The Camp (Chateau, #2)

by Penelope Sky

I didn’t owe that bitch anything. I’d already rescued Melanie from Fender once. I’d already gotten Raven out of this camp. I did my part and had nothing to feel guilty about.

“I had to do the right thing, even if that meant betraying you. And I know this is difficult to believe…but I’m still loyal to you. I will do anything for you, not because you saved me, but because…you deserve to have someone look out for you too. Liberating this camp took precedence over you because it’s bigger than either of us. But I will take a knife to the stomach over and over, as many times as necessary, to keep you alive.”

“You fucking humiliated me.” I turned back around and stared her down, seeing her eyes well up with new tears. “You have no idea what they did to me. You have no fucking idea how they tortured me! Why the fuck would I want you when you sent me to the guillotine? Why the fuck would I want you when you weren’t there for me when I was there for you?” My shouts became so loud that the guards in nearby cabins probably heard them. “A man protects his woman against everything—but she also protects him. You fucking abandoned me.”

“Open a red. Barsetti Vineyards.”

Love it

“It’s not what we do in the presence of witnesses that matters. It’s what we do in secret that no one knows about.

That was when I realized there was no act more loyal than that, that we would literally do anything for each other…and that was beautiful. “I forgive you.”

“There is pressure…because I miss you.” She spoke about me like it was an unstoppable need, like I was water to her throat, air to her lungs. “I’ve wanted you since I’ve had you. I’ve wanted you since my apartment. I’ve always wanted you…”

“The Count of Monte Cristo…good choice.”

“Ma petite amie…” My girlfriend. My hands cupped her face, and I wiped her tears away with my thumbs, cradling her face in my embrace. “You see me too.”

Melanie turned to him and gave him a vicious stare. She was still for a second before she pushed off him and got to her feet. Then she stared down at him, so furious she didn’t know what to do. Her palm slapped across his face so hard that an audible smack echoed over the grounds. “Don’t talk about my sister like that, asshole.”

Fender turned to watch her go, but he didn’t go after her. His hand moved to his cheek, and he rubbed the inflamed skin before he grabbed his wine and took a drink like nothing happened. “Kinda liked it.” He looked across the grounds and swirled his glass absentmindedly.

But out of nowhere, this woman came into my life, and now I couldn’t imagine the remaining pages of my book not having her name written in every sentence. She was me. I was her. We were the same person. I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

“But this will happen whether you like it or not. I know there’s still humanity inside you. I know you still have a chance. I just hope you find the strength to join me…instead of resisting me.”

She lowered herself to her knees in front of me so our faces were level. Her palms cupped my cheeks, and she looked into my eyes like she never wanted to look away. She sniffled as more tears fell to her lips. “I love you…”

“I love you, ma petite amie.”

“You called my bluff and won.” He nodded to the guards to release the crying women and extinguish the torches. “I won’t kill you. But we aren’t brothers anymore. When you leave…I don’t want to see you again.”

“Ma petite amie…” And then I heard a gunshot.

“Because I told you I would never leave. Ever.” Tears dripped from her eyes as she planted her hands against my chest, like she just wanted to feel my solid body, to feel the lack of bullet holes. “I’ll never leave you for all my life. If you die…I die.”

“I never understood what you saw in her. But now I do.”

He squeezed me and held me close, kissing me like he loved me, kissed me like I was the one thing he’d been waiting for. He loved me without having to say it, was the man I needed without having to ask. He was the one and only man I could spend forever with. And I knew I was the only woman who could ever make him happy. Apart, we were both broken. But together, we were whole.