Page 49 of Freedom Mine
“Five. Drekk, Alli, it could have been five thousand and it wouldn’t have outweighed one, not when the one was you.”
She stood there, her mouth open. Well, she’d asked for the truth.
“Your hands were bound and I didn’t like how the other buyers looked at you. You were dirty and headed to gods-know-where to be used and. . .” His fists clenched and he had to turn away, afraid he’d say the wrong thing. Some control returned, but not enough. “I had no choice,” he added, barely above a whisper.
“There was nothing special about me. You should have left me,” she said, sounding so utterly lost right now.
He understood what it felt like to be lost, to not know where you belonged or why you survived when others didn’t. The universe picked and chose, without logic or heart, those who would live and those who would die.
“Nothing special?” he repeated her words, as he looked toward the heavens. Hells, she didn’t see her own worth.
Knowing how he felt about her, truly felt, would only make everything worse. If he allowed anything to happen between them, she’d come to hate him in time. He was a slave owner, pure and simple, the embodiment of what all slaves hated. No matter how noble his work here was, the fact was, she and the others weren’t free, and he controlled their fate every time he made a decision, especially one as selfish as buying a woman using money that had been earmarked to pay the bills and keep them safe from the creditors a bit longer, to give them a chance at true freedom.
She stood there, beautiful, strong, determined. “Why, Kayo?” she said in a voice so soft that it burrowed into his soul.
“Because you’re mine!” he shouted, before storming off.
At the time, he hadn’t truly understood why he had such a need to buy her, but he always followed his instincts. A part of him had known she was meant for him. He just never realized he’d fall for her.
