by Penelope Sky
A long silence passed before she gave me that look—a look that said she had an idea. “You know…if you were to kill him…it might fix all our problems.”
Shock hit me like an electrode was attached to my finger. My back straightened with the jolt, and my eyes widened at the suggestion because it was so innately repulsive.
“In his sleep or something.”
An image flashed across my mind, a faceless man putting a gun to his wife’s head and pulling the trigger, wiping out an entire family—except two survivors. The thought nearly brought me to tears. “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.” Ashamed, I dropped my gaze to my lap. My loyalty was divided between the two people I loved most. It shouldn’t be divided at all—but it was.
Raven looked disappointed, but after a few seconds, she hid that expression. “Why?”
“Because…I can’t do that to him.” The truth was locked in a safe inside my heart.
Raven took a deep breath, and as she slowly released it, revulsion spread across her face. “Melanie, this is the man who raped you—”
“He didn’t.” My voice strengthened, because it was such a terrible accusation that didn’t fit Fender in the least. He could never do something like that. Not to me. Not to anyone. He always treated me like a queen, even when he didn’t know me. I raised my chin and looked directly at her, offended even though it wasn’t her fault for jumping to that conclusion. I hid every thought and feeling from her because the truth was worse than the assumption. “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.”
I shook my 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.”
The look Raven gave me…was indescribable.
I couldn’t handle that stare. I just couldn’t. I looked away.
Raven was quiet, and the energy around her was so hostile that it seemed as if she might get up and storm out. She took a moment to calm herself before she spoke again, speaking to me like I was a child. “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?”
That was the million-dollar question. We didn’t have enough time for me to explain the depth of my feelings, how they started, how they became so strong. There was nothing I could do to make her understand. But then an idea came to mind, something she could definitely comprehend. “The same reason you feel that way about Magnus.”
The anger that appeared on Raven’s face happened instantly, her breathing deeper, her cheeks flushing slightly. She was livid. “They are not the same, Melanie. Magnus is nothing like that monster.”
“How are they different?” Defensive when I shouldn’t be, I met her head on. “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?”
My eyes started to water in shame. Our time together was rare, and we were spending it at the gallows, the noose around my neck, her hand on the rope. “I just… I can’t explain it.”
Anger flew from her lips like bullets from a gun. “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 like 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.” I knew that was a terrible explanation and totally missed the mark. Hot tears left my eyes and dripped down my 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.”
I kept my head down because the weight was so heavy. I witnessed Fender’s relationship with Magnus from the front row, saw the untouchable connection between them, so I just said something to get her off my back, knowing neither man would ever hurt the other. “Why can’t Magnus do it—”
“Because Fender will kill him. And Magnus won’t kill his brother, so…”
I wanted this conversation to end because I was a mess. “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.”
I couldn’t look at her. “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. I’m sorry…” I started to cry—full on.
Her anger was immediately sheathed, and her hand went to my shoulder then into my hair, tucking it behind my ear like Mom used to do. “Melanie, it’s okay… Don’t ruin your makeup.”
I took a few deep breaths to make myself calm, to stave off the tears. “I know I can get him to set you free. I know I can…” Any other plan was pointless to me because this one would work. It would just take time. That was all.
“But that doesn’t fix the problem, Melanie. Even if I’m free, the camp is still continuing.”
I shook my head and went quiet for a long time, thinking about what she’d said.
Raven stared, waiting for me to address her last words.
“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?” I paused to take a few breaths, my eyes filled with emotional intensity. “You need to understand there’s nothing we can do. There’s nothing Magnus can do. There’s only one person who can make any difference—and I know he will. He will let you go. He will end that camp. He will walk away from it all.”
Raven stared at me, her eyes skeptical. “And you really believe that?”
I slowly released the breath from my lungs and looked her straight in the eye. “With all my heart.”
Twenty
Make a Woman Cry
Fender
My eyes continued to shift back to the parlor, waiting for Melanie to return to me.
Every moment we were apart, my dread increased.
Unless she was right beside me where I could block her body with mine, the anxiety would deteriorate all the tissues of my heart. I never panicked. I never had anxiety. But she was the one thing that inflicted both of those sensations on me.
Napoleon approached Magnus and conducted a brief conversation.
My brother’s face said it all—he didn’t like the man at all.
