Chapter 12: Léonie - Crushing His Mountain Flower

Mano’s words seemed to punch through my chest cavity and drag my heart out, leaving it a messy spill of blood and gutted muscle on the basement floor.

I knew Étienne didn’t love me, but until this moment I didn’t realize how much he hated me.

My husband was the one responsible for all the degradation, pain, and humiliation I had suffered?

Not Placidie. Not Faustine. Not Mano.

Étienne.

“Étienne told you to pretend we were having an affair?”

“That’s right. Told me what to do and what to say. Right down to pretending he was going to throttle me.”

“Why?” I cried. “Why would he do that to me?”

“Why do you think?” Mano retorted as blood dripped down his face. “To marry Faustine probably.”

Oh. Of course.

To replace me with the woman he really wanted.

Hugo was looking at me, his brow creased with concern.

“If what Mano says is true, Étienne is a monster,” he said tightly. “To abandon his wife and child like this? It’s unfathomable.”

“Let me go,” Mano said, his dark eyes gleaming. “I can take you—I can protect you⁠—"

But Hugo didn’t even wait to hear the rest of his speech, just tightened the restraints on Mano, stuffed a sock from the washing machine in his mouth, and thrust him into a closet.

“I’m sorry, but for him to go along with that plan is unconscionable. I don’t trust him either.”

“I want to get out of here,” I said, stretching my aching back.

My eyes were surprisingly bone-dry. Because what was there to say now? Every minute I stayed was another minute under the control of a man who not only didn’t want me, but took pleasure in using me as a pawn for his cruel games.

We needed to escape as soon as possible, before Étienne sent guards to torment me further, keep me like a trapped butterfly to drag out and claw for his amusement.

“Let’s take Mano’s truck,” Hugo said. “We can try to ram through the gate with it.”

“What about Tilly and Armand?” I asked nervously as he took me by the hand and drew me up the stairs after him.

Tilly might have been sympathetic to me when Étienne was here, but would she really just sit back and let Hugo and I escape, knowing how the Bastides would punish her?

“We will have to hope they turn a blind eye,” Hugo said, grabbing a few things from his room.

Tilly and Armand were nowhere to be found now. Had they gone back to their quarters for an afternoon rest, as they often did?

There wasn’t much time to decide. But I had nothing to take with me.

All of my possessions had been left at my old house. All my wedding-presents, keepsakes, everything I had sewed or made for Ciel. There was nothing here except borrowed toothbrushes and donated clothes.

But I was leaving my prison and starting a new life with my baby.

“You’ll have to drive,” Hugo said as we hurried down the front stairs. “I think we should drive south, try to get to the end of Bastide property. Beyond that is Boudreaux territory and perhaps we can make it through there to one of the cities beyond.”

My heart sunk.

“I haven’t heard good things about Jake Boudreaux. That way is definitely dangerous.”

“Do you feel safer going through Pinoteaux territory?” Hugo asked, opening the driver’s side door for me.

Damn. Did I? Should I go to my family’s home, throw myself on their mercy, and beg a safe place for us?

It might be easier than trying to make it all the way across Bastide territory without getting caught.

But the red flash of hair on those two people in the forest nagged at me.

No, I wouldn’t risk going there, either.

“You’re right. Let’s go south.”

Hugo helped me up and I moved the seat forward, rubbing my belly absently as I scanned the fields and mountains beyond the gate.

Not a fly flickered out there.

“Let’s go, baby Ciel,” I said, to make myself brave.

I pulled down the sun visor and a little piece of paper fluttered into my lap.

“What’s this? It’s got some numbers on it.”

Hugo grabbed it and snorted.

“Just like my idiot brother. Looks like we won’t have to actually ram the gates at all. He’s left the security code here.”

What a lucky break, I thought. . .

The code opened the doors immediately, and I drove out almost wonderingly under the gates that had kept me prisoner for so long.

My hands trembled with excitement. I didn’t drive very often. It just wasn’t done in my family.

But what else hadn’t been done and for what reason?

Just as I took my first breath of free air, something hit the right front tire with a terrifyingly loud pop and the truck pitched wildly in that direction.