The Camp (Chateau Book 2)

by Penelope Sky

  I read spreadsheets and emails, but that was it. “Sure.”

  We left the apartment then walked side by side farther into the city. The cafes and shops came into view, people sitting outside and enjoying a cup of coffee with a baguette with a side of jam. We always stood a few feet apart. We didn’t show affection in public. It wasn’t my thing, and it didn’t seem to be hers either because she never tried to hold my hand or kiss me.

  She entered the bookstore and browsed through the shelves.

  “What are you looking for?”

  She moved down the aisle and browsed the titles, most of them in French. “Nothing in particular. I just like the way it smells in here.”

  “Like dust?”

  “Like fresh pages, rich details, history…”

  With my hands in my pockets, I walked alongside her.

  “You should give it a chance.”

  “I never cared for reading when I was in school.”

  “What did you care for?”

  I shrugged. “Math, science, stuff like that.”

  She turned to look at me. “I didn’t know that.”

  “Why would you?”

  “I guess it makes sense. You seem more pragmatic and logical than most people.” She turned back to the books. “But I think you should give it another try. You might be surprised.” She stepped back so she could crane her neck and look higher up.

  I left her side and walked down the aisles to see what was available, not that I would find something I liked. The books were new, but the shelves were dusty. My eyes scanned the titles, and the only time I stopped was when I was on the other side of the store.

  I looked at the spine and read the title.

  I pulled it off the shelf and opened the cover, looking through the words in French. I’d read this book a long time ago in school, but I couldn’t remember the details anymore. I closed the book and held it at my side.

  “Have any recommendations?” A woman came to my side and addressed me in French.

  I stepped back slightly because I’d been so focused on the book and not my surroundings. I replied back in French. “I don’t work here.”

  “I know…just wanted a reason to talk to you.”

  I gave her a blank stare before I walked away and returned to the other side of the store. Raven was still there, flipping through the pages of a book in her hand, oblivious to the world around her because the only thing that mattered was already in the palm of her hand.

  When she felt my presence, she addressed me. “Find anything?”

  I held up the book.

  She looked away from her pages and stared at it, a slow smile coming onto her lips. “The Count of Monte Cristo…good choice.”

  Twenty-Three

  La Petite Amie

  I waited in the downstairs living room, pulling back the sleeve of my tuxedo to check the time.

  She was taking a long time to get ready.

  I hated these social events, so I didn’t care about getting there on time anyway. She could take all night for all I cared. But she wouldn’t see Melanie, so it was her loss and not mine.

  She finally stepped out of the bedroom, the dress fitting her like the designer made it with her in mind. Black was a great color on her, and the tightness over her chest highlighted the sexy cleavage she had. The high slit in the dress showed her toned and strong legs, the muscles prominent when she was in high heels like that.

  She walked toward me and stared at my face.

  I didn’t meet her gaze because I was too busy looking her up and down, loving every curve. Her flat stomach looked even more petite than usual, which made her tits look even bigger. Her hourglass frame was on full display.

  My eyes finally lifted to meet her gaze. “Beautiful.”

  All the uncertainty she’d felt in her appearance faded away at the compliment. A smile slowly came through, the confidence returning to her gaze. “I wasn’t sure if I could pull this off.”

  I got to my feet and walked toward her, liking her in those heels because we were nearly at eye level, which was a nice change. I stopped in front of her, seeing the diamond necklace around her throat, the top of her chest, and the swell of her breasts. Her makeup was dark and smoky, giving her a sultry look that was so damn sexy. Her lips were painted dark red, the color of her blood, and I wanted to kiss it away until it was all over my lips and the corners of my mouth. “You definitely pull it off.”

  The front lawn was lit up with lights, a long driveway from the very beginning of the estate to the mansion at the top of the hill. It was nearly a mile just to get there. My car was in line behind the others, even though we were an hour late, because all of society was there. As we got closer to the valet at the entrance, she started to fidget.

  “What are we celebrating?” she whispered, her eyes focused out the window.

  I watched couples walk inside in their tuxedoes and gowns, the tall door opening to reveal a peek of the interior. Gilbert bowed to the guests and ushered them inside before he closed the door again. “Being rich.”

  We pulled up to the valet, and I tossed my keys at him before Raven stepped out of the car and joined me, her long dress difficult to manage as she rose to her feet. But she made it work and came to my side.

  I walked with her beside me, up the stairs and to the entryway.

  Her arm slipped through mine, and she came closer.

  I turned to look at her, surprised at the affection.

  She stilled and looked at me. “Is this okay?”

  I’d never done this before, never had a woman on my arm like this. When we walked around Paris, I never held her hand and she never tried to hold mine. My arm never moved around her waist. It just wasn’t natural to me. But most of the women had their arms through those of the men who accompanied them, or the men rested their hands against the women’s lower backs. After a pause, I gave a nod.

  She pulled me a little closer when she had my permission. “These heels are not my friend.”

  Gilbert greeted us and opened the door. “Sir, it’s so nice to see you.” Then he turned to look at Raven, a slight look of surprise in his gaze before he quickly covered it. He switched to English, knowing she couldn’t understand a lot of French. “You look beautiful, mademoiselle.”

