Page 59 of Provocation (Temptation 3)

“And will anyone else be in the room with me? Besides…him?”

Agent Curran slowly shook his head. “I’d hoped to arrange a meeting between glass, but this is his request. A face-to-face meeting. Alone.”

“I see.”

I stepped toward the bay windows overlooking the back yard, watching as Imogene and Eli kicked a soccer ball around.

“You can’t seriously be considering this, Jules,” Wes said softly, touching a hand to my shoulder. “Please. Don’t you remember everything he did?”

I whirled around, eyes on fire as I leaned toward him. “You think I don’t remember all the shit he put me through? I live with the memories every second of my life, Wes. Every…fucking…second. And while I appreciate your concern, this isn’t your choice.” I swung my stare toward Lachlan. “Or yours.”

“But—” Wes and Lachlan said at the same time.

“No.” I pinned Wes with a glare. “You should know better than anyone precisely why this needs to be my choice. For years, that sick bastard took every single decision away from me. I didn’t get to choose what to wear. How to style my hair. What to eat.” I threw my hands up in frustration. “Hell, I didn’t even get to choose to get pregnant. He stole all that from me.”

I swallowed hard past the painful lump forming in my throat, pushing down the emotions bubbling to the surface.

“So this needs to be my decision. And mine alone.”

I glowered at Wes and Lachlan, then returned my attention to Agent Curran.

“When will this take place?”

“At your convenience. We’ll need a few days to prepare you. I’m hoping you won’t need to spend much time with him. Just enough to satisfy him, then I’ll come in and try to get the information. Hopefully seeing you will…soften him up a little, if that makes sense.”

I nodded. “Knowing Nick, it makes perfect sense.”

After all, it was Nick’s weakness for me that caused him to drop his defenses long enough for me to fight back, allowing me to escape when I was confident he was about to kill me.

I turned my gaze back out the windows, a sad smile pulling on my lips as I watched my daughter play with Eli. So carefree. So innocent. So happy.

For years, all I wanted for both Imogene and myself was to finally be able to put the past behind us. To be free from the grip he still had on us, even from behind bars.

If agreeing to this had the potential to do just that, I didn’t have a choice.

Turning back toward Agent Curran, I nodded. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

He exhaled a relieved breath, advancing and taking my hand in his, shaking it. “Thank you, Ms. Prescott. You don’t know how much I appreciate this.”

He held my gaze a moment, then dropped his hold, looking at Wes and Lachlan.

“And I promise both of you, every security protocol will be in place. No harm will come to Julia.”

Lachlan leveled a harsh stare on him. “You’d better make bloody sure it doesn’t.”

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