The drive up to Elijah’s house was very long and winding. It was paved, but on either side, the land rolled away, wild and filled with trees and brush as far as the eye could see. This wasn’t at all like her grandfather’s manicured estate. The only flowers growing were wildflowers. She glimpsed a couple of oil wells as she drove along the fence line of his property, and she wasn’t surprised. Bannaconni, his closest neighbor, was noted for finding oil, even in the most obscure places.

She slowed her car and pulled to a stop to stare out over the wild land. A part of her longed to leap out of her seat and just start running, lose herself there, in the middle of all that rough terrain. She sat there a long time, feeling tears on her face. She was lonely. Lonely at school. Lonely at home. Just plain lonely. She didn’t have girlfriends to go out clubbing with. She didn’t have boyfriends to take her to dinner or sit and watch movies with.

She had her grandfather, who these days seemed far away, cut off from her, more under the thumb of Paolo and Alonzo. She rarely saw her grandfather without one or the other of them close. In fact, her last three visits, she’d never really been alone with him. They were continually at his side. Alonzo was ice-cold. Paolo stared at her hungrily, like an animal scenting something weak and ready to pounce.

She didn’t consider herself weak. Just lost. She had no real direction. She had just finished school and had no more excuses to stay away. She’d spent most of her summers and vacations gaining hands-on experience in the vineyards, learning to care for the grapes. She stood to inherit everything. The vineyards and the winery. All of her grandfather’s businesses. She had no other living relative. None.

She stared out into the wild, beckoning land. She needed to take some control in her life. She’d escaped to school, she realized. Ran away. She didn’t want to be home anymore. It wasn’t a sanctuary or a haven; it was an alien place filled with men who walked all over her. She needed to talk to her grandfather, without either Paolo or Alonzo around, and explain she was due a lot more freedom.

She had her own money. Her grandmother had left her a trust fund. Her parents had left her a second trust fund. She didn’t need to stay under her grandfather’s thumb if he disagreed with her. She needed to get some guts and actually confront him. It was time to get rid of the bodyguards. She was tired of living her life under the scrutiny of his army of men. She actually thought of them like that. Soldiers.