  She smiled. “Thank you.”

  I took her inside, into the crowd under the chandelier. Loud conversations echoed all the way to the top of the third floor. Waiters passed flutes of champagne, along with appetizers. Most of the people were strangers to me, socialites who had wealth passed down through hundreds of years. “I have to talk to a few people.”

  “And what should I say?”

  “You’re my date.”

  “I mean, what if they ask me about what I do and stuff?”

  “Tell them you’re a student studying literature, like you were before.”

  She nodded. “Makes sense.”

  I spoke to a few people I knew, feeling Raven on my arm the entire time. Some of the men were distributors, so we talked openly about shipments, and in this fancy underworld, people didn’t care about breaking the law. If you wanted to be as rich as we were, going against the grain was the only way to do it.

  Raven didn’t say much, and when people asked questions, she stuck to the script.

  I took her through the crowd to our next destination.

  “They just talk about it so nonchalantly.”

  “Yeah, that’s how it works.” I spotted Fender with his arm wrapped around Melanie, who wore a gold gown that was cut so low in the front, the opening went all the way to her belly button.

  I stopped with Raven. “There’s my brother.”

  She saw her sister and stared at her for a while. “Wow…she looks beautiful.”

  “Just stand there quietly, alright?”

  She didn’t want to stir up that argument again, so she just nodded. “Can I talk to Melanie?”

  “I’ll try to get you in a room together. Just let me handle it.”
<
br />   She nodded.

  I guided her to my brother, and once I arrived, the gentleman he was talking to silently excused himself, as if he understood exactly who I was without introduction.

  Fender turned and looked at me, his eyes slightly hostile because he recalled our final conversation near the wagons. Raven was directly beside me, and he didn’t give her a single glance, pretending she didn’t exist.

  Melanie looked at Raven.

  Raven looked back.

  But neither spoke.

  I kept my eyes on Fender. “Is Napoleon here?”

  He raised his champagne to his lips and took a drink. “Somewhere.” His arm stayed around Melanie’s waist, his fingers curling around to the front and coming closer to her bare flesh down the middle. She was decorated with jewels, sparkling like she herself was a diamond. It’d been months since they’d met, and Fender hadn’t lost interest…which was saying something.

  Melanie looked at her sister. “You look really nice, Raven.”

  Raven didn’t speak and just gave a nod.

  Fender still didn’t look at Raven.

  “I’m going to put the girls in the parlor so we can speak in private,” I said, knowing Raven would only be able to stare at her sister if the situation didn’t change.

  “No.” Fender pulled her closer. “She stays here.”

  There was nothing I could do. There was no argument I could make to entice him to let Melanie leave his side. She was the treasure no one else could have—and he wanted everyone to know it.

  But Melanie stepped up. “Amoureux, please…” She turned into him, bringing her face closer to his, her free hand moving against his chest and resting on the black fabric of his tuxedo.

  He wouldn’t look at her. “You’re lucky that I permit her in our home at all.”

  She turned his face toward hers and forced him to look at her, to see the desperation in her eyes, and then she leaned in and kissed him. “For me…”

  He abandoned his prejudice instantly, his eyes softening when she kissed him like that. “Alright.” He pulled his hand from her waist so she could walk away. “Just a couple minutes. Nothing more.”

  “Thank you, amoureux.” She squeezed his hand before she stepped away and moved to Raven.

  Fender turned his gaze on me, his affection falling once he looked at me instead of her. “Take them.” He brought his glass to his lips and took a drink before he stepped away to talk to another guest.

  I escorted them away from the main room and into the hallway where there was an open room with couches. I nodded inside. There was no door because it was just an extension of the grand entryway, but there was no one nearby, so they wouldn’t be overheard. And even if they were, no one would care.

  The first thing they did was embrace.

  Melanie hugged her sister tightly, her face moving into Raven’s shoulder, like a child holding her mother.

  Raven held her, being the crutch as usual.

  They stayed that way for a long time.

  I lingered just on the outside, watching them.

  Raven pulled away and rubbed her sister’s arms. “That dress is so gorgeous on you.”

  “It’s mostly the dress, not me.”

  Raven smiled. “No, it’s not.”

  “You’re the one who steals the show tonight, Raven. That dress was made for you.”

  “Well, black is my color.” She smiled before she sat on the couch beside Melanie.

  They were both oblivious to me because they were absorbed in each other. They just stared, like they didn’t know where to start.

  Raven held Melanie’s hand on her thigh. “How are you?”

  “No complaints. He’s good to me. What about you?”

  She paused as she looked at her sister, as if contemplating whether she should tell her all the shit that happened at the camp before we left. She made her decision and didn’t reveal it. “Good. I really love being in Paris. Magnus has an apartment near my old place, so I get coffee in the morning and go shopping… It’s nice.”

  “He lets you go alone?”

  She nodded.

  “Wow, he trusts you.”

  “He does.” She looked at their joined hands. “It’s not that I’ve given up. It’s just…if I run, it’ll put Magnus in jeopardy, and I can’t do that. Does Fender let you go where you want?”

