Page 110 of Sovereign

“What are you doing here, redbird?” I ask.

Her chin quivers. “I came to talk to Westin.”

I know why, but I don’t want to air out our dirty laundry in front of Jack and Westin. I jerk my head at Westin and we step to the far side of the room, out of earshot.

“You let her drink?”

“She was fucked up already. She knows everything.”

I nod. My eyes wander back to her hunched shoulders. It hurts to know that I did this to her, regardless of my intention.I never wanted to cause her pain. If I had it my way, I’d build a castle at the top of the mountain and keep her safe behind a barricade.

“I need to talk to her alone,” I say.

His mouth thins and he crosses his arms over his chest. “It’s not my business…she’s hurting. I hope you don’t contribute to that, Sovereign.”

I shake my head. He gives me a hard stare as he heads over to pour a drink for Jack and I beckon Keira. She gets up slowly and takes my hand, letting me lead her to the guestroom at the top of the stairs. The door shuts with a loud click.

“Where did you go?” she whispers.

“To see Jack Russell,” I say.

“Westin told me what the card means. Who…who did Clint want to kill? You?”

I wish more than anything to protect her from all the ugly things in the world. But she deserves to know.

“You,” I say.

The color drains from her face. Her throat bobs. She steps backwards and sinks down onto the bed.

“He…was going to kill me,” she whispers.

I sit down beside her and she doesn’t resist when I pull her into my lap. That’s a good sign. She’s not shutting me out after finding out everything I did to make her mine. The soft scent of pomegranate fills my senses as I bury my face in her hair. Her body shakes.

Fuck, I hate when she cries like this. I love her tears when they’re from pleasure. But when they’re from pain, it fills me with rage like I’ve never felt.

I want to gut the Garrisons. One by one. I want to burn everything they own to the ground, to wipe any memory of them from the earth.

“Redbird,” I say. “No one will ever hurt you again.”

Her body shivers in my arms.

“I swear it.”

She wriggles back so she can look up at me. I brush her wet hair from her cheek and tuck it behind her ear.

“Is all that you want? Revenge?” she whispers.

I try to follow her train of thought and give up. “I’ve been waiting to take out the Garrisons for a long time,” I say. “But what they were planning on doing to you…makes me realize it needs to be done. Now.”

Her lip trembles. “You mean kill them,” she says flatly.

My God, seeing her in pain hurts so badly, worse than anything that was done to me. My fingers grip her upper arms, pulling her back in as her face crumples. I rub her back and stroke my fingers through her hair while she shudders with sobs.

“I got fucking groomed,” she bursts out. “They took my farm and they were going to kill me.”

What I’ve known for a while is just now hitting her. Her body shivers and the whites of her eyes flash. I can tell she’s right on the edge of panicking.

“Let me put you to bed and give you some sleeping pills,” I urge. “You’ve been through a lot.”

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