Magnate (Acquisition Series Book 2) (12 page)

“I’m sorry, Teddy.”

“It’s not your fault.” He glared at his brother but then his expression softened. “If I told you he wasn’t like this, not really, would you believe me?”

I didn’t want to give him the bad news—I already knew this was the real Vinemont.

“Ride safe.” I gave him a weak smile before walking to the black sedan. I tossed the helmet into the back and sank into the passenger side before slamming the door shut.

“Did you do this?” I asked as he pulled from the curb.

“Do what?” Vinemont sighed and waited for Teddy to ride out ahead of him.

“Burn down my house.”

He laughed, the sound filling the car’s interior and making me flinch. “Are you still laying your father’s crimes at my feet?”

“What?” I glanced back at the ruined house that held so many memories for me, good and bad. “Are you saying my father did it?”

“Oh, look who finally figured something out. Well done, Stella, really. I’d clap, but as you can see, I’m driving.” His sneer had me looking away, looking at anything but him. “You don’t believe me?”

“I didn’t say that.” After what my father had done to me, I wouldn’t put anything past him.

“Money, Stella. Insurance money, to be exact. He torched it all. He cashed in on that house, just like he cashed in on you.”

He drove around the square and turned onto the highway that led back to my prison. My breathing turned shallow as I thought of everything that had happened to me in the burned-out husk behind me, how the last time I’d left it, I thought I was doing it for all the right reasons. The betrayals layered on betrayals began to suffocate me like dirt on my grave, and I couldn’t get enough air. The metal and glass closed in on me, and I clamped my eyes shut, trying to ward off my rising panic.

“Stella?” Vinemont’s voice came through like we were at opposite ends of a tin can telephone.

I gulped in more air, trying to stay alive, to breathe. I just had to make it to the next moment, to keep going to the next and the next until they all fell over like a long line of dominoes, and at the end was freedom,
my
freedom. But my thoughts began to dim and I still couldn’t get enough air.

“Stella!”

The car stopped and hands were on my shoulders, pulling me out and into the cold winter wind.

“Breathe, Stella. Slowly. Slowly.”

I opened my eyes and stared up into Vinemont’s face. I staggered back, shrinking away from him even as something in me reacted to the worry in his eyes. I shook my head. He was only worried I wouldn’t be able to win for him. He would violate me. They all would. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t see. I stumbled and fell back against the passenger door as he advanced.

“No,” I croaked.

“Stella, please.” His voice, so different from just a few moments ago, was soaked in the same pain that burned in my lungs, in my mind.

He took another step. I finally got my breath and used it to scream. I screamed and screamed, the sound ripped from my throat and piercing the air. Each peel of despair carried every horror, every unwanted touch, every painful lash, and every desolate thought. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t be free, but I could scream. I screamed until I crumpled. He caught me in his arms and crushed me to his chest as my lungs gave out, the last shriek dying on the wind as he held me close.

No one heard. Only the desolate fields, the withered scarecrows, and Vinemont.

Chapter Thirteen

Stella

I couldn’t sleep
. The last full night of rest I’d gotten was when Vinemont had brought me home after my meltdown on the roadside. That restful night had more to do with a dose of narcotics from the family doctor than anything else. I hadn’t cared about being drugged. I was emptied out. Every last bit of me had been screamed into the cold air as my tormentor held me.

But the trial was here. Lucius had returned from Cuba the previous night. I knew he would. There was no escape for me. I would be abused, likely many times over, and it would start today. The sun had risen an hour ago, the rays illuminating the quilts, each one telling a story I didn’t care to hear.

Renee was still missing. Her absence added to the long list of disappointments already lodged in my heart. I’d stopped by her room several times, but she was never there. Her bed was always neatly made. I’d peered at the stairs to the third floor, and even taken a few steps once before Laura hurried down the hall and shook her head, warning in her eyes. After that, I’d stopped asking about Renee.

A knock at my door made me turn my head. “Yes?” My voice was scratchy.

“It’s time.” Lucius didn’t barge in and order me around. He stayed out of sight.

“I’m coming.”

“Downstairs in an hour. Dress warm, and wear comfortable shoes.”

Before I could get in a snide reply, his footsteps were already retreating down the hallway.
Dress warm
.

I rose and showered, taking my time to feel every bit of the hot water. I ignored the paleness of my face in the mirror, the shake in my hands as I brushed my hair. Dressing as instructed, I donned a dark green sweater, black puffer jacket, jeans, and boots. I couldn’t shake the feeling I was dressing myself for my own funeral. I didn’t bother with makeup. I knelt next to my nightstand and took out the knife. The unyielding metal gave me an odd sense of comfort and served an even more basic purpose—defense. I turned the blade over and over in my hands before I wrapped the tape around it and shoved it down into my boot.

