Page 34 of Drowning Her

Inside the house, I got my keys from the kitchen counter, then headed to the front door. Maisie followed behind me.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Work.”

“Take me with you.”

I chuckled, shaking my head, making sure she knew how little I thought of her abilities when it came to my line of work.

“Okay, fine,” she shrugged. “I’ll stand in the corner. I won’t get involved.” She stepped closer, lifting her eyes to meet mine. “But don’t leave me here when your brother is clearly trying to get rid of me.”

For a moment, I considered doing exactly what she said. But bringing her with me on a job? That wasn’t going to happen.

I picked her up, hauling her to her bed, finding the restraints, and cuffing one of her wrists. Her jaw dropped.Sawyer wouldn’t do anything to her. He knew what would happen if he did. But she needed to be bound. She thrust herself against the restraints and the urge to do more to her built inside of me, but work called. It was the only thing that cleared my mind, and that was getting harder to do with Maisie. I needed to stay focused.

“What if he hurts me?” she asked. She yanked on the restraints, a fierce pout coming over her bottom lip. “Come on, Wilder. He was waiting for me to leave the house. And now I can’t leave. I can’t run if?—”

I cracked my neck. “He won’t kill you,” I said. “If he touches you, I’ll kill him.” I bent forward, and she sucked a breath into her chest. “I’m the only one who will touch you like that. And trust me, Maisie. When I want you dead, you’ll be dead.”

I left her like that. Work was calling me.

Chapter 12

Wilder

The next morning,Forrest was in the Calving Barn waiting for me. He pointed to a chart on his laptop. “You see this?” He drew his finger across the jagged line, an upward trend. “If your brother is right, then this is good. In a few months, we can expand. Open up another farm. Perhaps on the other side of the country. Whoever finishes the Feldman Trial first can lead it, and then?—”

“Why not both of us?” I asked. Forrest clenched his jaw. He had taught us at a young age not to interrupt him, but with Maisie constantly cutting me off at home, I had forgotten.

“Are you actually suggesting that?” Forrest asked.

He knew what I was saying.

He closed the laptop, then stood, putting a hand on my back. “Son, if I thought you could both lead, I would jump at that chance. It would certainly eliminate some of our problems.” His shoulders sank. “But that’s not part of how our family handles the line of succession, and I’m not going to be the first one to break with tradition.It’s how I got to where I am. It’s how one of you will lead. Now, if you or Sawyer decide to change the course of the Trial, then that is your decision.”

I took a deep breath. “The winner could handle the other farm. The loser could watch over this farm,” I explained.

“That’s funny,” Forrest laughed. “I’mgoing to watch over this farm.”

I bent forward. That wasn’t how we handled the line of succession either. “Not?—”

“How is that Maisie girl? Have you been getting along?” he asked, changing the subject. I nodded my head, trying to find the words to be truthful without saying anything substantial.

“She’s fine,” I said. Forrest had taught me to never lie. There were ways to admit the truth without saying anything real. But by the look in his eyes, I knew he could read exactly what I was actually saying.

I didn’t understand anything when it came to Maisie, and that was an issue.

We walked together, heading back to my house through the grass. “Have you consummated the marriage yet?”

I gritted my teeth. Why was he obsessed with that?

“It was a month before I slept with your mother,” he said. “Nine months later, you were born.” Did he want a grandchild, then? Was that it? “If she doesn’t produce, we can find another. But Maisie cleans up, doesn’t she?”

Maisie sat in the window, reading a book, her red-orange hair shining from the sun in the window. Loose jeans on her calves. A v-neck shirt that hinted at her small breasts. Her fingertips teased the dip in her shirt as she ran her fingers over her skin absentmindedly.

I balled my hands into fists, a vein throbbing in my neck.

“Did you do anything to her?” I asked.

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