This time, when I check my phone, I have a different message waiting for me. The two men I left behind at George’s confirm they took care of her father and tied up all the loose ends.
Everything is falling into place.
You could just ask your dad to get out of it.
I thrust that idea away with instant repugnance. Bad enough to plead with the old man regarding anything. To plead for the thing I want this badly would just offer him a window into my soul that I don’t want him tohave.
The image of the last time I saw my stepmother, my stepbrother soaks into my brain, dripping its acid until my nose stings and my eyes water.
It doesn’t take a genius to know that my father’s dangerous. To everyone but especially to me.
He already took care of one son and wife who couldn’t live up to his standards. I’m never going to offer myself or my mother on that chopping block.
Not in a million years.
I sit for a while longer, pressing the heels of my palms into my eyes, running through everything as I search for spots of weakness. Areas where a misstep might cause the complete house of cards to tumble.
Nothing that I can think of. I’ll just have to deal with anything like that as it comes.
“What’s this rumour I hear about you escorting a girl doused in blood to your room?”
“Hey, Kari,” I respond, slowly removing my hands from my eyes. “Nice to see you, too.”
She’s dressed to the nines and my gaze flicks up and down her, enough that she catches it and smiles. “I’m going to a party if you want to come. You’ll need to change.”
“I’m good.”
“Aren’t you going to answer my first question?”
I let out a long sigh. “George’s dad got beaten up. She called me because she had nowhere else to go and I generously offered her my room for the night.”
“Right. The girl who’s caused nothing but trouble, and you offer her a place to stay. What’s next? Let me guess.” Her voice turns falsetto. Cutting. “Oh. But there’s only one bed!”
“I’m here, aren’t I? If I wanted to jump her bones, I’d be in my room ravishing George with you none the wiser.”
“Thanks to every loudmouth in this place, I am very much the wiser, thank you. How d’you think I feel when every time you stray, I get told about it in detail from a hundred different sources?”
It’s a fair point, even if I don’t care to hear it. “Sorry if it causes you trouble, but I was hardly going to leave her there to get beaten to death.”
“And the city doesn’t have any hotels?”
A pertinent thought strikes. “Would you care? If it wasn’t for the gossips, would you actually give a shit?”
The crease on her brow tells me she doesn’t understand.
“You don’t want this relationship any more than I do,” I say, hazarding a pretty firm guess. “If you told your dad that, wouldn’t he call it off?”
She narrows her eyes like she thinks it’s a trick. “Why don’t you tell your dad?”
It’s a fair question. Soren and Creighton are much of a muchness.
I raise my eyebrow, staring at the beautiful façade of Kari’s face. She puts so much effort into her appearance and for what? To marry the son of a man she can’t stand. To spend her life skulking in the shadows, having her moves determined by the family patriarch rather than her own common sense.
If I confess the truth, we might be able to sort this out together.
“When I helped get rid of the Golden Boy one-point-oh, Creighton held onto some evidence. If I don’t do what he says, he’ll turn me in.”
Her eyes turn round, and her mouth falls open. “Oh, shit.” Then she giggles. “Nice way to stitch yourself up.”
