Page 66 of The Gambler's Prize
“Good. There’s one more thing you need to know,” he says, voice gentle again. “They made you gamble. You didn’t know what you were doing.”
He takes a piece of paper from his pocket. It’s a contract for thirty years indentured labor, signed by Hevra. And by me. My breath spirals in my chest. I have no memory of signing that. Thirtyyears? So he was just using my vanity? He was never attracted to me? Or maybe he was, which would’ve made the thirty years even more unbearable.
I’m such a fool.
“Hey, hey, relax.”
Grimes words come from far away, and his face blurs before my eyes, and he’s making me put my head between my knees and take deep breaths. His big palm rests in the middle of my back, radiating comforting heat, bringing me back to reality.
Look,” he says.
I look up. Grimes tears the contract into pieces before my eyes.
“You’re safe, all right?” he says. “I’ve got you.”
Tears spill from my eyes and I’m too exhausted to stop them or hide them. Grimes brushes them away with his fingertip, his eyes burning with emotion. He studies my face as though he’s looking for some answer there, but he hasn’t told me the question.
“There’s something else I need to do,” he says.
He takes another sheet of paper from his pocket. It’s the contract between the two of us that I signed all those weeks ago at the casino. The one giving him two years of my life. As I watch, he rips it into pieces.
“Boss, are you serious? I’m free?”
“Of course you’re free. And you can stop calling me Boss now.”
I cover my face with my hands. This is all too much. I have my life back. I don’t have to stay with Grimes. But fuck, I want to. His eyebrow is still covered with plaster. His huge frame moves slowly, with barely concealed winces, as though his body has been battered as well as his broken nose. He must have taken a serious beating saving me from Hevra and his friends, but he hasn’t complained once, totally focused on my illness. He acts as though his own pain isn’t worth mentioning.
Of course, I’m still a little weirded out by his revenge plan. But the fact is that he came through for me when it mattered. He risked his life to save mine, even after I walked away from him and told him I wanted nothing to do with him. His expression as he looks at me now shows how terrified he was when he feared I wouldn’t make it.
So yeah, it might make me needy and pathetic, but I want to stay with him. I want to stay with the person looking at me as though he would’ve been lost if he hadn’t been able to save me. But I’m too scared to say that. Would he even want me? He doesn’t know the truth about me.
“I need to tell you something,” I say through my fingers. “I’m… I’m half Callinthen.”
“I figured,” he says.
Thatit? I built myself up for my big confession, and that’s all he has to say? I just admitted to being his enemy. Most people believe my half-Vennan lie without question. But he’s looking at me indulgently, like I’m a little kid who thinks they can outsmart the adults.
“How’d you figure it out?” I ask.
“You were way too comfortable with hot air balloons,” he says, smug in his deduction.
“Compared to someone who’s scared, I guess,” I say, recovering my poise enough to tease.
He cocks an eyebrow. “Does that refer to me?”
“Maybe.”
“Careful. You’re getting above yourself since I tore up that contract.” He brushes his big boxer’s knuckles across my cheekbone, soft as a feather. His touch sends a flurry of warmth through my whole body.
“Don’t worry, you’re still the boss around here,” I say.
He laughs and gets all flustered at the same time. Worrying about me trying to seduce him again. Worrying more about his ability to resist. That feeds my ego. The flicker of desire in his eyes is enough for me; I know he wants me. I don’t need anything more right now.
“Did I ever tell you that my father hates me?” I say, settling back against the pillows. Now that I’m free, I feel so much lighter. I want to tell Grimes everything.
“You may have mentioned that he wasn’t father of the year,” Grimes says, with a dark, protective scowl that makes my heart skitter.
“Well, it’s a little worse than that. Hereallyhates me. And that’s why, because my mother was Callinthen and she left him.Left him with me. He hated himself for being weak enough to fall for an enemy.”
