Page 10 of Draco

She tensed right up, anger flooding every corner of her mind. “Of course, it is. If it was anything else, you’d give a damn that I don’t want to go back.”

“Why are you so hell-bent on running? You said yourself your father is a good man.” I studied her lovely face and noticed my question seemed to have surprised her. Her eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch, and her full lips parted.

“I…”

I sensed she had nothing. Nothing she was willing to share with me, anyway.

“He has my whole life planned out for me.”

“That doesn’t sound so bad,” I lied. It sounded terrible. But surely she was exaggerating.

Her arms crossed her ribs, and she glared at me once more. “Fine. Let me plan your life to the last detail while knowingnothingabout you. I’m going to choose what you wear, what you eat, who you see, who you’re allowed to talk to, and even who you marry.”

I shook my head. It couldn’t be as bad as she claimed. But her mind whispered that it was all true.

“Just tell him you don’t want that.” It seemed so simple to me.

She glanced away, her arms dropping until her hands were in her lap. Her head lowered and she stared at her fingers in silence as the minutes ticked past.

In her mind, though, she was answering me, saying things she thought I wouldn’t hear because I was just like him. I didn’t get it. I wasn’t hearing her. She’d tried to tell him no. She’d tried to tell him the man he’d chosen for her to marry bored her to death. I got a glimpse of the man’s face. He was a handsome man with light hair and green eyes, but the smirk on his lips also made me certain he was a douche. And in her mind, he acted like she was lucky to have him.

He had that backward. He was lucky to have her.

“It’s just not that easy,” she said finally, her eyes meeting mine once more. “Just like you can’t let me go. It’s not as easy as doing what you want to do, you’re bound by your word, your job. But at least you could quit your job.” Tears sparkled in her eyes, and she blinked them back with a frustrated internal growl. “I can’t just quit being his daughter. That’s why I had to run.” Her mind laid it all out for me. Her plans, all the things she would do and put up with to escape her miserable lot.

I could see firsthand the hands pawing at her, how terrified she’d been in the meat market, but how brave she’d tried to be. I found myself wishing I’d read her there, that I’d touched her mind and found her thoughts. If only I hadn’t been trying to be a gentleman and had justlistenedto her.

It would have made everything a whole hell of a lot easier. I’d have put her on lockdown. I would have made sure not to let her put herself in harm’s way. I would have taken her to a different facility where she could be watched around the clock until we could be certain she wasn’t, in fact, a danger to herself or anyone else, for that matter.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked, her mental image of me appearing to stare her down in what could be disgust, but was more just concern, fear, and the simple fact that I didn’t understand her. She was imposing a very permanent solution to a temporary problem.

“Just trying to figure you out.”

She snorted. “More like trying to figure out how to get me home so you can get paid.” With one hand, she reached out and patted my shoulder. “Don’t worry. My dad has everyone in his pocket. You’re just like everyone else.”

“Obviously, he doesn’t have everybody if people are out to kill you.” I wasn’t going to let her turn shit around on me like that. The whole reason I was even here was because people wanted her dead. Besides, if I just let her go, she’d die without some kind of protection. Did she really plan to live her whole life in secret? Hoping and praying no one would track her down, that no one would ever recognize her? She really wanted her father to never know what happened to her and to take that pain and loss to his grave without an explanation?

Was I the monster here… or was she?

She stretched out and took one of her feet in her hand. It had swelled up a bit, but not very much. I’d hoped rubbing it and to get the blood flowing, as well as warming her up, would keep them from doubling in size, and it appeared to have worked. Her hands smoothed from her arches to the tips of her toes, then back toward her heels and up her ankles.

“Everything okay?” I asked her.

She nodded and pulled her socks and shoes back on. The fire seemed to have warmed her, and her clothing even seemed dry or very close to it.

In her mind, she seemed to be guarding something closely, but I easily pushed through her barriers to see her next plan. She was going to run again.

With a sigh, I began to put out the fire. I didn’t want to be the reason the whole forest burned to the ground, but I also didn’t want her getting too much headway on me. She tied her shoes, watching me out of the corners of her eyes all the while.

“What are you doing?” she asked in a suspicious voice.

I debated telling her the whole truth but decided against it for now. She didn’t trust me, and I wasn’t completely certain I could damage control the situation if I said too much.

“You seem ready to go.” I pulled up a section of moss and began to drag dirt to the fire with the side of my shoe. As the earth showered on the wood, the flames died down, smoking like mad.

She stood up, gave me one last look and said, “I’m sorry. I can’t go back.” With that, she took off.

I sighed, continuing to kick dirt over the last few embers still glowing red hot. My greater responsibility was to the forest at the moment. I could chase her down quickly and easily, but I couldn’t bring back a smoldering forest.

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