Page 16 of Bounty

Wisteria falls asleep, her face squished against the glass. Soon, we’ll be home, the place where it all started.

Together, forever. We thrive.

Chapter Seven

JUDE

Christmas Day

My phone vibrates.

Cain: We're ten minutes out. She’s still sleeping the sedative off. Want us to wake her up?

Me: No. Let her sleep. She’ll need her rest.

Cain updated me as soon as he could about the attack. I didn’t think they would go so far as to hurt her, assuming they would rather take her alive.

But leveling a building with explosives sends a message. They want her dead or alive. Unfortunately for them, they won’t get her either way.

She belongs to us.

I pace my office, stopping at the mirror to fix my navy sweater and run my hands through my coppery-red hair. What will she think of me? She could barely stand me before she left, and then after what I did to her…what I said to her…

It’s no use thinking about the past. Wisteria Jean is going to have to learn to like me, whether she hates me or not. Her safety depends on it.

I hear the alert for the gate opening, and make my way to the front of the compound. My house is toward the back, so they’re just parking when I arrive. My boots crunch the gravel, and my heart is caught in my throat.

Wisteria Jeanspent six years on her own, without us. I’m not sure what to expect. She didn’t have any social media accounts, keeping a low profile for the most part. I haven’t seen her face in years. Colin and Cain always offered to take me with them when they’d visit to check on her over the years, but I always declined. Their text updates had to be enough…

Seeing her—whether in a picture or from a distance—would have been too much of a temptation, regardless of how long we were apart.

I stop at the car’s back door, peering in to find her asleep with her cheek pressed on the glass. Even in such a ridiculous pose, she’s breathtaking. Beautiful dark blond hair. Pouty lips. Perfect skin and teeth. Wisteria Jean could choke me with her beauty, and I’d give up every last breath just to get an eyeful of her.

“Wake up, Wisteria. We’re home,” Colin says as he leans over the seat and gently strokes his thumb over her cheeks.

She yawns, blinking the sleep from her eyes. She smiles at Colin, and jealousy hits me like a sack of bricks. She always wanted him. Even Cain. Them, but never me. I want to break his fucking thumb off, but I restrain myself, keeping calm and controlling my emotions.

I open her door, and she whips her head around, flinching when she sees me. Her mouth drops, as if she’s shocked to see me…on my own farm. I offer her a hand, and she hesitantly takes it, wincing when I tighten my grip and pull her out of her seat. Her violet eyes spark with fury, and I look forward to stompingthat ember out. She’ll know her place soon enough, and who’s in charge.

The blanket falls to the gravel lot, revealing her luscious curves, the swell of her breasts. Even under a truck stop hoodie, I can tell she’s going to be trouble.

“Welcome home, Wisteria Jean Flowers,” I say as I kiss the back of her hand. “Sister, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”

She picks up on the sarcasm, the barb behind the greeting. I’m not her stepbrother anymore,technically, but my dad still considers her one of his children. On the farm, we’re all his children.

“I wish I could say the same,” she sighs, looking at everything but me, avoiding my gaze like the plague.

I squeeze her hand harder until she winces again, trying to get her to look at me. She rips her hand from mine and angles herself away from me.

“Come on, let’s get you settled,” Colin says, ever the peacekeeper. “You can sleep for a couple hours and get cleaned up before dinner.”

“You’ll be staying with us in our house,” I inform her.

Our house is where she’ll be safest. And it will serve as a sign to every other man on this compound that she’s off limits.

Grabbing her elbow, I pull her along the road. She drags her feet at first, but when I grip harder, she picks up her pace. The house I had built after she left is right by the lake tucked into the tree line, one of her favorite spots growing up. I look down at her, and I can’t help but smirk when she meets my eyes, as if she felt my gaze bore into her.

Will she know I built this house for her? That I never lost hope she'd return to us?

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