Page 64 of Stay Toxic

“But why?”

“I would have thought that was obvious, my gorgeous little pervert. You’re mine.”

28

SEBASTIAN

Patience, as it turns out, isn’t my strongest suit.

For the rest of the week, my poor little darling is restless and scared. She tries to hide it, of course. That’s her default setting: hiding her feelings, because they’ve never been welcomed, nurtured, encouraged. Only ever punished.

Which is one of the many reasons I’m impatient for this weekend.

“You’re sure you want to go there?” my cousin asks over the rim of his glass of scotch.

We’re in his employer’s private jet, as our travels can’t appear on any records.

“I can handle it myself. Once you get your hands dirty, it’s a slippery slope.”

I nod curtly. I’ve thought of nothing but today for the last week, ever since Senator Cole’s goon tried to take Hestia from me. I’m looking forward to it. What does that say about me?

“Some people love getting their hands dirty, Markus,” his girlfriend says with a wink. “You know. Gardeners. Bakers. And us, of course.”

He takes her hand and brings the back of her palm to his mouth for a kiss. “Yes, us, Dez. Aurelius is a nice guy. A normal guy.”

My cousin wrinkles his nose at the very idea of normalcy.

“I’ve thought of nothing else beyond murdering that bitch for the last six days,” I reply. “Maybe I’m not that normal.”

“Well, you guys are related.” Dez chuckles. “As Marcella married into the Goltz family, the Kellers can’t be entirely normal.”

“Where does Tia think you are?” Markus asks, making a point, I suppose.

His girlfriend is right here, not only fully aware of his actions and fully supporting him, but participating. Mine is back in Thorn Falls, studying.

“On a trip, with you,” I am proud to reply.

If he thinks I’d lie, he’s mistaken. Sure, I didn’t tell her what we intended to do, lest she find mercy in her heart and ask me to spare her mother. But I have no intention of hiding anything. I’d just rather tell her after the fact.

“Very well. But you’ll do exactly as I say, at all times. I’ve never so much as left a trace, and I don’t intend to get caught because an amateur tagged along.”

“Hush,” Dez chides him. “He’s in. He won’t change his mind or fuck it up. They hurt his girl. Shall I suck you off to release all that tension?”

Markus pretends to think on it. “Couldn’t hurt.”

* * *

The house is large, quiet, and cold. Not in the way Gold House can be—my aunt and uncle might be posh bastards, but they’re marvelous hosts. If anything, their family tends to be too fiery; when they don’t get along, the boys start to literally fight at sword point and shout insults at each other.

This place is a tomb.

Designed with the general aesthetic of a cartoon villain, the white mansion boasts red curtains with gold trims. Enlarged family portraits hang on the walls. I notice that while they include smiling pictures of Hestia, all of them seem to have been taken when she was younger than ten. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume there was a little girl living in this place rather than the twenty-two-year-old with a laundry list of anxieties, currently halfway across the country.

“Clear,” Markus’s unsavory associate announces. The handsome blond man smirks. “She was seriously fucking stressed, pacing all over the place.”

No wonder. She has every reason to be, with her henchman missing after being deployed to kidnap her heiress of a daughter.

They’ve worked on infiltrating the security this week—awfully simple in the wake of Joseph’s disappearance.