Fleeing the clutches of her disreputable relatives, Sera Livingston has made her escape to Australia's Outback. Disguised as a boy, sharp-tongued Sera searches for her sister but is attacked by bushrangers. Thievery becomes her only chance at surviv...
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Sera was busy sizzling pork in the frying pan for the pie she was making. She hadn't done a bad job and was confident that it would taste as good as Ana's. She heard something come from the living area and realized she must have missed Ana's arrival.
Finishing the pork, she slid them on the counter and wiped her hands with a towel as she walked into the living room. "How was the rest of school? I hope the kids didn't give you too much trouble after I left."
"No trouble at all, you on the other hand Seraphina..." Sera froze and with wide eyes, she looked up to the aristocratic face of a demon from the depths of hell.
Her uncle.
"No," Sera choked out, praying this was a nightmare. "This is impossible. How did you find us?"
He swiped at imaginary dust on his fine tailored clothes. "You were sloppy, and it helps that a certain acquaintance of ours is hell bent on getting you back."
Sera fisted her skirts and stepped toward the man who abused and starved her for years. He stood and took her in. "Now that you've plumped up... I can see why he desires you so badly. Of course, I favor Ana more, but I can still see it."
"What makes you think I'll willingly go back with you?" Sera bit out.
Her uncle gave her that smile that made her skin crawl, too long for his face, stretching his skin like a serpent's mouth, curling at the corners. His grey eyes gleamed with carnal lust.
"Those eyes of yours will never change, will they? No matter how hard I tried, they never diminished."
He glanced down and looked at the picture of Sera's mother and something in Sera made her want to rip it away from his gaze, as if he was corrupting her. "She was so beautiful, wasn't she? Ana looked so much like her."
His finger traced the frame and the way he did it so gently made the hairs on Sera's neck stand straight up. "Is she really a teacher at the schoolhouse? I have men looking for her."
"No." Sera lied.
His eyes, not leaving the drawing of her mother, narrowed. "If only things had been different, and she hadn't married that wretched father of yours."
Sera's heart stuttered at the thought that crossed her mind. "That's why you hate me so much. Because I favor my father. The man who took my mother from you."
Her uncle's fingers slid off the frame. "And you followed in his footsteps. I thought I had been given another chance only for the same fate to fall on me. All. Because. Of. You."
Sera's face contorted in disgust. "You're sick."
"She's here. I can feel it." His handsome face was blank as he stared at Sera. He was sleek and looked the part of a gentleman who did no labor nor bothered with anything but the grand leisure of life. A little round around his stomach, bloated by years of heavy starches. "I'll bring her back and no one will touch her because they'll assume she's ruined, which means she'll be mine forever."
