Page 8 of To Keep A Wolf
“What were you talking about in there? About free will and choice and strength? What are you planning?”
His smile is smug. “You’ll see, darling. Don’t worry. We’re both going to have what we want.”
I doubt that.
One of us might get what we want. But for that to happen, the other must lose everything. I just hope I get to be the one to take it all away.
At home, Jadick hands me off to a guard to be escorted to my room. He claims he keeps them close for my safety so I’m not alone if I get sick, but we all know the truth: I’m a prisoner here. This is my future; to be guarded night and day until I can fulfill whatever purpose Jadick has decided I serve. Maybe someday, he’ll cast me off and let me go. Until then, I’m at his mercy. It’s a cage I chose.
I wait until the guard closes the door behind me. The moment I’m alone, I dig into my bodice for the slip of paper Grey gave me earlier. Its existence is the only reason I didn’t attack Jadick in the car for that stolen kiss onstage.
Gripping the paper between my fingers, I spread it out and read the bits of words scrawled there. Whatever I was expecting, it wasn’t this. Or maybe it was exactly this. I don’t know, but after a third read-through, my heart is pounding, my thoughts are racing, and the nausea that’s plagued me for nearly a week is finally fading as adrenaline takes over.
The handwriting is Grey’s. But the message is, without a doubt, Levi’s.
Do you trust me?
That answer is, without a doubt, I do.
CHAPTER4
The following morning, I sit propped up in bed, pretending to watch the local news coverage of our dinner gala last night. The TV is muted, though, so all I have are the headlines running along the bottom, all of which paint Jadick as some kind of prodigy savior for our town. The screen flicks to a commercial just as my bedroom door clicks open, and my mother slips into my room along with a tray of breakfast. Surprise ripples through me, though I don’t let it show on my face. Not that it matters. She doesn’t look over at me as she moves silently across the thick carpet and sets the tray on the table under the window. Instead of retreating, she takes a seat in the chair beside the tiny table.
“You look pale.”
I give her a withering look. “I’ve been a bit indisposed.”
Her gaze softens but not by much. “The rejection,” she says quietly. Her discerning glance rakes me over. “It’s done then?”
I choke back a stream of obscenities. “Yes, Vicki. It’s done. Great job sabotaging my choices in life. Again.”
Her eyes narrow. “I saved your life,” she says. “And since when do you call me Vicki?”
“Since you stopped acting like my mother and became just someone I know who sometimes betrays me.”
She looks like she wants to take a jab back at me for that one. Instead, she reaches for a piece of toast and begins to butter it. “Any news on Levi?” she asks, and my heart skips a beat.
I flushed the note. She can’t know.
I keep my hostility firmly in place as I say, “Even if there were, do you think I would tell you?”
“You don’t trust me,” she says, and I snort. She ignores that and goes on. “I’m not without feeling. I have sympathy for his plight. He’s alone out there. Probably sick like you.”
“Levi can handle himself,” I mutter.
She gives me a look I can’t dissect. Then she takes a bite of the toast. “You should eat.”
“What do you care?”
“You’re my daughter, Mac.”
I don’t answer.
“Jadick wants to see you,” she says.
When I look up at her, she’s staring at the toast like it contains the answers. Or maybe the problem.
“He sent you to check on me?”
