As I began to doze off, Miss Guidry’s words came back to me.“Your mother would rather I don’t say any more, not after what happened to you.”
My heart ached as my imagination took a dark twist.
Jezebel wasn’t in business with Isaiah Boudreau as I was in business with Ross Underwood. I doubted there was a financial agreement, the creation of a business entity, contracts, and shared bank accounts.
“...after what happened to you.”
I had been taken and hurt.
I sat up in bed with the realization—Jezebel was hurt.
Maybe it was Miss Guidry and her talking to spirits, or maybe being in this house and city, my mother was talking to me, but as I began to fall asleep, I knew I was right. Jezebel North had been hurt, and she had been hurt by Isaiah Boudreau.
Rett’s voice came to me.“This city is filled with stories, good versus evil. It becomes ingrained in our psyche from a young age. Not all good comes from good nor all bad comes from evil. Sometimes the opposite is true. Evil from good and good from evil. You are good.”
Good can come from evil.
I came from Isaiah and Jezebel’s union.
That union wasn’t consensual.
Isaiah Boudreau had raped Jezebel.
It was a story of old, repeated through the centuries. A powerful man and the daughter of a whore, no one would believe her, and then the evidence became visible—me.
It was my last thought as sleep took over.
Over and over, I tossed and turned. My thoughts were no longer on the parents I’d never met, but on the two men I never saw. They were right here, their voices, their smell, and their cruel words...
“Emma.”
“Stop.” I tried to fight, but I couldn’t move. My hands and legs were bound. My heart beat faster, drumming against my breastbone. It didn’t register that my name had been said. They hadn’t said it before.
Breathe, Emma, breathe.
If I wasn’t careful, I’d faint. No, I couldn’t faint. I had to fight. I thrust my head from side to side.
“Emma, wake up.”
My head continued to thrash as I fought. He was strong, yet I used my might and pushed him away.
How could I push?
“Emma, you’re safe. You’re safe.”
My eyes sprang open. Unlike the room upstairs, in this suite illumination came through the windows, a combination of changing colors and hues with the moon’s rays as well as the glow of the fire I’d left burning.
Scrambling toward the headboard, I lifted my arms and moved my feet. I wasn’t tied to a chair. I was in my bed, the one I’d been told was mine. And I wasn’t alone.
“Rett?”
The mountain of a man beside me wasn’t my attacker. Before I could say more, he wrapped me in his arms, holding me hostage against his warm skin. His masculine scent filled my senses as his heart beat in double time beneath my ear.
“You are all right,” he reassured.
I didn’t want to let go of him as I wrapped my arms around his torso and kept my cheek against him.
Rett’s hand moved in small circles on my back as his deep, comforting tone soothed the terror of the nightmare that had awakened me. “It was a dream. Just a dream.”