Promise: The Deception Trilogy, Book 3

by Fallon Hart

  We’d been rolling in bed for hours and only just remembered our dinner plans with Amelia and Quentin at the last minute.

  Since their baby girl, Ophelia, came into the world a month ago, I'd barely seen them. Scarlett often visited, keeping Amelia company, but for Amelia's sanity, Quentin had insisted they hire a part-time nanny so she could get some rest.

  “You look like you’ve just been thoroughly fucked,” I murmured in my wife’s ear as the waiter led us to our table.

  "Well, whose fault is that," she murmured back.

  We shared a smile and then greeted our friends us.

  “Happy Anniversary!” Amelia announced.

  "Thank you. You look well," I said as we took our seats.

  “Thank you.” she beamed.

  "Yes, pregnant women everywhere hate you for having looked so amazing pregnant and then getting your figure back immediately," Scarlett added. She threw me a worried look. "Be prepared. When it's our turn, I'm going to be huge. My mother was huge. I've seen the pictures."

  Like I cared. “You’ll be giving birth to a human being, my love, it comes with the territory.”

  “You won’t mind?”

  I gave her a look that told her that didn’t even deserve an answer.

  She smiled smugly.

  Fuck she was adorable.

  “So Quentin and I have a gift for you,” Amelia reached for her husband’s hand, “And we hope it’s a gift you’ll like.”

  My wife and I shared curious looks.

  Quentin urged Amelia to continued.

  She beamed at us. “We want you to be Ophelia’s godparents.”

  Surprise rooted me to the chair.

  Scarlett gasped. “Are you serious?”

  "Yeah," Quentin answered. "If anything, God forbid, were to happen to Amelia and me, I would rest easy knowing my kid was being raised by you guys."

  Moved by my friend's words I couldn't speak.

  Scarlett’s eyes were filling with tears.

  “We thought about who was in our lives,” Amelia added, “My parents, family, friends, and who was most like us. Who we thought would raise Ophelia the way we would want her to be raised. And we know it’s you two.”

  Since Scarlett wasn’t speaking, I cleared my throat. “I’m humbled. Honored.”

  “Me too,” my wife burst out and covered her mouth as a sob came with it. “This means so much.” she scrambled for a napkin.

  “Then that’s a yes?” Amelia asked.

  Locking gazes, Scarlett and I nodded at each other and then at our friends. “That’s a yes.”

  “Then we have two things to celebrate.” Quentin gestured to a passing waiter. “Champagne for the table, please.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I felt a touch on my hand and looked down to see Scarlett had reached over to clasp it in hers. My gaze flew to her face.

  My breath caught at her expression.

  “Happy?” I asked.

  Scarlett nodded and then mouthed, “I love you.”

  Peace I never thought I’d ever feel saturated me. This woman had blazed into my life and changed me in ways I’d never have imagined. Somehow she made my relationships with the people I cared about stronger. She gave me that. And she gave me the kind of love I never knew existed in real life.

  Scarlett Jennings Mandeville was fucking magnificent.

  And she was all mine.

  I mouthed back, "I love you, too." And then I spoke, and it was a promise I knew I'd never break. "Forever."

  Thank you for reading Griffin and Scarlett’s story. I hope you fell in love with their epic romance as much as I did while I was writing it. If you have time, please do leave a review. Reviews are wonderful gifts to authors and I appreciate every single one of them. Thank you!

  Lots of Love,

  Fallon x

  Click here to leave a review on Amazon

  To keep up-to-date with Fallon’s new releases and book news follow her on Amazon and Bookbub.

  More from Fallon Hart….

  SURVIVING WILDE by Fallon Hart

  She needed his guidance… and so much more

  When Jake Wilde showed at my uncle’s ranch I knew he was my chance to escape. Some might call me crazy, throwing myself at the mercy of this stranger. But Wilde is a force to be reckoned with, a man built for survival in a world turned on its head. I can’t survive out here without his guidance and I need him to take me to the one place in this Godforsaken land where they say men and women are treated fairly. It’s a place where beautiful crops grow, the burden of work is shared equally, and no man is superior to another. It’s my ray of hope in a world gone dark.

