Sophie Oak - Siren Enslaved

It sounded perfectly atrocious to Julian. A child couldn’t be reasoned with. A child wouldn’t understand what Julian was willing to give and what he needed to withhold. A child simply needed everything. There was no contract one signed with a child. There was no out clause. Being a parent was messy. Like being a husband was messy. But being a Dom, that was neat and clean, with firmly placed boundaries.

He stared at the tiny girl. She was petite with a mass of wild red hair. She grinned as she ran, her joy completely infectious. Like Sam. Sam had a child. Six-month-old Josh was more awake now. He watched his sister with a lazy smile on his face. The baby looked almost indulgently affectionate, just like his father. What did Jack feel when he looked into the face of his son? A strange sentimentality stole across Julian. His own father had died when Julian was just a child. Had his father had the same odd look of wonder on his face when he looked down at Julian as Jackson had on his?

Olivia Barnes-Fleetwood continued her crazy play. Jackson’s eyebrows crept up, and he suddenly was focused on the car in the drive. “Is there something you would like to announce, Julian? Has this little vacation turned into a honeymoon? It looks like your bride is getting away.”

Sure enough, Danielle was making her way slowly down the drive. She walked lopsidedly, as though one of her heels had broken. Julian wondered where she was going. It was apparent to him that she had no one to rely on and nowhere to go. He checked the sudden urge to chase after her. If she wanted to go, he should allow her to do so. He’d never once forced a girlfriend to stay with him. Girlfriend? He hadn’t had one of those in so long, he almost didn’t remember the last one’s face. He didn’t have girlfriends or boyfriends. He had submissives. And he had never forced one to stay when they wanted to leave.

“She says her name is Danielle.” Julian was well aware that Jackson was studying him carefully. He’d trained Jackson himself, and one of the things he had been very good at was reading body language. Julian worked to keep his face as placid as possible.

Jack obviously had lost that particular talent. His eyes went wide, and his mouth dropped open. “Danielle Bay? You married Abby’s clinic manager? I thought she was supposed to marry that mechanic Jimbo today. Sam and Abby went to the wedding.”

“Not my bride, but she is very insistent on running away. Oh, look, your daughter is much better at catching her than her poor groom.”

Jackson threw his head back and laughed as Olivia parked herself on Danielle’s train. She sat right down on the extra long satin extension.

“Daddy, I’m getting a ride!”

Danielle stopped and pulled at her train. When she couldn’t dislodge the child, she pleaded for a moment. Julian waited to see if she would shove the child off. She simply sat down next to the little girl in the middle of the driveway. It was mere seconds before she began to sob into her hands.

“Damn, things must have gone awfully wrong for that girl.” Jackson started to walk across the lawn.

Little Olivia stood, walking across the white train. She placed her little hand on the strange woman’s head and started to speak. Whatever the girl said made Danielle open her arms and draw the child in. She clung to her small body and wept.

Julian sighed and couldn’t stand another moment. He gave in to his instinct. He reached the crying bride long before Jack could. In the end, he simply kneeled and wrapped his arms around both woman and child. As Dani’s hands found his shoulders he realized just how much trouble he was in. He really shouldn’t have stopped at that light.

The air conditioner hummed to life, blowing cold air into the hallway of the church. Valerie Bay was grateful for the chilly air. It was hot outside. That cool breeze was the only thing she was grateful for today.

“Well, I never. I swear this town is going straight to the d-e-v-i-l.” Audrey Miller always spelled out the devil’s name because to actually say it was to invite him in. Her friend Miranda Knight shook her head in agreement.

Idiots. Valerie was surrounded by them. She was in a church full of them, but she couldn’t run away. Her stupid bitch sister had already pulled the vanishing act for the day. She needed a drink, but she wasn’t going to find that in the Willow Fork Methodist Church.

Audrey Miller shook her finger Valerie’s way. She was dressed in her very best ankle-length cotton skirt and button-up shirt. It was, of course, buttoned all the way to the top, as though she was worried anyone would want to catch a glimpse of those old boobs. Her thin lips pressed together. “Your poor mother would just die, if the good Lord hadn’t already called her home.”

While Val couldn’t stand the old woman, she was on the church’s social board. Audrey Miller had power in Willow Fork. Val forced herself to nod. “You’re right. It’s the only thing to explain my sister’s actions, Mrs. Miller. The d-e-v-i-l must have gotten to Dani.”

Something had gotten to her. She’d started walking down the aisle, looking like a fat cow in white satin, then her face had gone as white as her dress, and she turned and ran. Jimbo had looked surprised, but that queer of hers had been the one to take off after her. He’d made an even bigger scene than Dani. Finn had screeched her name all up and down Main Street until Dani had hopped into someone’s car and it had driven off. God only knew where she was now. If she had any sense at all, she would get herself murdered and spare them all the shame of having to see her again.

“And she must have been planning it.” Hillary Glass’s voice was grating on Val’s last nerve. The terror with a walker wrinkled her nose in obvious distaste. “She had a car waiting for her and everything.”

Val checked her instinct to flee. The elderly were circling like judgmental sharks sensing blood. Val moved back from Hillary Glass. Many a toe had suffered damage from the old biddy’s walker, and Val was pretty sure they weren’t all accidents. “I don’t think she planned it.”

“Poor Jimbo’s momma is crying in the bathroom.” Miranda Knight had strangely bright blonde hair for a woman her age. It formed an old style beehive and might weigh more than the woman herself. She was cadaverously thin. “Leah says she should have known the lord was trying to send her a message by allowing the engagement party to be ruined by That Woman deciding to have her child right there in the community center. It was scandalous.”

Val nodded, eager to pile on Abigail Barnes. They never said her name out loud, either. She was simply That Woman. They claimed Abby Barnes had killed Ruby Echols. Any woman who could take on that nasty old witch and come out on top was a woman Val didn’t want to cross. Not that she would mention that to this group. Hating Abby Barnes was practically a religion to these women. “I tried to convince Dani she shouldn’t invite That Woman, but she never listens to me.”

And she damn well should. She’d been left to pick up Dani’s mess. At least she had some sense. She’d moved everyone into the reception hall where the gossip had started to flow thicker than molasses in winter. The older people were all discussing Satan, and by Satan, they really meant Jack Barnes. The rancher and his wife and whatever the hell Sam Fleetwood was were the subject of most of the gossip around town. When Dani had gone to work for Abby Barnes, everyone had said it was only a matter of time before she got pulled into whatever crazy sex things went on at that ranch. Val had tried to talk Dani out of it, but she was adamant about working in the clinic. Now look what had happened. That fat cow had walked out on the only man who ever gave her a second glance.