Page 41 of Bloody Wedding (The Order of the Owed #1)

Ignoring my sudden surprise, Jack continues, “I let you get away. I told your father to encourage you to stay away. I wanted Adrian to marry the Offering I chose. Not some silly little girl who couldn’t even wait until marriage.

But no… you still cared for him after all these years.

I thought it was fear that had you running.

Then I used fear to get you to return… but you weren’t supposed to end up with my nephew. ”

“Why not?”

“Because Adrian loves you.”

It’s a gut punch, hearing it from a man who looks like he’s never loved anyone a day in his life, but I refuse to let Jack see. “I’d hope so. I am his wife.”

Jack ignores my cheeky response. “In the Order, love is a liability. Marriages work out when two people of good breeding form a partnership. That’s what we need for the Order to thrive. Not love.”

He sounds so cold. SO heartless. And maybe I’m begin reckless, trying to get some emotion out of this man, but I remind him, “You were married once. You must have loved her.”

“I was married,” Jack agrees. His eyes dart to the window. A slow, sardonic grin pulls on his lips. “Accidents happen.”

I suck in a breath. Crap. Adrian was right.

I mean, I didn’t doubt him exactly, but I never thought that Jack Collins would make it obvious to a mere Offering that he was responsible for his wife’s death.

Accident? All of Harmony Heights believes Reese Collins jumped to her death…

except for those who actually know this man.

I don’t. I’ve met him once, but it doesn’t matter. Because he has some fixation on his own nephew, he’s hated me the same way I thought Adrian did.

I can see it. In the derisive way he looks down his perfect nose at me, or the sneer he can’t quite restrain when he says shit like ‘dear girl’. He hates me, and I have a sinking feeling that I’m not going home to Adrian and Peaches anytime soon.

Accidents happen …

Another annoyed sign passes his lips. “This wasn’t supposed to be an issue.

When the St. James boy decided he’d take you off my hands…

for a very hefty fee, I’ll add… I thought Adrien would get over his silly fixation and do what he was told.

” He huffs, yanking open his desk drawer.

He pulls out an aged piece of paper with something rust-colored spilled in the center.

He slaps it with the flat of his hand. “Who thought that he’d remember this? ”

The slap makes it obvious what I’m looking at. It’s a bloody handprint. A really old bloody handprint.

Beneath it? Adrian’s familiar scrawl and a handwritten date.

July— ten years ago .

I suddenly understand. Why Adrian showed up at the wedding and, instead of trying to stop the wedding, he put an end to it by shooting Desmond.

Why he disregarded the act as murder because, and I quote, he ‘had the right to do it’.

A blood oath… if he spilled his blood while telling the King that he Claimed me, then he did.

That date… it’s right after I told him I never wanted to see him again. I meant it, too. After Jack Collins said to me that Adrian got disgusted at the idea he was the boy I got caught fucking, I confronted him, then I blocked him, then I never saw him again…

Jack.

Jack told me.

Oh, no. Can I believe him? Can I believe anything he said back then when he’s revealing that he never planned on letting me marry into his family?

The blood oath… if Adrian swore this in front of Jack—and I see the King’s seal in the corner so he must have—then his uncle knew that he intended on Claiming me at the ceremony, ‘disgust’ or not.

So that’s why it was so easy to disappear. That’s what this asshole wanted.

But Adrian… he never stopped wanting me. I can’t say for sure that what he felt for me was love over the years, but he chose me once before, then he chose me again. So long as he always chooses me, I’ll choose him right back.

And I’m just about to tell Jack that when he grabs the blood oath and rips it in half.

I gasp. “What are you doing?”

“I’m done playing these games, little girl. I paid Desmond St. James more than your worth so that you were out of Adrian’s reach. I can’t let you distract him, not when he’s the one keeping the Order running behind the scenes. So that leaves only one alternative.”

It hits me then why Adrian is so important to his uncle.

It’s not this sense of loyalty to his family, or even this grand idea of pairing up the proper Offering to a high-ranked Owed like his nephew.

He tried to give Haven to Adrian precisely because he didn’t want her.

Without any feelings for his Owed except a sense of duty, he’d be free to do whatever Jack required of him.

The books. It all comes down to the books. The laundering scheme that keeps the Order in charge, and the money coming in. Then there are the copies of ledgers, all written in Adrian’s hand, lists of secrets and blackmail material he’s gathered since he was a teen to make himself untouchable.

No, I think, remember what he said.

To make me untouchable...

I rise up from the seat. “I don’t think so, Mr. Collins. In fact, I think I’m going to head down to the twentieth floor and go see my husband.”

Jack clicks his tongue. “No. I don’t think that will be possible.” Raising his voice, he calls out, “Luke?”

The blond bully who dragged me up here after tricking me into leaving my home must have been waiting just outside the door for Jack’s signal because he shoves in the door, stepping into the office almost immediately.

“Take Ms. Dougherty down to the basement. We have an auction starting at three.” The speculative look he gives me, coupled with the ominous word auction , has shivers coursing down my spine. “I lost enough on her already. Might as well get some of my money back.”

What ?

In less than twenty minutes, I’ve been corralled into an elevator, taken to the lowest floor of this skyscraper, and nearly shoved down a flight of stairs when I got the nerve to finally fight back a little.

It was useless. Luke was too strong, and I was too scared.

The word ‘auction’ kept running on repeat in my panicked brain, and when he grips my bicep, marching me through a tight, dim, smoky basement dwelling, I realize it’s exactly what it means.

Especially when Luke leaves me with a bigger enforcer who tells me to strip down to my underwear so that, when I go on the makeshift stage, the men will know what I have to offer.

Because it’s an auction all right. Where women who won’t be missed get sold to men with no ties to the Order or Harmony Heights.

There are worse things than being Used…

Sophie was right.

It’s being Bought.

That’s exactly what Jack plans on happening to me, and Adrian has no idea.

My husband will never let me go? When I’m bought and sold and trafficked… he might not have a choice.