  I never expected to feel anything for Wilde but gratitude. Instead I find myself craving the touch of this gruff, wild man. Suddenly he lights my way. Somehow with him at my side this crazy brave new world doesn’t seem so bad. I need him like I never thought I’d need anyone and I’m so afraid that the revenge he harbors in his heart will take him from me forever.

  He never wanted anything but to survive… until her

  I went to that ranch to fulfil a promise to an old friend and instead I somehow ended up agreeing to guide Rebecca to a community I’m not even sure exists. She’s desperate for hope and I have long given up on that. However, I never thought she’d get under my skin as fast as she has. I want her beyond all reason and madness. I will do anything to protect her. Yet she wants to settle down and start life anew in this new world and I still have an old promise to keep. A promise of revenge that I always knew would end badly. That need for revenge has driven me for so long. How can I give that up? But if I don’t, I leave Rebecca alone in an uncertain world. If I lose her, I lose everything that makes life worthwhile.

  Revenge or love?

  It’s a choice I never thought I’d have to make…

  READ CHAPTER ONE OF SURVIVING WILDE

  First Chapter

  Rebecca

  Having watched the world try to find its feet on ground shaken by chaos I’d thought myself immune to fear. After everything I’d witnessed, what did someone like me have left to be afraid of?

  Staring at the man before me I realized how naïve I’d been. And here I didn’t think it was possible to be naïve in such a brave new world.

  “Do we have a deal?” William eyed the man with a sharp gaze.

  I took in the long legs of the stranger, the thick thighs, the wide breadth of his shoulders and finally the black of his eyes. I’d never met a man so tall. He towered over every other man on William’s ranch. At first sight I’d wondered how a man could keep himself so strong and vital in times like these, and then I’d taken in the holster around his calf which contained a pocket for a large hunting knife. He also had a gun holstered to his hip. He carried a large backpack, most likely filled with supplies, and in his hand was a small axe. Everything about him screamed hunter, survivor.

  The man didn’t look at me. He continued to stare at William, a seemingly impassive stare if you didn’t take time to notice the muscle flexing in his jaw. His words came out in deep gravel, “I have no use for a wife. I have business to attend to and she would be in the way.”

  William sighed. “Then we have no deal, Mr. Wilde.”

  My uncle had told me a man had arrived on the ranch to marry me but he’d given me no name. So far I’d just had this frightening visual. Now I had a name to put to the face of the man who, if my uncle had his way, would own me. That’s what marriage was now, I thought bitterly staring around the barn where William’s men, their women and slaves alike, had gathered to witness the bargain.

  I remembered a time when men and women were supposed to be equals in life. The time for pawning female relatives off as mere chattel had died out with knickerbockers and smelling salts. Until chaos reigned and men, enraged by the loss of their supremacy over the world, took what little power they could back in the small pockets of communities they’d carved out.

  I wondered if it wasn’t quite so misogynistic in
other human communities, but on my Uncle William’s ranch women were second class citizens. They said men and women were equal at The Legacy and I thought about escaping there every day. It was the only hope I had left in this world.

  “I came for the boy and you’re going to give me the boy,” Wilde stated firmly, not even flinching when my uncle’s men shifted restlessly at the unspoken threat.

  William frowned. “This, all you see around you,” he gestured with a slow sweep of his arm, “It’s moving. The gangs from the cities are sending their own to crush our communities and return with slaves. I won’t see that happen here. We’re moving west.”

  Wilde seemed to contemplate this. “It’s a risk. We’ve heard nothing from the west but that doesn’t mean the gangs haven’t infiltrated.”