I met Lucius and Vinemont downstairs in the breakfast room. Lucius had dressed warmly in a black sweater and jeans, and Vinemont wore his usual work attire. Neither man looked at me.

I took my seat and picked at my food. If I ate a bite, I was sure it would come right back up. Lucius didn’t seem particularly hungry either, and Vinemont only drank coffee.

I stopped even attempting to look interested, laying my fork down and sitting back in my chair. “I hate the waiting. Let’s go.”

Lucius nodded in agreement and stood. Vinemont ignored him, staring straight ahead as if he watched a ghost known only to him. I rose and followed Lucius out of the dining room and down the hall. In the foyer, he turned, his face more solemn than I’d ever seen it. There wasn’t so much as a hint of amusement or his acerbic wit. Only focus.

His seriousness scared me more than anything. I couldn’t control the shudder that went through me.

He grabbed my hands and brought them to his chest. “You can do this. We can do this, okay? Remember what I said to you in Cuba? All of it still stands. You just have to get through this.”

I lifted my eyes to his. “And then I have to get through the next, and the next? What are the last two, Lucius? Are you going to flay my skin from my body? Scar me beyond recognition? What?”

“One thing at a time. And, no. None of those things. This one is…”

“The worst?” I finished for him.

“I think so. But I don’t know what Cal is planning for the other two.” He gripped my neck and pulled me toward him before dropping a kiss on the top of my head. “Trust me. We’ll get through it. We’ll get through all of them.”

I wanted to be heartened, to take his words as some sort of comfort. But they were hollow. Getting through this trial was my cross to bear, not his. I would be crucified right along with the other two Acquisitions while Lucius threw dice at my feet.

I closed my eyes and remembered my father. The way he was before his arrest, before his trial, before any infernal contracts. The one that had held me as I cried for my mother on nights too numerous to count. The one who’d saved me from my own attempt at self annihilation. The one who, even as I felt the sting of his deceit, still lived in my heart. I needed my loving father there, giving me courage to do what I had to do, even if he was nothing more than a specter haunting my memories.

Farns rolled a couple of suitcases through the foyer, jarring me from my thoughts. I followed him onto the porch.

“I hope your trip isn’t long.” He smiled down at me, clueless about what was going to happen. If he’d known, he never would have smiled like that.

I hugged him. Just an instinct. He made a surprised noise and hugged me back.

“Thanks, Farns. I just needed…” I stepped away from him. “Just thanks.”

“Anytime, miss.” Pink crept into his paper thin cheeks.

“Stella?” Vinemont appeared as Lucius took the bags down to Luke, the driver. “A word?” I couldn’t read him—asking or intimidating all seemed to have merged into one.

Farns shuffled past him and into the house.

“What?” I didn’t move toward him. I wouldn’t.

He walked out to me, the sun highlighting his tired eyes and sunken cheeks. He looked like he hadn’t slept or eaten in days. When he stuffed his hands in his pockets, the muscles in his forearms flexed, making the vines writhe. “I just wanted to say, not that it matters, not that it will help…” He sighed, as if having trouble grabbing ahold of his thoughts as they flittered away before him. “I would gladly take your place if I could. But I can’t. And I need you to get through this. And I need…”

“What?” I asked again. He’d already taken so much, and now he was asking for even more. That connection between us, the one I’d felt so strongly, was withered now, dead on the vine. He couldn’t ask any more of me. But I had to know, all the same.

“Stella?” Lucius called, but had the good sense to stay by the car.

I held Vinemont’s gaze, demanding he finish his thought. “What else do you need from me?”

“I need you to come back to me.” His words were so soft and low I almost missed them.

I stared at him and tried to misinterpret his words, tried to make it seem like he wanted me to come back so the Acquisition could continue and the Vinemonts could win. But seeing his eyes, and the sadness and pain welling in them, I knew it wasn’t that. He wanted me to come back to him. No, he
needed
it. He’d only given me glimpses of this man—the one who hurt, who felt, who needed. And now he’d laid himself bare.

“Stella. We have to go. Come on.”

Lucius’ irritated command knocked me out of my reverie. I did have to go. I had an appointment to keep, one that would leave me scarred and broken for the rest of my life. And the reason I had to go was this man, the one whose regretful eyes and words were nothing compared to the pain I was about to feel. It took everything in me, but I wasn’t going to help the spider anymore. I wasn’t going to hasten my own downfall by jumping into his web. Not again.

I turned without a word and hurried down the stairs. Luke helped me into the back seat and closed the door. I didn’t look at Vinemont, even though I knew he hadn’t moved, his gaze still seeking me out even behind the privacy glass. Lucius slid in and settled next to me as Luke drove away. I kept my eyes down, never turning back.

Lucius and I didn’t speak as we drove steadily northward. He took some calls, half of them conducted in Spanish as we cruised along the smooth pavement. My hands couldn’t stay still, worrying away at each other or twisting the hem of my sweater. Eventually, Lucius reached out mid-conversation and snagged my right hand in his, pulling it over onto his thigh as he kept talking about sugar cane crops and the costs of production.

