I'm not everyone. Seiya tilted her head slightly. We'll see. We headed toward my horse while people across the market watched us leave. A few laughed.
Others shook their heads as if they had already seen how my story would end. "That cowboy has no idea what kind of trouble he just bought himself," I heard one man mutter. I ignored him. I helped Seiya onto the horse, climbed into the saddle behind her, and turned us toward home. That was how our journey began.
Seiya didn't say a single word during the entire ride. Still, I could feel her presence in front of me with an intensity that was impossible to ignore. There was strength in her, but also mystery and something unsettling I couldn't quite put into words. I kept wondering what secret she carried that made other men unwilling to keep her near them. And more than once I found myself thinking about whatever was hidden across her back.
Whatever those marks were, they had frightened grown men badly enough to send her back. I didn't know the truth yet, but I would soon. And when I finally learned what Seiya was hiding, my life would never be the same again. because she wasn't simply another captive from a forgotten market. She was a living mystery. And without realizing it, I had just paid $50 for the most dangerous secret in all of Arizona.
We reached my ranch 3 hours later. The sun was dropping towards the horizon by then, staining the sky with deep orange and red. My spread wasn't much to look at. There was an aging wooden house worn gray by years of wind and weather, a barn, and several cattle pens stretched across the dry ground. It wasn't rich.
It wasn't impressive. But it was was honest land. And most important of all, it was mine. I climbed down first, then reached up and helped Seiya from the saddle. Her dark eyes moved slowly across the house, the barn, the fences, and the surrounding land.
She seemed to notice every crooked board and every patch of dry earth. It's small, she said. Big enough to live on. You live here alone? Yes.
For how long? 5 years. Why? I looked towards the house. because I haven't found a good enough reason not to. Seiya studied me in a way that made me feel she understood more than I had actually said.
Come on, I told her. I'll show you where you can sleep. I let her inside. The house was plain. A main room with a fireplace, a small kitchen, and two bedrooms upstairs.
I took her to the smaller one. You can have this room. It ain't a palace, but the sheets are clean. Seiya stepped inside slowly. She reached out and brushed her fingertips over the bed as though she wasn't entirely convinced it was real.
"I haven't slept in a bed in a very long time," she murmured. "How long? Years?" Something tightened painfully inside my chest. "Well, you've got one now. Get some rest.
We'll talk about the ranch work tomorrow." I turned towards the door. Her voice stopped me. Cade. I looked back. Yes.
Why did you buy me? Because I needed help. That isn't true. The way she looked at me made me feel as if she could see straight through every excuse I might try to hide behind. There were other women there, she continued. cheaper women, younger women, women without trouble following them.
Why did you choose me? I didn't answer immediately. The truth was I didn't fully understand it myself. I don't know, I finally admitted. But when I saw you sitting in that cage, something told me I couldn't just walk away.