Page 9 of Love Me Back
Carson turned to look at me. “No. It wasn’t a snake.” The cold look on Carson’s face told me he thought this was done by a human not an animal. It only confirmed what I suspected. A stone settled into the pit of my stomach. I had no choice. I had tocall my uncle.
I nodded, even though I knew Carson couldn’t see it. He had returned his focus to his brother. I slipped out of the room. In the hall, King, Emerson, and Winchester were huddled together. Addie sat in a chair across the hall. My eyes made contact with hers. I felt her anger, but it didn’t feel directed at me. I didn’t smile. I didn’t try to appease her with a false sense of hope.
Instead, I did nothing but slip away. Outside in the parking lot, I found a quiet corner and pulled out my phone. Dialing the number I knew by heart, I listened to it ring.
“Yessica, to what do I owe the pleasure?” I shook my head at his voice. Despite being born in America and given an American name, my uncle insisted on pronouncing it differently.
“What did you do?”
“You have to be more specific,Yessica.”
“Grayson Powell was thrown from his horse today. He is in the hospital, unconscious. If I find out that you had anything to do with this—”
“Men fall from horses every day. Why do you assume this has anything to do with me?”
“Because any time trouble is brewing, you aren’t far behind,” I growled.
“The war that is brewing has nothing to do with me. I can assure you of that.”
“Bullshit.”
“Remember who you are speaking to,sobrina,” he snarled at my disrespect.
“Remember who you are speaking to. If I find out you had anything at all to do with hurting him—”
“What does he mean to you?”
That stopped me in my tracks. I could almost see my uncle’s narrowed gaze as he assessed me, thinking he could read my thoughts. He was never any good at that. It was the reason he feared me. He never knew what I would do. How I would respond. I was a wild card, and if there was one thing my uncle hated, it was a wild card.
He may have had my father and brother under his thumb and by default, control over my mother and sister with his hold on my family. But I was different. That was why I left. And why he let me go.
“He is a friend.”
Chapter Four
Jessie
Silence followed my declaration. I wasn’t fooling my uncle. I knew the way I said it let him know Grayson was more than a friend. I didn’t care at that moment.
“Grayson Powell is well-known for the horses he trains. He would be a powerful ally to this family.”
I didn’t answer him. I ground my teeth as I waited for him to finish. I could almost hear the gears turning in his mind.
“It is time for you to settle down,Yessica. Start a family,” he said.
My silence continued. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of arguing with him. He knew why I wouldn’t settle down. I told him before I left that I would never let him use me to further his business.
I chose not to have a family so they couldn’t be used as pawns the way my siblings were. Not just by my uncle, but by his enemies. The only reason I had never been bothered was because I made sure everyone in the underworld knew that I meant nothing to my uncle.
Hurting me would not impact him in any way. He wouldn’t pay a ransom if I were kidnapped. He wouldn’t mourn at my grave if I were killed. And he certainly wouldn’t rally an army to rescue me.
Did I believe all of that?
No.
But I made sure everyone else did.
“I assure you,Yessica, I had nothing to do with the man’s accident.”
