She went in to see her brother in his large office, and Allie could feel her whole body trembling as she left the relative safety of Justice and the other soldier behind. She was all alone now, she and Ben the only ones in the office when she got in there. Usually that meant that he didn't want any witnesses to what he was going to say and for some reason, that made her very nervous. After what he had done with Gabriel and the countless other men who he suspected had looked at her wrong, Allie tried to keep away from her brother. He took the role of her father too easily and even though it was not his role, he made her his responsibility. Allie didn't want to be anybody's responsibility but her own. That was her only crime, wanting to run her own life.
Waiting for him to say something was excruciating, but when he did ask the first question, Allie didn't know how to respond. It was so far off from what she had expected him to say.
Finally, he sighed, and looked to her. “You and Gabriel aren't together, are you?
Allie shook her head. “Of course, we're not. I told you this already, brother. Why are you now asking me again?” She was angry that he didn't believe her the first time, and she got even more upset when she realized that he had likely tortured Gabriel to get answers. When he hadn’t gotten any, then he started to believe her. That was why Allie didn't know how to react to her brother any longer. Him coming into power and having to make some difficult decisions had changed him. It certainly changed the way he treated her. No longer was she able to have a life of her own. In the name of protecting her, her brother had solely changed everything.
“I really thought you were lying to me. You must admit that it wouldn't be the first time,” Ben said. It sounded like he was going to apologize, but he quickly backtracked on that.
Gabriel was his friend his whole life, and he had tortured him for no reason. Now, he was trying to blame it on Allie, and she wasn’t going for it. Allie couldn't believe the audacity of her brother sometimes and while she had always looked up to him for many years, there were other parts of her that couldn't believe how he acted. The way he tried to protect her was ridiculous. It made the relationship between the two of them very tense.
She hadn't even sat down yet and already her brother had thrown her off. He waved her over to one of the seats across from his large desk that was covered with papers and other work memorabilia. Allie looked around at it all and wondered why she was there. Was it only because of Gabriel or something more? She had a feeling that Justice was just getting started.
“I feel like I am coming off as the bad guy, Allie, and I don't want that. I don't want you to think that you have no freedom here. You just have to understand that because of who and what I am, there are a lot of people that would use you to get to me. You are my weakness. Josh is my weakness. My family is my weakness, and I have to keep you all safe,” Ben repeated.
Allie liked to make him out to be the bad guy, but she knew better. Ben was a good man and he had a reason to feel the way he did. She knew that. Her younger brother Josh had been hurt not but a couple of months ago. Allie knew that she was being hard on her brother. He had found her a husband, because that was his duty, to find her a mate. He was doing everything just like he was supposed to that coincided with the culture they were from.
That didn’t matter to Allie though. She didn’t want to be married off and for grown men to have a say in what she did with her life. She wanted to be human sometimes, so that she wouldn’t have all the rules that she had to live by with her own people. She was expected to just be happy with what was decided for her, and it was a hard pill to swallow. She didn’t want to accept it.
“I am fine, and I don’t need people following me around all the time. I have no privacy, Ben. Your soldiers are underfoot all the time. I must be escorted everywhere. I feel like you are treating me like a child, Ben. I am twenty years old!”
Ben sighed. “You know that I take your future happiness very seriously and I want to do anything I can to make it better. You must trust me though. You have to give me a chance, Allie, I am going to make this better. I have made you a good match. You will be very happy, and you will never want for anything.”
Allie scoffed, “And it will be easier for you, won’t it, dear brother? You won’t have to worry about me anymore, which you supposedly do all the time. I wish that I knew what I could say to get you to realize that I hate this and I’m miserable. I don’t want to marry a stranger. I want to find love. I want what you have.” Allie pushed it. She used her brother’s recent bout with love to get him to see reason. He had fallen head over heels, and Allie wanted the same thing. She wanted a love to fight the ages.
Ben scoffed, “You really know what to say, don’t you?”