  “Yes. But it rarely happens.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he wants to come with me every time I want to go somewhere.”

  “To watch you?”

  “I think he just wants to be with me, actually. But he’s given me one of his cars and has let me drive away before.”

  Raven was quiet, just watching her sister.

  “I’m trying to convince him to let you go, but he won’t budge.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think he ever will.”

  “I don’t know… Give me more time. I think he’ll do it for me.”

  Raven dropped her gaze, like she didn’t believe that would ever happen. “You know, if you were to kill him…it might fix all our problems.”

  Melanie’s eyes widened, like the suggestion was unexpected.

  “In his sleep or something.”

  Melanie slowly pulled her hand away from her sister’s. “I…I can’t do that.”

  “If you do, the camp will belong to Magnus. He’ll let everyone go—”

  “I said I can’t.” She dropped her gaze and stared at her hands in her lap.

  Raven looked disappointed, but after a few seconds, she hid that expression. “Why?”

  “Because…I can’t do that to him.”

  When Raven started to understand the truth about their relationship, she couldn’t hide the revulsion that spread across her face. “Melanie, this is the man who raped you—”

  “He didn’t.” She raised her gaze and looked at her sister, absorbing the disgusted look directed at her. “I never said that.”

  “But he took you from the cabin, put you in another… He dragged his fingers against your cheek and said you tried to get away from him.”

  She shook her head. “He put me in a different cabin so he could be alone with me, but he never forced me. He would just have dinner with me and said he would wait until I was ready. And then…I was ready.”

  Raven was stunned into silence.

  Melanie bowed her head again, in shame.

  It was exactly what I suspected, that Melanie had never been putting on a production, that the affection between them was genuine. She went back to him to save her sister…but she also wanted an excuse to be with him again.

  “Melanie…I understand we’ve been in dire circumstances and it’s easy to grow attached to anything that’s comforting, but this is the man who enslaves and kills innocent women, women that we’ve known. How can you possibly feel that way about him?”

  She raised her chin and looked at Raven. “The same reason you feel that way about Magnus.”

  The anger that appeared on Raven’s face happened instantly, her breathing deeper, her face flushing slightly. “They are not the same, Melanie. Magnus is nothing like that monster.”

  “How are they different?” Melanie questioned. “Both men don’t hang the women themselves, but they both work there. How is it different? Magnus is just as guilty, and yet you look at him the way Fender looks at me.”

  Raven took a few breaths before she responded. “Magnus doesn’t agree with the way the camp is run and has expressed that many times to Fender, but Fender ignores it. Magnus is the one who risked his neck to save us both. What has Fender done other than buy you pretty things? I’m sorry, but to compare the two men is fucking insulting. How can you feel any affection for the man who’s the boss of that camp? How?”

  Melanie held her sister’s gaze, watery shame in her eyes. “I just… I can’t explain it.”

  “Well, you better try.”

  “He’s just…more than that. He takes care of me, he’s good to me, he’s…a man. He’s not li
ke the other boys out there, and I like that. I know it’s wrong, but I can’t change the way I feel. I can’t kill him. I can’t do it, okay? I’m sorry.” Her eyes watered until the tears dripped down her cheeks.

  Raven held her silence, but it was obvious that she struggled to process all of that without losing her temper. “If you don’t kill him, I’ll never get out of that camp. The women will never get out of that camp. Magnus will never be able to be free.”

  She kept her head down. “Why can’t Magnus do it—”

  “Because Fender will kill him. And Magnus won’t kill his brother, so…”

  “You can kill Magnus and run—”

  “Don’t say that again.” Raven lost her temper, her eyes like daggers. “You know Magnus is not like him. I don’t even need to say it. Lie to yourself all you want, but it won’t change reality. Magnus is the hero…and Fender is the villain.”

  Melanie kept her gaze down and couldn’t look at her sister. “Look, I’m willing to set him up for his downfall. I’m willing to sneak around and carry your secrets. I’m willing to do anything and everything to help you and those girls that are stuck there, but I can’t kill him myself. I’m sorry…” Melanie started to cry.

  Seeing her sister break down made Raven sheathe her anger. Her hand went to Melanie’s shoulder then into her hair, tucking it behind her ear like a mother with a daughter. “Melanie, it’s okay… Don’t ruin your makeup.”

  She straightened and wiped her tears with her fingers, bringing herself to calm. “I know I can get him to set you free. I know I can…”

  “But that doesn’t fix the problem, Melanie. Even if I’m free, the camp is still continuing.”

  She shook her head. “We tried to stop it once before. There’s nothing we can do.”

  “Melanie—”

  “No, listen.” She straightened and looked at her sister. “We went back and burned that place to the fucking ground, and it didn’t change anything. I know you want to put an end to it, but you need to understand this is bigger than the two of us. I told you we shouldn’t go back, that we had no chance, but you forced us to do it anyway. We lost our freedom because of it. I’m never going to be able to walk away from Fender at this point, so I need to make the best of it. Yes, I feel something for him, but how can I sleep beside the same man every single night and see his goodness and not feel something?” She paused to take a few breaths, her eyes filled with emotional intensity. “I know I can get him to free you, but that’s the best I can do.”