Farns rolled a couple of suitcases through the foyer, jarring me from my thoughts. I followed him onto the porch.
“I hope your trip isn’t long.” He smiled down at me, clueless about what was going to happen. If he’d known, he never would have smiled like that.
I hugged him. Just an instinct. He made a surprised noise and hugged me back.
“Thanks, Farns. I just needed…” I stepped away from him. “Just thanks.”
“Anytime, miss.” Pink crept into his paper thin cheeks.
“Stella?” Vinemont appeared as Lucius took the bags down to Luke, the driver. “A word?” I couldn’t read him—asking or intimidating all seemed to have merged into one.
Farns shuffled past him and into the house.
“What?” I didn’t move toward him. I wouldn’t.
He walked out to me, the sun highlighting his tired eyes and sunken cheeks. He looked like he hadn’t slept or eaten in days. When he stuffed his hands in his pockets, the muscles in his forearms flexed, making the vines writhe. “I just wanted to say, not that it matters, not that it will help…” He sighed, as if having trouble grabbing ahold of his thoughts as they flittered away before him. “I would gladly take your place if I could. But I can’t. And I need you to get through this. And I need…”
“What?” I asked again. He’d already taken so much, and now he was asking for even more. That connection between us, the one I’d felt so strongly, was withered now, dead on the vine. He couldn’t ask any more of me. But I had to know, all the same.
“Stella?” Lucius called, but had the good sense to stay by the car.
I held Vinemont’s gaze, demanding he finish his thought. “What else do you need from me?”
“I need you to come back to me.” His words were so soft and low I almost missed them.
I stared at him and tried to misinterpret his words, tried to make it seem like he wanted me to come back so the Acquisition could continue and the Vinemonts could win. But seeing his eyes, and the sadness and pain welling in them, I knew it wasn’t that. He wanted me to come back to him. No, he needed it. He’d only given me glimpses of this man—the one who hurt, who felt, who needed. And now he’d laid himself bare.
“Stella. We have to go. Come on.”
Lucius’ irritated command knocked me out of my reverie. I did have to go. I had an appointment to keep, one that would leave me scarred and broken for the rest of my life. And the reason I had to go was this man, the one whose regretful eyes and words were nothing compared to the pain I was about to feel. It took everything in me, but I wasn’t going to help the spider anymore. I wasn’t going to hasten my own downfall by jumping into his web. Not again.
I turned without a word and hurried down the stairs. Luke helped me into the back seat and closed the door. I didn’t look at Vinemont, even though I knew he hadn’t moved, his gaze still seeking me out even behind the privacy glass. Lucius slid in and settled next to me as Luke drove away. I kept my eyes down, never turning back.
Lucius and I didn’t speak as we drove steadily northward. He took some calls, half of them conducted in Spanish as we cruised along the smooth pavement. My hands couldn’t stay still, worrying away at each other or twisting the hem of my sweater. Eventually, Lucius reached out mid-conversation and snagged my right hand in his, pulling it over onto his thigh as he kept talking about sugar cane crops and the costs of production.
I let him keep it. I could worry away on the inside just as well with or without that hand. I kept trying to clear my mind. Thinking about Vinemont’s words or, alternatively, replaying Renee’s story of hypothermia and unforgivable violations only made the fear roar louder than my hatred. I wanted the hatred to win out, to suffocate my fear until I was nothing but a raging flame of anger. Even as I tried to master it, the dread seeped in, coloring every thought with a dirty film.
The landscape changed during the drive, the trees getting thicker as more pines mixed in with the dormant oaks and hardwoods. We were in the middle of national forest land when Luke pulled off the interstate onto a two-lane highway. Our route took us farther into the woods, the bleak trees creeping up close to the road on either side.
Lucius tapped his phone off, finally ending a particularly heated call with Javier. He gave my hand a light squeeze but didn’t look at me.
After another half hour, Luke turned into a paved lane blocked by a gate similar to that on the Vinemont property. At the top of each door was a stag, its horns magnificent and overdone. Luke rolled down his window and spoke to the attendant standing out front. Then we passed through the gate and into the encroaching woods. The drive meandered through rolling hills, the sun shining with ease through the barren trees.