive this whole time, and he never thought to come looking for an Arabella Jameson.
Besides, even if he had, her official documents say something else entirely. ”
I set my finger beneath her cup and guide it higher. I force her to consume something more filling than her daily dose of anxiety and dread.
“These men think of my mother as a regular, run-of-the-mill tyrant. Not a tyrant of the Aster variety. Those who stay don’t even realize this place is a secret, because once you announce that shit, lips start flapping.
To them, this is just a place they work.
Exactly the same as the houses you visit every week.
You haven’t told me their addresses, because sharing that information has never been relevant.
You kept the secret, because no one ever told you it was compulsory to do so.
The difference between you and them,” I point back toward the yard, “is that you know my mother is an Aster. You know this is a giant fucking secret. And with your brother and Nova having dealings with Richard, that leaves you with just a single fucking degree of distance between yourself and the man my mother killed herself to escape.”
I fold a little closer and search her eyes.
I lick my lips and wish I was licking hers.
“You receive different treatment, Scarlett, because you know the secret. They don’t.
You’re the embodiment of everything my mother fears, and you’re also really fucking beautiful and the first woman I’ve ever brought here. So that’s got her scared, too.”