“You don’t like your stepmother?” he questions.
“I h-hate her,” I confess before pressing my fingertips against my lips. I don’t think I’ve ever spoken those words aloud before, not even to my best friend. Why I felt the need to confide inDimitri is beyond me. And the fact that he could turn around and rat me out crosses my mind. “The f-f-feeling is v-very much m-m-mutual,” I add, hoping he’ll understand.
He parks the car near the front gate and nods slowly. “Go through the service entrance in the back and sleep in one of the guest rooms. Then you won’t risk running into her on the way to your room. Maybe she’ll just assume you were there all night.”
I’m not sure how he knows so much about our home, but I decide not to question it. Instead, I simply nod in agreement. “G-g-good idea.” I get out of the car and am about to close the door when I suddenly turn and stare at him. His blue eyes meet mine, and they look darker in the low light. “Thank you,” I tell him sincerely.
Dimitri simply turns and looks straight ahead, ignoring me.
Sighing, I close the door behind me and hightail it up the hill to my house. I put the passcode in for the side gate, and then I go through the service entrance, just like Dimitri suggested. After lying awake for a while, I manage to eventually fall asleep in one of the guest bedrooms. By morning, I can hear my stepmother concocting her morning Bloody Mary cocktail in the blender, so I manage to sneak up to my room without her seeing or hearing me.
I spend the rest of the day in bed, too sick to move and swearing off drinking for the rest of my life. As I lie there, my mind keeps straying back to Dimitri. I just don’t know how to feel about him, and I don’t know if I’ll ever figure him out. But I hope something changes soon, because I feel like I’m running out of time.
CHAPTER TEN
Dimitri
MY ARMS TREMBLEwith exhaustion as I tilt my chin and stare at the sun setting in the distance. I’ve been standing here for at least six hours, but it feels much longer.
Sweat drips down my brow, getting in my eyes, and I desperately try to blink away the saltiness. It stings, but I block out the pain, just like always. Pain is just a state of mind at this point. I learned that pretty early on in life.
My father ends a phone call and stares at me over the top of his sunglasses. The bastard casually checks his watch as he takes a sip from his tall glass of ice water with a mint leaf floating near the top.
“Are you ready to tell me where you were last night?” my father questions for what must be the fortieth time today.
I remain stoic, my shoulders screaming in pain as I try to keep the heavy buckets filled with water straight and steady with my arms stretched out flat to either side. One of mypunishments for being MIA last night was to hold up these buckets. It wasn’t too bad for the first hour or two. But now it feels like the buckets weigh a ton, and my muscles have been seizing up trying to keep them balanced as I T-pose out in the blistering heat.
I close my eyes, my right eye throbbing in pain from the movement. Part of my other punishment. A nice punch in the face from dear old dad.
I know why he’s pissed. I was supposed to be with him last night for the drug deal. Instead, he had to take another man, someone he didn’t trust as much.
But the deal went well, so deep down I know he’s just pissed because I disobeyed him. It’s one of the few times I’ve done so. Hell, I could probably count on one hand how many times I’ve defied him. But when I’d overheard people at school talking about a party at Corbin McCall’s house and how Savina would be there, I knew I had to go.
For some reason, I want to protect her. Always. I don’t know if it’s simply because of the fact that she’s mine or the fact that she somehow keeps getting herself into situations that require me to help. She’s a walking fucking catastrophe. Bad luck seems to follow her around wherever she goes.
But I’m pleased to say that my intuition about the party was right. She did need my help last night. When I saw Corbin spike Savina’s drink with an unknown substance, I wasn’t taking any chances. I knew I couldn’t let her drink it. Who knows what the hell would have happened if she had. Corbin could have easily taken advantage of her.
It’s bad enough he gets to kiss and touch Savina. The thought of him fucking her sends me straight over the edge. And the fact that he could have raped her while she was unconscious or passed her around to his friends while she was in a vulnerable state makes me want to rip his fucking heart out of his chest with my own bare hands.
My muscles quake as I heft the buckets higher; my anger fueling me now.
Pushing her in the pool wasn’t part of the plan, but I had to do whatever it took to get her to listen to me and stop acting like a brat. God, she’s such a brat with me. But I’ll admit, I kind of like it. Sometimes anyway. She’s always pushing my buttons…but in a good way. It turns me the fuck on.
“Are yousmilingright now?” my father sneers.
Oh shit.I quickly wipe the grin off my face and replace it with a grimace, hoping he won’t notice the difference.
He stands, removes his sunglasses and sets down his drink. “I needed you by my side last night, Dimitri. You can’t just blow off your duties to this family because you want to go hang out with your friends or whatever the hell you were doing last night.”
There’s a reason I can’t tell him about where I was, because then there’ll be more questions, and I might slip up and mention Savina’s name. I don’t want her to get into trouble with her own father. I don’t really know what kind of a man he is, but I have a feeling he’s on the same level as my old man. They like to react before thinking.
And I’m sure what her body is going through today is punishment enough. She’s probably still sick from being roofied by her boyfriend. If she hadn’t thrown up last night, I wouldn’t have let her go home. I would have just kept driving around until she fell asleep in my car. Then, I would have kept an eye on her, watching all night if I had to, just in case anything happened. It’s not like I haven’t watched her sleep a million times before…
My father suddenly moves closer to me, pulling me out of my inner thoughts. I see his muscles tense up a second too late, and I’m not prepared for the punch to my stomach. Instantly, I crumble to the ground, the buckets finally falling out of my grip. Water splashes around me as I cough violently. I lie on the unforgiving concrete, my arms useless and aching. I can’t even protect myself as a second blow comes, this time from his polished shoe.
I let out a low groan as my ribs scream in pain fromthe kick. He definitely bruised a few. I just hope none are broken like last time, because they take forever to heal.
I lie there, exhausted and unable to move, hoping that he won’t keep this up much longer.