I let him keep it. I could worry away on the inside just as well with or without that hand. I kept trying to clear my mind. Thinking about Vinemont’s words or, alternatively, replaying Renee’s story of hypothermia and unforgivable violations only made the fear roar louder than my hatred. I wanted the hatred to win out, to suffocate my fear until I was nothing but a raging flame of anger. Even as I tried to master it, the dread seeped in, coloring every thought with a dirty film.

The landscape changed during the drive, the trees getting thicker as more pines mixed in with the dormant oaks and hardwoods. We were in the middle of national forest land when Luke pulled off the interstate onto a two-lane highway. Our route took us farther into the woods, the bleak trees creeping up close to the road on either side.

Lucius tapped his phone off, finally ending a particularly heated call with Javier. He gave my hand a light squeeze but didn’t look at me.

After another half hour, Luke turned into a paved lane blocked by a gate similar to that on the Vinemont property. At the top of each door was a stag, its horns magnificent and overdone. Luke rolled down his window and spoke to the attendant standing out front. Then we passed through the gate and into the encroaching woods. The drive meandered through rolling hills, the sun shining with ease through the barren trees.

Before long, we spied the glint of a car ahead of us, and we joined what seemed to be a long procession winding along the narrow drive. Eventually, the woods opened into a wide clearing, and a massive log structure rose from the side of a hill. It was enormous, the size of a small hotel, out in the middle of nowhere. The roof had several apexes, each one an A-frame with a large sheet of glass enclosing the front of the house. The oak logs were rustic, but the glass was modern, glinting in the early afternoon sun.

The cars moved in an orderly row, each pausing at a valet station before parking in a field off to the right. Luke pulled to the front of the line, and the valet greeted us and opened our doors. I stepped out into the bitter air and stuffed my hands in my pockets. I didn’t want anyone to touch me.

Lucius walked around to me after telling Luke to bring up the bags.

We climbed the stairs behind an elderly couple who had a hard time managing it. Neither Lucius nor I offered to assist. If they fell down and broke their necks, it was all the better for me as far as I was concerned.

We made it to the upper deck where all the windows opened out onto the landscape. I looked back and realized the house was situated on the highest ridge of the area, giving an expansive vista of the forest beyond.

“Come in, come in.” Cal’s voice had me slowing my pace. I could stand the frigid air more than I could stand his presence.

“Sheriff Wood! Welcome. Glad you could make it.” Cal rattled off names with his usual exuberance as the greeting line moved along.

The elderly couple finally made it into the house through a pair of rustic wood and metal front doors. Lucius put a hand on my lower back and guided me forward. Cal, wearing a ridiculous Christmas sweater, gripped my upper arms and air kissed me on each cheek.

“So nice to see you again, Stella. Lucius, welcome.”

Thankfully, Cal went on greeting the people behind us so we slipped in without any more fanfare. The house was a work of art—beams in a lattice work across the high ceiling, and glass giving a full 180-degree view of the ridges and valleys in the distance.

People were everywhere, talking, drinking, and mingling. The sound system played jaunty Christmas tunes as I caught pieces of conversations about the “fun of the last Acquisition Christmas trial” and “what does Cal have up his sleeve for this year?” My stomach churned as they crowed about what a good time they intended to have over the weekend.

I spotted Gavin ahead, his tall frame giving him a boost above most of the surrounding guests. Surging forward, I pushed through to him.

“Stella.” He hugged me.

“Hi.”

“I can’t exactly say I’m glad you made it.” He pulled me away and shook his head, the dark circles under his eyes telling me he hadn’t slept, either. “But, if we have to be here, at least we’re together.”

“You aren’t together.” Lucius caught up to me. “Bob, get your Acquisition on a fucking leash, would you?”

Bob began stuttering, his face turning red almost instantly. “Gavin. Stop talking to her. She’s the enemy.”

Gavin bent down by my ear and quickly whispered. “I got your back.”

He straightened and moved away toward Bob before I could reciprocate. I didn’t know if it would be true, me saying I had his back, but I would do my best.

“What did he say?” Lucius maneuvered us toward another set of stairs with an attendant at the top.

“Nothing.”

“Lucius?” A blonde woman in skin-tight jeans and a thin white sweater rested her hand on Lucius’ arm.

“Oh, hey…”

It was obvious he couldn’t remember her name, but that didn’t stop her. “I’d heard you’d somehow jumped into the running. It’s been a while. What, last year sometime?” Her voice dropped to as much of a husky whisper as possible to still be heard over the multitude of other people chatting.

Lucius nodded. “Yeah, I think that’s right. I had a great time.”

I stared at him as the lies rolled off his tongue. He clearly had no clue who she was or when he’d fucked her.