  “All reports come in from the east coast. If there are gangs out west we’ll soon learn if we get there.” William’s eyes narrowed. “It’s a difficult journey ahead of us and I’m not sure we’ll all survive it.” He turned now to look at me, his steel blue eyes hard. There was little affection between us. We were bound by honor to one man. “I promised my brother I would look after his daughter, protect her from the worst of this storm.” And I promised my father that I’d obey William. It was the foolish promise of a teenager who didn’t understand how drastically our entire world was about to change. William shot me one last disapproving look before turning his focus back on Wilde. “Rebecca is twenty-seven now. It’s time she found protection with someone else.”

  Blood hot, I glowered at my uncle’s back. “I can protect myself,” I bit out. His rejection no longer hurt, but the insinuation that I was a hapless female rankled.

  I felt both William and Wilde’s gaze on me. The hunter looked impatient and bored. “She would be better off without me.” His eyes narrowed on my uncle. “You gave your word to your brother that you would see she was protected and yet you would hand her over to a complete stranger who may or may not mistreat her? Somehow I don’t think that was part of the oath to your brother.”

  I raised an eyebrow. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

  William, however, appeared completely unfazed. “You came here to rescue a boy from slavery merely because he was a neighbor’s son. He is no blood relation, has no history or emotional connection to you. Yet you come for him. You walk onto my ranch, knowing I have men at my back, and you demand the return of this boy into your protection.” William scratched his bristly cheek in thought. “This is a man, I think to myself. My brother would be happy for me to see his daughter safely under such a man’s protection.”

  “What a crock of shit,” I muttered loudly enough for my uncle to hear. If that had been true he would have married me off to any one of his men as soon as he thought he could get away with it. But he hadn’t. He wanted me gone from his community. I didn’t know why my uncle wanted me gone, but I assumed it was due to the same reason he’d disliked me from the moment he’d met me.

  I wasn’t too distracted by the hunter to note my uncle’s lack of reaction to my insubordination. If he hadn’t been so busy trying to convince the stranger he was only seeking my protection, he would have backhanded me across the face.

  Wilde’s lips had curled up at the corners as though he had heard my words and found them amusing. But that couldn’t be. He wasn’t close enough to hear.

  Our eyes met and my stomach clenched horribly.

  If this stranger agreed to marry me I would have little choice but to stay with him. If I ran, I wouldn’t last out there in the wild. Not without someone to teach me to survive.

  “As flattering as the picture you’ve painted of me is,” Wilde drawled, “I’m not taking anybody into my protection. I’m escorting the boy to The Legacy. They’ll protect him. But my business is taking me elsewhere and I have no time to babysit your niece.”

  William cursed under his breath, his impatience increasing while my heart started to thump at the mention of The Legacy.

  “Then marry her and leave her to The Legacy until your business is done.” He gestured to me. “She might not be as young as you were hoping for in a wife and she’s no great beauty but she’s attractive and she’s not without her uses. How long has it been since you’ve had a woman?”

  Some days I wished for small conveniences like quilted toilet paper.

  On days like this I wished for the old laws that would prevent this from happening to me. On days like this I wished for the one thing that wasn’t in my nature to care about—power. “You’re a real bastard, you know that.”

  This time Wilde smirked, his dark eyes glittering in the candlelight of the lit barn. “She has a look that will draw attention. Those eyes for a start.” His gaze raked over me and I shuddered. “Attractiveness is a problem not a selling point. I don’t want to spend the trek to The Legacy fighting Wanderers who want a taste of her.”

  “You don’t take her you don’t get the boy,” My uncle said, calm but final.

  The stranger stared impassively at William, giving nothing away. Still, I sensed the restless energy in him. Would he really take on my uncle and all his men for a boy that wasn’t even his own?

  I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Ben, one of the more cruel members of William’s guard, touch the gun in the holster strapped around his hips. My pulse started to race. I didn’t want to see Wilde come to harm when all he was trying to do was save a boy.