No surprise there.
Stasia came next.
I lost interest and looked at the door again, not even bothering to pretend to listen to the guest speaking to me.
Raven step
ped out of the room and approached Magnus from the rear, but she must have gotten angry at the sight of them together because she marched off and headed straight to the door.
Good.
But Melanie didn’t come.
Oblivious to Raven’s anger, Magnus continued to speak to Stasia.
Why didn’t Melanie come back to me?
I drew breath with more anxiety. I squeezed my flute until it started to crack. Wordlessly, I excused myself from the conversation I wasn’t participating in and moved past Magnus to the parlor.
She sat there alone, her eyes on her hands in her lap, her posture drooped.
Puffy cheeks. Red eyes. Smeared makeup.
Nothing hurt me more than seeing her like this.
It made me hate Raven more than I already did.
I moved to the seat beside her.
She turned to look at me, flinching slightly because she was so deep in thought that she didn’t know I was in the room until that moment. When she’d assumed it was a stranger, her features had tightened to hide her discomfort. But when she looked at me, her eyes watered again—because she knew she didn’t have to hide from me.
My hand moved into the back of her hair, and I brought her close to me, kissing her tears away, kissing her soft lips, kissing her jawline and neck, erasing her pain with my love. “Ne pleure pas, chérie.” Don’t cry, sweetheart. My hand cupped her cheek as I pulled away and looked at her.
Her eyes were dry now, but the effects of her sadness were still on her features.
I pulled a tissue out of my pocket and placed it in her hand.
The smile she gave was so genuine. I was always there for her—and she knew it. She clenched the tissue in her closed fingertips before she brought it to her face to clean up her tear-stained cheeks.
“Talk to me, chérie.” My entire world collapsed when hers did too. When she was unhappy, I was unhappy. This was a woman who deserved the world, and every time I failed to give that to her, my self-hatred grew.
She sniffled before she wiped her nose. “Raven…” She shook her head and said nothing more.
“You continue to wonder why I hate her. There’s your answer.”
Her arm hooked through mine, and she came closer to me. “She’s a good person. Better than me.”
“Untrue.” I looked at the most beautiful woman in the world, a woman who cared about people she shouldn’t, saw the good in the evil. That made her a saint in my opinion.
She sniffled again. “She doesn’t understand how I can feel anything for you.”
“It’s not her business to understand it.”
“I try to explain it to her, but it doesn’t come out right.”
Coming between us. Again.
“And the way she looks at me…it just makes me feel so terrible.”
“Hypocritical.”
“She said Magnus is different.”
He was different—but not that different. “He can leave the business any time he chooses. He voices his disagreements, but he doesn’t put his money where his mouth is. So, no, fucking hypocritical.”
“She said you’re a monster…”
“I am a monster.” That was one thing we could agree on.
She stared at me for a long time, her eyes still a little wet because the tears hadn’t dried. “I told her that you’re more than what you seem. I told her that you’ll let her go. I told her that you would release all those girls.” Her hand moved to mine, and she squeezed it. “And I believe that so deeply…”
We hadn’t revisited this topic since our last fight, and I didn’t want to have this conversation again, let alone right now. My instinct was to pull away and leave her there by herself, to grow angry at her choice of words, but my need for her was greater than my anger. It would always be greater than my anger. Never again would I let my temper separate us. Never again would I let anything divide us. “Let’s get back to the party.” I rose to my feet, pulling on her hand to get her to join me.
She stayed seated, looking up at me. “I believe it with all my heart.”
At the end of the night, everyone left. The staff was left to clean up while we went upstairs to bed. She’d composed herself and chatted with my guests like nothing was wrong. It seemed to be forgotten—until we went to bed.
She let the gown slide off her body, but with a melancholy gaze. Her shoes were kicked off, and then she went to the bed, sitting on the edge and looking out the window.
I stared at her back as I got my clothes off, annoyed that Raven was still in her head.
The only person who should be in her head was me.
Stripped down to my boxers, I sat beside her. “Forget about it.”
She slowly turned her head to look at me, and the surprised look on her face suggested her mind was somewhere else. “Raven left abruptly, and I’m not sure why. I hope she’s okay. Hope it wasn’t because of me.”
It was probably because of Stasia, but I didn’t tell her that. “Don’t worry about her.”