Allie didn’t know if that bare grin was good or not. “You should at least meet your intended before you condemn him. I have done a good job trying to find you a perfect match to your spirit and station.”
Allie wondered about the “spirit” comment. Did that mean that he’d found someone he thought would control her well? Allie’s mind was full of it. “You would actually let me meet him first?” she asked incredulously. That was an honor she didn’t think she would get. It didn’t make it all better, but it did soften the blow.
“Well, you're right, that does make it a little bit better. The idea that I am supposed to go one day and marry somebody that I've never met before is terrifying.”
Her brother said that she wouldn't have to worry about that, but then, of course, Allie worried about other things. She spoke a few of them out loud, asking what would happen if she didn't like him. That seemed like a very real possibility for her and that was something that she was very worried about. She couldn't imagine that she would feel anything for the person, and it certainly wouldn't be anything strong like she did for Justice. That was a connection she'd never had before, and Allie knew that she would never find it again.
“You just have to go into it with your open eyes, Allie, and an open mind. I'm sure that you will find Bishop just as charming as I do.”
Allie did not know anyone by the name of Bishop, so that told her that it was probably somebody from far away. She tried her best to look happy and pretend like it was a little less devastating, but it really wasn't. Allie didn't want this. She wanted her own choice. She wanted to maybe choose a soldier that had made her feel different than everyone else. With Bishop, that could never happen though. She wondered if Justice could hear what was going on in the room. Suddenly, she was very aware of what was being said and how it might be taken.
“I hope you're right, brother, because all of this makes me very nervous. Maybe meeting him will be better. You are being very generous to let it happen, so I thank you for that,” Allie pressed herself to say. Even though her brother was being benevolent right now, it didn't mean that he couldn't change quickly. She was going to have to watch out for that, even as she worried about what Justice would think of it.
Chapter 10
Justice
He heard everything that was going on in the room. Neither one of them talked very low and the room echoed, so paired with some poor insulation everything was heard. At some point, Justice wished that he hadn't heard any of it. Here he was thinking that something was happening and starting between the two of them and Allie was quickly happy just to be able to meet the guy she was going to marry first. She didn't protest it at all or even say that she wanted someone else. Justice, of course, was being ridiculous. She wasn't going to say any of those things. It still hurt though, whether it made sense or not for him to be upset about it.
When she came out, she looked disturbed, but Justice was a little tiffed about what he had heard and how quickly she was giving in to the arranged marriage that she said she didn't want. Why he got his hopes up, Justice had no idea, but it certainly didn't help his mindset. Already thinking about another man's hands on Allie, he felt a flash of anger that he couldn't squelch.
His mood made him walk a little faster than usual and he was no longer escorting her, he was leaving her. Even Jeff made a comment about how fast they were going, but Justice didn't care. She was going to be gone soon and he had to get his head wrapped around it, so that he didn't hurt as badly as he did in that moment. All Justice could think about was how much of an idiot he felt like. Of course, she really wanted to have nothing to do with him. It was one kiss, and it was likely done on a dare with herself or something of that nature. Justice had taken it the wrong way.
They got back to where she stayed, and he asked her if there was anything else that she needed. Justice just wanted to get away from her, but he knew that he still had to be courteous and do his job. His emotions meant nothing; they were all made-up. He should have known better than to think that it would end any other way. Justice wouldn't let himself be fooled again. He had learned his lesson or at least he thought he had.
“No, that will be sufficient, thank you,” Allie told him without barely looking at him. She had picked up on his attitude, and Justice was glad that he wasn't meant to stay around any longer. He went as far as he could where you could still see her door and any action that was going on with her. He had to do his job, of course, but that didn't mean that he had to like it or be as concerned as he was before. It was better for Justice to get his head around the fact that she would be gone soon and anything that he had in his mind was just a fantasy quickly proven wrong. He promised himself that he would not think about her like that again. What he wanted to happen and what would happen, was two very different things.
***
They were leaving later that evening and Jeff wanted to know what the hell was going on. Justice was deep in his head, and he was confused for a moment. “What are you talking about?”
