Page 47 of A Lady's Heart
Chapter Ten
Justin wasn’t sure at this point what his options were, and the ones that popped to mind first were bad and worse.
He knew what he wanted—Mandy.
But as she wandered at his side totally oblivious to their surroundings, he knew the answer wasn’t as cut and dried as that.
Impulsively he caught her fingers in his. “Come on. I’m taking you for a ride.”
She offered a soft laugh. “I’m in your capable hands.”
Capable.Ha. A bear barely out of her teens had managed to elude him and his trackers. Tyler was going to laugh his ass off when he heard, and Caroline—
God, she’d never let him live this one down.
“I’m very impressed with your sister, by the way.” He offered after popping Mandy in the Jeep and heading out of town. “Not many people can evade Cole, or the Takhini pack, for that matter.”
“Danielle really did do a good job, didn’t she? But maybe she had a few tricks you weren’t expecting,” Mandy excused him
“Really? Are you trying to tell me theghostin ghost bear means you can actually disappear?”
She smiled. “No, but I remember playing hide-and-go-seek with her before I moved away, and she was always a champion hider when motivated.”
They sat in silence, the switchbacks of the road taking them higher and higher until they reached the point where they were looking over three different valleys. Mountains soared upward, the pale blue of the sky painted with delicate clouds.
He turned the Jeep into a lookout, and parked, joining Mandy at the railing where the entire valley lay at their feet.
“Danielle wants me to go back to the island.”
“I heard.”
She kept staring over the land. “She wants me to go back and take over the leadership—my Nana was in charge, and she’s passed away.”
He stifled his uncharitable thoughts about her grandmother, and focused on the idea Mandy might go away. Justin’s heart fell to somewhere around his feet. “I’m sorry for your loss,” he forced out as politely as possible.
Mandy offered him a sad smile. “Thank you, but I said goodbye to her years ago.”
Justin laid a hand on her shoulder, needing to touch her. “So. What do you want to do? Do you want to rule?”
“Youknew?”
He looked guilty for a moment. “Cole and I just google-fu’d the hell out of Kodiak Island using Danielle’s and Susanna’s names as an additional reference. Right around when you married Todd, the leadership was up for debate. Your family, and one other. Yours turned out to have the most direct bloodline to the ghost bears who settled the island.”
“We knew,” she admitted. “Both the potential families knew our line was the one, but then the bear council put my name with Todd’s for getting married, and everything changed.”
Justin didn’t understand. “I assume Todd pulled strings to get himself hitched to you. Why didn’t the power-hungry bastard insist you stay on the island so he could take over?”
“Because he bribed the committee to marry me for mytitle. He had no idea I could potentially rule the entire island.”
“Jeez, Mandy.”
She shrugged. “Arranged marriages are the norm in bear society, you know that. If Todd had been a decent man, everything would have turned out differently, but at the start, we couldn’t be sure.”
Justin should’ve kept his mouth shut, but he simply couldn’t. “I don’t think much of your family for letting you make that sacrifice.”
“It wasn’t my sisters’ fault.” Mandy was quick to defend them. “But Nana…” She sighed before lifting sad eyes to meet his. “I’ve had moments I think ill of her, but I suppose she did what she thought was best for the people, and didn’t question too hard when I chose to stay with Todd.”
Mandy was too forgiving. Justin was ready to make heads fly on her behalf. He took a deep breath and shoved his anger aside so he could focus on being a rock for Mandy, here and now.
