We had just gotten our own place, Pierce and I. Reed wouldn’t move out of the house and leave Lynn, though. She was eleven or twelve, maybe. We started catching weird vibes. Randal started looking at her less like a daughter and more like… something else. Little things he’d say like, “You’re a big girl now, Lynn, you can’t be wearing shorts and showing off your legs.” What the fuck is a kid in Florida supposed to wear?
Then the omega obsession started. Everywhere you looked, there were those tween magazines all focused on how to know if you’re ready to perfume. Randal kept buying them. Lynn never read them.
Reed didn’t think his father was messing with Lynn, and he didn’t want to outright ask her. Maybe he should have. But what if she did perfume?
That’s when we came up with the plan. We all wanted out of Florida, but you couldn’t basically kidnap a kid when you were broke and sleeping in your car.
We were going to go balls to the wall and make as much money as possible. Reed got that job at the ice rink. Pierce was bouncing at any bar that would take him. I was building websites and hackinginto people’s emails. Then we came up with a haunted house idea. There was an abandoned warehouse, we could do it up with junk yard finds. Throw it up with basically no money. It would be all profit. Kids in our neighborhood would eat that shit up.
That’s when we met Beckett, and we all became a little obsessed with him. Pierce especially.
And then that night. We were all drunk at the bars. Pierce was giddy, flirting with Beckett in our group chat. He loved pushing Beckett’s buttons, knowing Beckett would be squirming and blushing.
Pierce dropped me off before taking Reed home. I should have gone with them. I should have insisted they stay. I should have done a lot of things.
Then Pierce came home covered in Reed’s blood.
I shouldn’t have run with Pierce. I shouldn’t have left Lynn. I shouldn’t have lied to Beckett.
And that all led to an avalanche of bad decisions to protect Beckett from the shit in our past.
My grip creaks on the Charger’s steering wheel, and I can’t force them to relax or let go.
Everything in me is screaming to go in there and rip her out.
But I don’t think I can do that without getting blood on my hands.
My phone pings with a message.
Beckett:
scent match?
we won by the way
My head drops like there’s too much in it weighing it down.
I’ve done so much shit over the years to protect Beckett, protect his career. I can’t go off half-cocked and fuck it up now.
I slam the Charger in gear and let it open up with squealing tires. I need to put some physical space between me and Lynn—Ash—so I can think straight and come up with a plan. One that’s going to work this time.
Chapter forty-six
ASH
“You’resuchafuckingembarrassment, Lynn,” Papa says as he slams the door with one hand and shoves me deeper into the living room with the other. “I work at the Hangman,” he reminds me. “Those were my business associates.”
Oh fuck, what did I do? Estelle is going to be pissed. I said I’d head right back to Tia’s when the game was over. I’m so fucking stupid. The whole Pierce thing stopped my brain completely. I should be relieved that Papa didn’t notice I didn’t come home last night.
“Do you have any idea how that made me look? You just run off in the middle of a business deal?”
Right. He’s selling me. Picking who I’m going to have heat with and getting paid. Not anymore.
“I don’t want to…” My voice is small and shaky. I edge my way around the coffee table, trying to put space between us.
“I don’t fucking care what you want. You belong to me until some alpha lowers his standards enough to take on a whore like you.” His hands shake as he checks his phone “And no alpha is going to want you. Until then, you’re going to do exactly what I say when I say it.”
My cheeks burn. What if he’s right? What if they won’t want me if they know what Papa made me do?
