BLAINE
I was many things.
Strategist. Leader. Manipulator.
But right now?
I was a man entirely absorbed by the girl fate had delivered to me far earlier than I’d planned.
She was upstairs.
In my room.
In my bed.
Soon, she’d be moved into her own space—the one I’d spent years building in silence. Every detail was tailored to her tastes and needs.
Minus a few things she wasn’t ready to have access to—things she could too easily kill with. So, maybe I was the one not ready to give those things back to her.
Even though I didn’t believe violence came naturally to her, I wouldn’t put it past her, given the circumstances. The thing that I had wanted her for right from the start was her fighting spirit and the way she naturally defied everything and everyone. I was sure this trait of her
