“Sir. How was your business trip?”
Gabriel handed him the keys while Syn went around to get Evangeline.
“Excellent,” Gabriel said. “How are things here?”
“Same.”
Gabriel nodded. “You have a room prepared for our guest?”
Thomas looked at the truck where Syn helped their ‘guest’ out. “Yes, sir.”
They’d had women here before, and between himself and Syn, they had particular tastes. Thomas didn’t blink an eye and made sure none of the staff did either.
“Good. Tell your wife she’ll have three very hungry people around the table for dinner.”
“She’ll like that. Caroline’s made enough of her stew to feed twice that many.”
Gabriel slapped Thomas on the back and smiled. It was good to be home.
“Thomas, this is our guest, Eva,” Syn said, coming around with a very anxious Evangeline. “Eva, this is Thomas. He works for us but if you need anything, you’ll ask Gabriel or myself first.”
“Pleasure to meet you, madam,” Thomas said.
She only stared.
“Say hello, Evangeline. It’s rude otherwise,” Gabriel instructed.
She looked at the older man, at the big house that loomed over them, cast in shadow as the sun began to set behind it, then turned to Thomas.
“Hello.”
He could see her pulling back, resisting a little where Syn held her, but that didn’t matter now. She would do as she was told, as he and Syn decided, or she’d suffer the consequences.
Gabriel had no problem dishing out those consequences.
I looked around at the large house as the brothers led me up the front stairs between them. They had introduced me to Thomas, a man who didn’t seem at all bothered by my presence. Did he know what his employers did? Did he care? He had to know I wasn’t a guest. I came barefoot and dusty, dressed in a dirty tunic, but he hadn’t even blinked at my appearance. He’d simply taken the keys to the truck, said he’d make sure it was cleaned, and we’d walked away.#p#分页标题#e#
The large, gothic style mansion itself was pretty. The twin front doors stood open as we went inside. I looked around the foyer. I was used to wealth, I’d grown up surrounded by it, but this was something else entirely.
“Do you pay for this with the money you earn kidnapping and selling innocent women?” I asked when we stopped.
The brothers both looked at me.
“How do you think the house you live in is paid for?” Gabriel asked.
“Arthur doesn’t do what you’re suggesting. He wouldn’t.”
“You’re wrong about that,” Gabriel said. “Come on. You need a shower.”
I hesitated but Gabriel gave my arm a tug and I moved down the hall toward the winding staircase. The scent of something delicious wafted out from what must have been the direction of the kitchen and my stomach rumbled loudly.
Syn smiled. “That’s Caroline’s stew.”
Just as he said it, a door swung open and a portly older woman came through to greet us, wiping her hands on a towel as she did. The woman’s eyes went wide for one moment when she saw me, but she recovered quickly. “Well, you boys are a sight. And you’ve brought a guest,” she said, looking me over from head to toe.
“This is Evangeline, Caroline. She’ll be staying with us for a while,” Gabriel said.
“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Evangeline. What a pretty name.”
“Thank you, ma’am.” Even at this first meeting, I knew there was steel behind the woman’s polite façade. She was willing to overlook the fact that the way the brothers held me, I was clearly not a guest, not at all, and she didn’t seem surprised, much less concerned.
“Stew is simmering. Get cleaned up and I’ll get the table set for dinner. I don’t want you tracking that dust all over the house.”
“No, ma’am, wouldn’t think of it. But we’ll be quick. I’ve missed your food, Caroline.” Syn said.
Caroline nodded, smiling proudly, and turned to go back toward the kitchen. We continued up the stairs and to the second floor where the hallway led away in two directions. Doors lined the corridor, the double doors at either end presumably leading to master suites.
“Here we are,” Syn said at the third door we passed. “Your room.”
“I don’t need a room. I want to go home.”
Gabriel’s cell phone rang then and he looked at the display. “You got this?” he asked Syn.
Syn nodded, looking like he couldn’t be happier. “In you go,” he said to me.
I held on to the doorframe, feeling somehow more desperate now than I had at the camp. “I said I don’t need a room. I want to go home.”