Page 12 of Bounty

WISTERIA

The icky feeling of sweat trailing down my back wakes me. Daylight shines through the window curtains, and I do the math…I’ve at least slept through the night.Who knows how long I’ve been out.Overwhelming, suffocating heat surrounds me from the front and the back, and I realize I’m in a bed…with two men. Cain McAllister cages me in with his arm, his body pressed against mine.

He abducted me from my job—my former job—and he’s snuggling with me like it never fucking happened. As if we picked back up from six years ago.

His nose is crooked, like someone punched him in the face. I envy whoever got the pleasure of knocking him down a peg. Anger vibrates through me. I never asked to be with these men again. As badly as I want to come home, Ican’t. He can’t just pluck me from my life and expect me to go along with it.

A hand grips his bicep. I recognize the black and white flower tattoo peeking out of the long-sleeve navy Henley and spilling onto smooth, tanned skin.Colin.They never strayed too far from each other. Obviously, that hasn’t changed.

Colin was always the reasonable one. Calm and controlled, whereas Cain was a creature of pure chaos. Maybe Colin can talk some sense into him and convince him to let me go.

Colin and I kept tabs on you. We knew you’d need to return home eventually.

Maybe Cain misspoke. I can’t imagine Colin being okay with this, or wanting to take me home knowing what waits there for me if I return. He may have casted me aside, but he’s still a decent person with a conscience.

I roll over slowly and shimmy my way out from under the blankets, pausing to make sure my two kidnappers remain undisturbed before scooching to the end of the bed. They’re still snoring softly when I slip into the bathroom. After I shut the door, I sit on the closed toilet seat, lamenting my life choices as I try to figure out how I ended up in this clusterfuck.

Aunt Norma and I were ordered to leave six years ago. No trial. No choice. Father Mannix may have changed his mind, but I highly doubt it. He’s a man firm in his principles. He was like a father to me, and he still banished me from Harvest Farms. Somehow the three men who used to be my everything—who wanted nothing to do with me and never responded to my letters—found me. They want to bring me back home, when they know it’s as good as a death sentence.

I jump as the door opens, and Colin’s tall, imposing figure fills the doorway. His black hair reaches his shoulders now. The dimples on his cleanly shaven face stand out as he smirks at me. His self-satisfied grin tells me everything I need to know; he’s in on this with Cain.

He rips away my privacy with his assessing stare, as if he’s taking me apart piece by piece. I don’t like the layer of me he’s exposing, or how he makes me feel.

Colin Garcia.He used to be my rock—in our hardest times, we found strength in each other. He always made me feel safe.Seen. Then he ditched me like a bad habit. He didn’t want anything to do with me for years, so why is he so intent on staring at me now?

I refuse to speak first and turn my head to ignore him. He walks in, crouching down in front of me before he brushes his fingertips over my cheek. I turn into the gesture, momentarily forgetting myself.

Then I remember.

This isn’t the man who snuck into my room to visit me almost every night. He isn’t the knight in shining armor who protected me and made me feel safe. He isn’t the same man he used to be when he took my virginity on a picnic blanket in the woods, under a full moon. He’s the man who didn’t respond to my letters. He led me on and let me down.

“Wisteria, look at me.” His voice and proximity made me quiver once upon a time. Now my body is unsure how to respond.

“Wisteria Jean,” he commands, his timber low as he takes my chin and turns my head. He grips my jaw so I can’t move. “I saidlook at me.I want to see those violet eyes glaring back at me.”

My core clenches at his confidence. The way he seems to own this conversation despite the wrong way it all came to be is oddly attractive. And the feeling of his rough, calloused hands on my skin sends shivers of desire through me.

Colin awoke a fucked up beast in me back on the farm, and no man has ever been able to tame it since.

“That’s a good girl,” he praises me in a deep, decadent tone. Lust burns inside me like a house on fire, and I hate myself for responding to him this way, after he hurt me. “You’re my smart, beautiful girl, just like old times.”

Hearing him refer to the way things were instantly douses cold water on whatever desire I had. He senses the change, switching his tone to a gentler one.

“Say something, Wisteria.”

“What is there to say? We haven't said anything to each other in years. Nothing has changed.” I get up, and face the door. “You abducted me, and I want to go home immediately.”

Colin grabs my waist as I try to bypass him, plastering me to his chest. I crane my neck to see him. He dips his head to smell my hair, then runs his nose down the curve of my jaw and my neck.

“I can’t return to the farm. You know that.”

Unless I want to die, I’m never to set foot on Harvest Farms grounds. He knows that. Cain knows that.

So why are they so determined to do it anyway?

“Circumstances have changed. You’re coming home,” he declares, as if this is a done deal.

“What are you talking about? Maybe I don’t want to come home,” I lie. He knows it, too. Colin’s always been able to see deep inside me, whether I wanted him to or not.

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