He wrapped his hand around my neck and squeezed. “Don’t need my brothers now, do I?”
Yeah, I kind of regretted saying that.
Especially when I was gulping for air and gagging on water. The stream filled my eyes, blurring my vision. The only thing I could do when his large hand scrubbed over my face was blindly slap about.
By the time Devlin finally let me go, I was more concerned with coughing oxygen back into my lungs than anything else.
“Keep testing me, Sydney.” The rough hair on his face abraded my cheek as he spoke against my ear. “I dare you.”
It was official. This place sucked ass. I wanted to go back to Mr. Tompkins’s sweaty apartment over a massage parlor. If it saved me from having to deal with the Adair boys, then I’d take his skeezy side eyes. And I meant boys, because men weren’t assholes who would hold a girl’s face under water.
Okay, some men were, but most of those were in jail.
Huh? Jail? There was an idea. How much time would someone get for unwanted make-up removal? In some circles, that would be considered a serious offence. And did I reapply my make-up right after? You bet your sweet ass I did. Even added some sparkles under my eyes as an extra fuck you.
Charmaine lifted her hand to touch a small flower. “Look at this. Isn’t it pretty?”
“It’s beautiful.” I smiled down at the purple and orange petals she was gingerly smoothing her finger over.
We continued our walk down a brick path, cutting under an archway of willow trees. I could see why Charmaine liked it in here. It took a bit for the different floral aromas to stop assailing my scenes.
It reminded me of walking into a church meeting with a bunch of older women wearing way too much perfume. Now the scent had calmed down into something soft and sweet.
I wasn’t sure what a room like this would be called. Probably something pompous, like the inner sanctum of forestry. I’d go with something simpler, like the indoor greenhouse.
Though technically all greenhouses were indoors, just not smack dab in the middle of a house. Most weren’t this comfortable temperature-wise, either.
Charmaine pulled me onto the small bridge and pointed down at the water below. “Look.”
A smile curled my lips as a school of colorful fish swam by. Bright yellow, red, and blue scales sparkled in the light. All right, it was pretty in here. I’d give my new stepfamily that. They might have a little bit of class.
My eyes swung around the room. Okay, maybe more than a little, but that didn’t cancel out the eerie factor. This entire place was made of glass that frosted when the doors shut. A private oasis in the heart of hell, with a little pond, every type of flower one could think of, and a small wooden bridge.
I’d never seen anything more misleading in my life, because the Adair household was no Garden of Eden. Yet the birds flew around singing songs as if we were in Avalon or some shit. Then again, Avalon did have man-eating dragons, so…
“It’s so peaceful in here.”
Charmaine wasn’t wrong. All this scenery made it kind of hard to hang on to my anger and hatred. Almost as if the lush greenery sucked the negativity right out of my soul. At first, I thought it was a courtyard, but there was no sky. Just a glass view of the floor above.
Having a balcony overlooking us wasn’t strange at all. I kept looking up, expecting to see someone’s beady eyes staring down. Or a dark, threatening stare.
My heart nearly stopped when Charmaine jumped and clapped her hands, making the wooden planks beneath us creak. I couldn’t help but glance up at the ceiling. One tiny crack in that glass dome would send a shower of shards raining down on us.
Maybe this wasn’t such a peaceful room after all?
I could almost feel the scratch etching across one of the panes. Followed by tiny little clinks and screeches as the glass gave way.
“Look, Charmaine.” Angus’s voice cut through the haunting sounds in my ears. “Water lilies.”
“Oh, my daughter would love those.”
That made me cock a brow. “I’m your daughter.”
Charmaine had a lot of problems, but she never once forgot who I was.
Her pupils didn’t appear dilated. At least, I didn’t think they did. It wasn’t like I had a lot of experience in that department. I spent more time with my mother in an institution than I did at home. Would I know if she was drugged, or would sober be the abnormal Charmaine?
She stared at me, dazed for a second, and then blinked and smiled. “Of course you are. I know that.”