“Hard not to. She’s my sister.”
The annoyance sank in my skin like a sharp knife puncturing my flesh. That woman would always be the bane of my existence. She would always be in the room with us. Her words would always haunt Melanie with their endless echoes. “Magnus will give her what she needs. Just as I give you what you need.”
That seemed to provide her comfort because she gave a slight nod. “Yeah…you’re probably right.”
Magnus and I met with Napoleon to begin the distribution process.
Then Magnus voiced all his concerns—for the millionth time.
I ignored him.
He came to the palace, joining me outside by the pool. Gilbert brought us scotch and a cheese board. Everything was on the table, and our chairs were turned to the pool, the sun setting but light still in the sky.
Melanie was swimming in the pool, far away and unable to hear us. She was in a revealing bikini with her hair and makeup done, looking like an angel without wings. It was hard for me to take my eyes off her—like always.
Magnus stared at the pool for a long time, his glass in one hand. “How’s the new butler?”
I shrugged.
“The palace looks the same.”
“Most of the blood was on the third floor.” I turned to him. “You took care of Jeremy?”
He nodded. “Last week.”
I would have done the dirty work myself, but hunting him down wasn’t a good utilization of my time, not when it would take me away from Melanie.
“I’m sorry about Gilbert.”
I looked at my brother again.
“He worked for you for a long time.”
It’d been a couple weeks since he passed away, but it was still hard to think about. He had been the closest thing to family that I had besides Magnus. He was loyal—always. I knew the reason he died was because of his feelings for me. If they hadn’t been a factor, he would have made the pragmatic decision to save his own ass. His feelings never bothered me, but now I wondered if I should have let him go once he had issues with Melanie. It obviously had had an effect on his work. And he’d still be alive.
Magnus continued to watch me. “I can tell it’s affected you. I’m here…if you need to talk.”
All I did was shake my head. I didn’t talk about things like that to anyone—except Melanie. “You know what I want to talk about?” My gaze left the pool and stared at him head on. “Raven. That’s what I want to talk about.”
Magnus immediately tightened in unease, hearing the rage in my voice.
“She came into my fucking house and brought my woman to tears.”
He looked away.
“Asshole, I’m talking to you.”
He gave a loud sigh in frustration then turned back to me.
“If she does that shit again, she can’t leave the camp. Understand me?”
All he did was stare.
“Fucking bullshit.” I grabbed my glass and took a drink, turning my gaze back to the pool
once more, my anger slowly fading away when I saw Melanie look at the grounds with her drink in hand, oblivious to the tension between us.
Magnus turned quiet, letting the hostility fade away in the silence. But then he picked at the same scab. “We agreed from the very beginning that we would only have small distributors, that we would keep them oppressed so they couldn’t rise up and defy us. But recruiting someone like Napoleon, you’re risking all of that. And who the fuck names themself Napoleon? He’s not even European.”
I kept my eyes on Melanie, practically tuning him out. “We’re expanding. That’s how it works.”
“There’re a lot of other ways to do that…”
I turned to him and couldn’t bite back my retort. “Who’s in charge? Me or you? Better yet, how many times do I have to ask you this question?”
Magnus held my gaze with his own anger then looked away.
Melanie got out of the pool and wrapped herself in the towel waiting for her at the edge. Her hair was pulled back into a bun with gold hoops in her lobes, looking like royalty even when she was swimming.
I watched her round the pool and approach, my heart slowing down more and more at the sight of her. Even from a distance, she gave me peace. She gave slow rivers. Tall mountains. Gentle breezes. Leaves that turned gold in the fall and green in the spring. “Most beautiful woman in the world, isn’t she?”
Instead of holding his tongue, Magnus chose to piss me off. “I disagree.”
I would have looked at him if my gaze weren’t already entranced. I would have grown furious if my heart weren’t embedded in calm. I would have given a damn if I weren’t too busy giving a damn about the gorgeous woman who approached me.
Chérie.
She came to me, wrapped in her towel, and immediately helped herself to my lap before she picked up a slice of cheese off the cheeseboard.
My arms immediately enveloped her and brought her in for a kiss, my hands anxious to touch her despite the wetness and the chlorinated smell. My lips moved to her shoulder and pressed a kiss there as well, worshiping her body with my affection.