Page 159 of Jay Bird

He wouldn’t make that mistake again.

His gaze shifted toward the reflection in the window, allowing him to see the large bed behind him.

Willow lay motionless near the center of the mattress, her arms resting awkwardly with her wrists secured together in front of her. Her ankles had been bound as well, although the restraints were probably unnecessary while the drugs remained in her system. She had barely moved since they had arrived at the house.

Even unconscious, she looked different.

Chen turned away from the window and studied her more carefully.

The physical changes were subtle. She looked healthier than she had when she had escaped Morocco, and there was more color in her face. Her hair was longer, and the clothes she wore were nothing like what he had allowed her to wear while she lived with him.

But those weren’t the differences bothering him. It was what he had seen outside the rescue center.

Chen had expected Willow to panic the moment she recognized Liu. He had expected fear to take over and return her to the obedient woman she had once been whenever she understood resistance would only make things worse.

Instead, she had fought. And she’d fought well.

Three men had been needed to control her, and even then she had managed to hurt two of them before they got her to the ground. She had fought with a desperation that went beyond protecting Lily. There had been purpose behind her movements, as though someone had actually taught her what to do.

Chen’s jaw tightened at the memory.

He wondered how much the man Willow had been with was responsible for the changes in her.

Chen had seen enough photographs during the week he and his people had watched Willow to understand that whatever existed between them went beyond her simply staying in his home. Willow touched him willingly. She smiled around him. She allowed the man near her daughter, and Lily appeared attached to him.

They had even begun using his last name. That particular discovery had infuriated Chen more than he cared to admit.

Willow belonged to him, yet she had been walking around Virginia Beach pretending she belonged to another man.

He crossed the room and stopped beside the bed.

A faint bruise had already begun forming near Willow’s temple from the struggle earlier, and Chen reached toward her before stopping himself. There would be plenty of time for touching her once they were safely overseas.

First, she needed to remember her place. The thought brought some of his satisfaction back.

Willow had surprised him. He would give her that much. Escaping Morocco had required more intelligence and courage than he had believed she possessed, and surviving on her own afterward had proven she was far more resourceful than he had ever credited her for being.

But none of that changed what came next.

Once they reached Italy, he would begin her training again. This time there would be no special privileges, no wandering the property unattended, and no opportunities for her to mistake his generosity for weakness. Whatever confidence she had gained during her little taste of freedom would be stripped away.

And when she finally understood that running from him had accomplished nothing except making her life harder, Chen might consider giving her some of the freedoms she had once enjoyed.

Willow shifted faintly on the bed.

Chen’s attention sharpened.

A quiet sound escaped her as her head moved against the pillow, but her eyes remained closed. The drugs were beginning to wear off.

Chen returned to the window and lifted his glass again, strangely eager for the moment she woke and realized exactly where she was.

He wanted her to understand that the life she had built in Virginia was already behind her.

Soon, they would board the jet. By sunrise, the United States would be thousands of miles away, and once Willow was behind the walls of his estate in Italy, no Navy SEAL, federal agent, or friend she had collected during her brief taste of freedom would ever take her from him again.

Willow felt the pain before anything else. Her entire body ached with the deep soreness that came after being hit and thrown around, and when she tried to shift, something pulled painfully against her wrists.

Her eyes opened slowly, struggling to focus through the lingering fog in her head, and for several seconds she stared at an unfamiliar ceiling while trying to understand where she was.