“You entitled little brat,” she snarled, lunging after me.
But again, I slipped from her grasp just before she could clasp her fingers around my arm. “Like you’re one to talk about entitlement. How much did Daddy put away in your trustfund?”
“Daddy hasn’t bought me shit. This ismyhouse, and you’d do well to remember that.”
She stormed closer to me, but I ducked behind an arm chair, feigning right and left to keep her locked in a stalemate. “Or what? You’ll kick me out? I don’t think your secret club would like that very much.”
As Dom grabbed the chair’s arms and threw it to the side, I vaulted over it, taking shelter on the opposite end of thecoffee table. The volume was starting to hurt my ears with each increase, but I’d take the pain happily if she suffered even half as much.
“God, when did you get so fucking spoiled.” She roared, kicking the coffee table into my path.
“What can I say? Some of us are just born special.” I shoved the table back at her, still clutching the remote in my hand. “Here’s the thing, I get why I don’t like you, but your hatred for me… what’s that about? Didn’t get enough hugs from Mommy and Daddy growing up?”
That comment was enough to push Dom over the edge. She didn’t lunge for me, she fucking leapt, clearing the table as she tackled me onto the couch.
“Give. It.” She growled through clenched teeth.
But even with her palm pinning my face into the cushion, I wasn’t going to let her win. I fumbled with what little range of motion I had to shove the remote down my sweatpants, accidentally flipping the channel to the local news as I did so.
“Good luck getting it now. I bet that’s exactly what you wanted. Being a dick gets you off, doesn’t it?”
“In your fucking dreams.” She growled, yanking down the band of my sweatpants.
As the waistband inched down, I was shocked at the jolt of excitement that stung through my core. It wasn’t about Dom, it was just the motion — or at least, that’s what I tried to convince myself.
But there was no denying that my body was responding to her strong thighs straddling my legs, keeping me pinned tight to the couch. For every inch of muscle covering Leo’s body, Dom had double, and she wasn’t afraid to use it.
And as her hand slid down my pants, my stupid, traitorous body couldn’t help but want her to use that force on me.
She was wrist-deep under my waistband, and mere inches from the remote, when a familiar voice froze us both in place.
His name felt like ice passing from my lips. “Gabe?”
Both of our heads whipped around in time to see Gabe settle in the spotlight at a press conference, tears brimming in his eyes. “It’s been 43 days since my girlfriend, Kiera Tierney went missing. And it’s with a humble heart that I ask for your help.”
82
KIERA
I blinked,but the image on the television didn’t change. My abusive ex-boyfriend was on the local news, white-knuckling a press podium while he gave a tearful address about my disappearance.
And it wasn’t just him — among the ranks of police officers and suited men flanking him was my mother. Maura was cloaked in a black fur, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief like a newly wealthy widow.
There’s no way she could afford that outfit off what I’d sent her alone.
I bristled at the thought that I’d been living hand to mouth to pay her rent while she was racking up debt for designer clothes. But that was the least of my concerns right now.
It seemed that putting my foot down with Maura had consequences after all. They just weren’t the ones I’d expected. And rather than accepting my boundary with any modicum of grace, she happily escalated from harassing calls and texts to conspiring with my shitty boyfriend to sick the cops after me.
Worse though was the fact that she had the audacity to stand up there and play the grieving mother, like this was about my safety rather than her financial security. “What a fucking leech.”
Still on top of me, Dom released some of her pressure as her own eyes were glued to the screen.
And then there was Gabe, with his hair greased back and his too-big suit. He looked like a sad child rather than the powerful businessman he so desperately wanted to be.Probably by his publicist’s design. Drum up some sympathy for the circus…
“Kiera was last seen on the night of October 9th outside of Red Poison in downtown Stonewick. We were out celebrating my company’s acquisition when I was violently assaulted by two masked men outside the bar.
“I tried to defend Kiera, but two-against-one, I was overpowered, sustaining a concussion and several tissue-wounds during the altercation. As I tried to get back to my feet, one of these men grabbed Kiera, forcing her onto the back of a motorcycle and disappearing with her into the night.
