Love in the Land of Fire, Brochu, Rebecca [best free novels .txt] 📗

the day he’d talked about Miguel, affection that Josiah’s sure had been returned wholeheartedly. There’s no way someone who could inspire such care in Rafe after so many years without contact would have committed suicide without saying goodbye to Rafe first. It seems as if Zweil House has more than one thing to answer for if Josiah is reading the signs correctly.

He closes the document out and pulls up the next one, resolving to break the news to Rafe gently as soon as he gets the chance. The next document is a compilation of financial records outlining a series of credit exchanges between Zweil House and Frisch House. Josiah sets them to the side to be forwarded to Marcel after he’s done. They’ll be of far more use to her than to him.

He goes through a few more files of the same kind, things that are important but will have to be forwarded to the proper channels or handled later before he finds something that makes him curse viciously.

It’s a contract, signed by Frisch and Jean Zweil around the time Rafe turned twenty-one, binding Rafe into Frisch’s care on the understanding that they might one day Bond. He now knows why Gar had stopped him from sending in the paperwork that announced his intention to enter into a contract with Rafe and Josiah curses himself for not thinking ahead. It seemed as if Eagan had been correct when he’d called Frisch Rafe’s future Bonded despite not being able to find a contract on record. It had been done in-house, obviously without Rafe’s approval or knowledge, and it makes Josiah’s gut clench in knots. If he had sent in those documents he and Rafe both would have been found in direct violation of a previously established contract and would have been immediately subjected to questioning and a heavy fine. Even though Frisch was being investigated on charges of abuse the contract still stood for the moment and unless it was dissolved Josiah and Rafe would be unable to enter into a legal contract of their own. Added onto that were the possible ramifications it would have on the case itself.

Contracts were designed to protect both parties and there are normally heavy consequences to breaking one, especially on the count of what could be considered infidelity. If it weren’t for Gar, Josiah would have ruined everything with a single document. He closes the contract, putting it aside to look at later even though he knows deep inside that it won’t matter. He’ll have Rafe no matter what he has to do, how long he has to wait, or who he has to pay off.

The screen of his p.a.t.c.h blinks and goes blue again with an incoming message and Josiah knows that the person behind it is Gar.

Document NFJ-2234 will take care of the contract. Have patience and stay calm.

Intrigued Josiah types in the file name, curious as to what Gar has found that he believes can be used to dissolve the contract so easily. His entire body goes tense when the file opens and Josiah realizes that Gar has managed to get his hands on a copy of Frisch’s personal video diary. Almost nervous, Josiah cues up the first file, dated some ten years back, and watches as Frisch’s younger but still familiar face comes on screen and his voice spills out into the room around him.

“That bitch Jean owes me for pulling her ass out of the fire. If it weren’t for me she would have lost everything. She’ll give me what I want or I’ll make sure it all happens anyways. She owes me and I intend to collect.”

It’s ominous and doesn’t explain much, but Josiah knows that Gar has included it for a reason so he flips to the next clip, this one dated almost a full year later, to see if things become any clearer.

“I think I’ve found exactly what I want in return. I saw him around the compound and he’s perfect. The fact that he’s his son makes it all the sweeter. It might take some doing since Jean seems fond of him but 4 she’s fonder of her position. He’ll be mine. It’s just a matter of time.”

A nasty suspicion begins to form in Josiah’s mind, a cold dread filling up the pit of his stomach even as he clicks on the next file.

“She’s finally given in, after relentless perusal and reminding her where she’d be right now without me she’s finally agreed to give him to me. He’s of age now, twenty-one and fully capable of entering into a contract. She’ll sign him over or I’ll make an anonymous tip off to the Enforcers and let them know just how the boy’s parents really died.”

Josiah drops his p.a.t.c.h on the cushion beside him and scrubs his hands violently over his face. It’s what he thought it was, what he hoped he’d been wrong about when the suspicion first unfurled in his breast. Rafe had been sold, forced to enter into a contract against his will and even without his knowledge in order to appease Frisch. Bartered as payment to a blackmailer who apparently knew the real truth behind how Rafe’s father and his Bonded Miguel had died. He has to resist the urge to pour himself a stiff drink, knowing that it’s entirely too early and that he needs to be sober and clearheaded when Rafe wakes up.

The next clip comes from two years after the last one; Rafe would have been twenty-three and tied to Frisch.

Josiah’s gut clenches and he almost doesn’t bring it up, almost doesn’t want to watch it, but he doesn’t really have a choice. He needs to know for sure what Gar thought was so important in these files even though he suspects from Gar’s warning that what he’ll