“Alea.” She remembered the name they had given her and wondered about the woman. “Is she all right?”
Rafe sighed, a deep sound of regret that filled the room. “She is alive.”
“She was brutalized.” Kade threaded his hands together as though steeling himself. “She hid her ties to our family because she wanted a normal life. She is a beautiful girl both inside and out. Our little cousin was always a rebel.”
“Sometimes I think she left Bezakistan because there weren’t enough down-trodden people for her to help.” Rafe paced as he talked. “She wanted to save the world. The world showed her that it doesn’t want to be saved.”
“That’s not true,” Kade argued.
Rafe shook his head, a tiny, somewhat brutal gesture. Jessa would have bet this was a well-worn argument.
Kade nodded his brother’s way. “Forgive him. He’s still angry. I am as well, but I know that Alea will eventually come out of this. She will live again. Her mind and her heart will heal. But only because Burke and Cole Lennox saved her.” He massaged the place between his eyebrows as though trying to soothe away his frown. “She refused a security detail when she went away to school. She isn’t in line for the throne, so we didn’t think she’d truly be in any danger. She disappeared six months into her school year. They took her because they thought she had no family and the whoremongers needed a woman of Middle-Eastern descent. The brothel Ricardo Delgado sold her to liked to keep a variety of women for their clientele.”
There went her appetite again. The idea of a young woman being sold made her shudder. Her heart went out to the woman. “I’m so sorry to hear that.”
“She was drugged. All of the girls were fed a steady diet of chemical crap.” Rafe bit the words out like bullets. “She begged for the drugs for weeks after she came home. She was down to skin and bones, but all she wanted was another hit. That’s just one of the many things they did to her. She still has terrible nightmares…”
“When Burke and Cole found her,” Kade continued, his voice going hard for the first time, “she was being held with fifteen other women. It pleases me to lie awake at night and think about everything your men did to the bastards who held those girls against their will. Their descriptions were pleasingly detailed. I have a vivid picture in my head.”
“I can’t imagine what Alea went through.” She shivered despite the robe, feeling so terrible for the young woman. Even after she’d been saved, it was obvious Alea still had a hard road ahead of her. Delgado had ruined many lives, and now his son seemed determined to keep up the family business.
“No, you can’t,” Kade replied. “I wouldn’t want you to. But I am asking you to take into consideration that their work was vital to us and the families of the other girls they rescued. Yes, they sacrificed. But Burke and Cole also saved lives.”
Jessa stiffened her spine. “Of course their work was important. I don’t disagree. And I would have understood the truth. But the fact is, they lied to me.”
“Would you have understood? Really?” Rafe asked, his tone slightly arrogant, as if he’d already determined the answer to the question.
So they had judged her. “I would have done my very best. Maybe it sounds selfish to you, but I wanted to be important, too.”
“They believed you had been claimed by another man,” Rafe said.
“Something that could have been cleared up if they had given me a real name or had called me even once.” She felt tears threatening. God, she didn’t want to feel this aching, gaping hole in her chest. She wanted to feel nothing at all for them. “If I had known what they were doing, I would have sat up at night praying for them. I would have loved them, but they didn’t give me the chance. They didn’t trust me enough.”
Rafe’s eyes softened slightly. “Men are sometimes not the smartest of creatures. We make decisions that we think are best to protect those we love. And sometimes, we make mistakes. It doesn’t mean we don’t know our hearts. If they have told you they love you, then they mean this.”
“They are good men. The best I know,” Kade said softly. “They are rough at times, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have tenderness for you, for your son. It would be a shame if that son never knew his fathers.”
She glared at Kade. That just wasn’t fair. She was just supposed to forgive Burke and Cole the instant they walked back into her life? They had cost her a terrible year of heartache and pain, and never given her a choice. “The funny thing is, if they had asked me to take the risk and go to South America with them, I would have. Or I would have stayed here and waited, as tough as it would have been. I would have done whatever they asked. But they didn’t give me a choice.”
Yes, she was probably being stubborn, but the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. Of course they were heroes; there was no question about it. But did that mean she was just supposed to take them back without a qualm? What happened the next time they had a “mission” they believed in? Would they leave her behind for months or more at a time with no communications? Would they decide that their son was safer without them and simply walk out again, this time for good? They wouldn’t simply be leaving her behind. They’d be breaking Caleb’s heart, too.
No. She didn’t think she could risk that. She wasn’t sure she was ready to trust them again.
And that made her brutally angry because she wanted to. She wanted to throw herself in their arms and beg them to love her, never leave her again. Though they had left her pregnant and alone, she still dreamed of them. She still woke up calling out their names.
She swiped angry tears away. She wasn’t listening to her stupid heart this time. She couldn’t afford to. She wasn’t a child anymore. Now she was a mother.
Rafe straightened his coat. “I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds. I merely hoped to give you something to think about. Know that if you need anything at all, we will help you.”
Kade stood. “Indeed. All you need to do is call.”
“You don’t know me. Why would you do that?” These men confounded her. They were obviously powerful, yet they seemed to genuinely care about Cole and Burke, who were basically employees. They were royal, in line for a kingdom, yet they were risking their lives to help others out.
“The royal family of Bezakistan owes the Lennox brothers a debt for saving one of our family. Actually, two, since Cole also saved my brother, Talib,” Kade explained. “When I asked how we should repay them, do you know what your men asked for?”
Rafe shook his head. “My brother would have given them millions. Anything they wanted.”