  “You don’t have to marry me.” I stepped forward, ignoring my uncle’s warning glare. “Just take me to The Legacy. I’ll cover my hair, do whatever it takes to look less feminine.”

  Wilde’s gaze drifted over me again. “Not possible.”

  “Please.” It was a word I hadn’t uttered in a long time but I knew what kind of life awaited me staying with my uncle. One of mental and physical abuse. Somehow William thought protecting me from sexual abuse meant he was fulfilling his promise to my father. My uncle was a sick individual. It was stay here, where a woman had no voice, no control over her existence, or take a chance on the unknown. The Legacy was said to be a kind of utopia among the chaos. It had to be better than this, right?

  “You heard her,” William said. “Agree to take her safely to The Legacy and the boy goes free.”

  “For all you know I could agree to that and then leave her to die somewhere on the way.”

  “That’s a chance I’ll take,” I said before my uncle could say it for me.

  The big hunter studied me and my uncle. Finally he glowered at William. “Show me the boy first and then we’ll talk.”

  William nodded to one of his men, Brett, who disappeared out of the barn.

  Wilde looked at me. “How do you know life at The Legacy will be any better?”

  “It has to be,” I replied quietly.

  God, it had to be.

  “Ungrateful bitch,” Ben snarled from behind me.

  I never took my eyes off Wilde, never even flinched, so used to the insults. I thought I saw something like curiosity in this stranger’s expression. “I’m supposed to be grateful for having my independence, my freedom, my equal rights stripped of me?” I asked Ben without looking at him.

  “You’re supposed to be grateful that your uncle keeps you fed and protected. If it had been up to me you would be paying off your debt to us men on your back like the rest of the women here.”

  My uncle’s community, ladies and gentleman. Run by ignorant scum and rapists.

  “Enough.” William raised a hand to quieten Ben.

  He glared at my uncle.

  To be fair Ben was one of the other reasons I was dying to leave the ranch. He’d been showing a severe lack of respect toward William lately and I sensed a change in management on the horizon. Ben would take leadership by force once he reckoned he had enough support from the other men. And if I thought life was bad here now, it would be hell with my uncle out of the way.

  Footsteps sounded and Brett returned with the boy Wilde had come for. My face slackened with surprise whe
n I realized it was Dove. Dove was an eleven-year-old my uncle said he’d found wandering just outside our territory.

  He’d lied.

  His men had taken Dove from his family.

  The cruel bastard.

  Dove didn’t look like a typical eleven-year-old. He was so tall and strong he could pass for fifteen easily. When he told me his age I’d honestly thought he was lying. But once I started to converse with him, his youth became obvious. A strong child, he’d work the ranch for my uncle. I knew he missed his family, I knew he was holding revenge to his heart, but there were moments when I could get him to laugh and joke with me. Once, he’d been a soft-hearted child. I could see it in the way he treated what little animals we had left on the ranch—like they were precious. And he was also very protective of me and his friend, Isla. Isla was only twelve years old and already showing signs of great beauty. In a few years’ time, they’d move her out of slavery and give her to one of the men as a wife.

  Dove had promised her he wouldn’t let that happen and my heart had warmed at the fierceness of his promise, and then immediately broken when I realized he’d never be able to keep it.

  Dove’s eyes moved around the barn as he walked in. When his gaze settled on me his body tensed and his eyes narrowed. I gave him a soft smile to reassure him and his attention finally moved to Wilde.

  His jaw fell open in shock and then I saw something I hadn’t ever seen on Dove’s face before.

  Relief. Hope.

  Wilde’s expression hardened and he made as if to take a step toward Dove but Brett stepped in front of the slave.

  “As you can see the boy has been well-treated. You want him, you take my niece with you.”

  Wilde’s upper lip curled and I actually thought I heard him emit a growl. Then he grunted out, “Fine.”

  Relief flooded me and my gaze flew to Dove as Brett stepped out of the way.