He straightens, finally meeting my eyes. “You’re right. So I’ll ask instead. Will you hear me out?” I’m a little shocked by the sudden change. I expected commands, expected him to simply tell me how things were going to be. This is different, and I’m not sure if I should be grateful or concerned.
“Do I have a choice?”
“You always have a choice, Saint. That’s what this is about.”
I almost laugh at the absurdity.
“I didn’t choose to be here. I didn’t choose to witness a murder. I didn’t choose to be kidnapped and chained up like an animal. Where were my choices in any of that?”
“You’re right. You didn’t choose this.” Guilt flashes in his eyes. “I know you don’t believe me, but I’m sorry. That you didn’t get a choice, but this is where we are right now. I can’t go back in time and change what happened. I’m trying to find a way forward, a way that keeps you alive. That has to count for something.”
“A way that keeps me alive? Why bother? So I can be your prisoner forever?”
“No.” He pulls out the chair from the small table and sits, the movement weary. “So you can have a life. Freedom. Protection.”
I should feel hope, should feel anything other than the despair I’m coursing through my body, but I don’t because I know better. What he’s offering me is a false sense of freedom.
The real truth is that as long as he’s in my life, freedom will cease to exist.
“What’s your plan?” I ask finally, because what else can I say?
Calder leans forward, elbows on his knees, those winter-blue eyes intense on mine. “Marriage.”
I blink slowly trying to decipher what he’s said, because I’m certain I must’ve misheard him.Marriage?That can’t be what he just suggested.
“What?”
“I understand that it’s not the best option, and I know you aren’t going to like it. But logically, if we get married, and you become a Bishop, that gives you the level of protection we need to survive this.”
All I can do is stare at him, waiting for the punchline. Waiting for him to tell me he’s joking because he can’t actually be serious. Except Calder isn’t smiling. There isn’t even the slightest hint of humor in his eyes. His expression is serious, almost earnest.
Holy shit, he’s serious.
“I think you’re losing your mind,” I breathe, my voice barely a whisper.
“Like I said, it’s not the best option, but it’s the only solution I can come up with that will keep us both alive.”
“Both of us?” I shake my head, trying to understand what he’s saying. My thoughts scatter like startled birds, unable to land on anything solid. He never said anything about himself. “What danger areyouin?”
“The same danger you’re in. I defied a direct order to keep you alive. That’s betrayal. If my father finds out before I can get this done, we’re both as good as dead.”
“Ahhh. I get it now. This is about you,” I say bitterly, anger cutting through the fear. “About saving your own skin.”
“No, it’s about both of us.” He holds my gaze, unblinking. “We’re both dead unless I can give him a reason that makes sense. That he can accept.”
“Please explain to me how making me your wife is something he will accept?”
“If there is one thing my father respects more than anything, it’s the name of our family. Bishops take what they want—that’s what everyone believes. He won’t be happy that I disobeyed him, but he can respect a man, a Bishop, taking something and claiming it for himself.”
“What about my father?” My voice cracks. In my mind, I see my Dad’s gentle face, his kind eyes, his unwavering faith that good will triumph over evil. “You think he’ll just accept that his daughter married a Bishop while he was away?”
Calder’s expression hardens, and I see the shift, from the man trying to reason with me to the brutal enforcer who does his family’s dirty work. “I don’t think he’ll accept it if he hears it from someone else, but if you tell him. That’s different. He has to accept it because it’s your choice.”
“And if he doesn’t and reacts differently, then what?”
Calder shrugs. “Then I guess I’ll have to remind him about the debts he owes my family. Debts that could be called in at any time.”
I can barely contain my gasp. “Would you really threaten my father?”
