“Yes.” I hate that my father made me confess to him that it was my place, that he wrung the truth from me later that day in his office like I was nothing more than a wet rag.
“Seven, as we arranged?”
“Yes. I remembered all the details. How could I get them wrong?”
He laughs, and the pitch of it raises the hairs on my body.
“Good. Now, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
I stay planted where I am, right in the foyer. I don’t ask who, because I’m struck numb with fear at the current of wicked delight in his voice.
“I’m really tired…” I try to tell him.
I figure that if I can make it to my room, I can lock myself in there, and he’ll leave me alone.
He surprises me, though, as a smile curls over his lips. “You’ll come with me. It’s not negotiable.”
I sink my top teeth into my bottom lip. Hard. I remember the way his fingers pressed into my arms, bruising me the last time. I don’t actually have any idea what he’s capable of. I just have to hold on until tomorrow night. Somehow, I’m going to get my mother out of the house, maybe under the pretense of a doctor’s appointment, late in the afternoon. Steel’s going to arrange a safe house for us in Miami. I just have to get there. I’m hiring a car, something that terrifies me as I’ve not driven since the accident. But I have to get us away.
My father turns, and all I can do is follow him. I trail down the halls of a house that has always felt like a prison, but never more so than at the moment. I wish I could leave in the morning, but Steel needed the extra day to arrange a safe placefor Mom and me to go. I knew that even in her apathetic state, she’d fight me every step of the way, so Steel’s plan made sense. I had to get us out of town and holing up at the clubhouse wasn’t an option.
He stops in front of his office and opens the door, gesturing for me to enter. My eyes widen when I step inside and he shuts the door behind us. A huge, black-clad figure steps out from the darkened corner of the opposite end of the sprawling office, and my breath catches in my throat.
My father takes a seat behind his desk, presiding over the two of us like he owns us both. I blink hard at the man who approaches slowly. He moves like he is one with the shadows. Tall. Over six feet, but slim. His long, dark hair hangs down to his shoulders. His facial features are hollowed out to the point of gaunt. His eyes are dark, but in the dim lighting, they gleam like black pits in his face. His nose has been broken a few too many times, and his lips are thinned out. A grimy looking black leather jacket hangs off broad shoulders. Long legs are clad in jeans with dark stains mottling most of the surface. His feet end in black boots, and if the rest of his attire and the black hatred in his eyes didn’t give him away, those boots would have.
“Coulson Hughes. President of the Black County Sinners MC. You can call me Wraith.” Surprisingly, he has a pleasant voice. It’s wasted on him, though, a man knee-deep in blood. He extends a tattooed hand glinting with silver rings.
I gawk at that hand, my mouth hanging open.
“Don’t be rude,sweetheart. Shake the man’s hand,” my father commands.
I see the sick pleasure my father is deriving from this, and I want to turn to the biker and tell him that he is making a deal with the Devil. I want to warn him that whateverhe promised him, it’s not what it seems. Nothing ever is with people like my father.
“I said, shake his hand,” my father repeats, standing slowly. He smiles, though, a second later, and my pulse quickens. “If you won’t shake his hand, then go upstairs and pack a bag.”
“A-a bag?” I stammer stupidly.
“That’s right. A bag. I wouldn’t worry about a handshake if I was you, Leah. You see, part of the deal, part of the payment I promised, was you.”
“What?” I take a step back, then another, until my back is against the office wall. The door is so close. Just a few feet to my left. Maybe if I can reach it, I can get it open and run—
“Don’t even consider it.” My father shakes his head, amused. “Mr. Hughes’ men are outside the house. You try and run, they’ll be on you in a second. I’ve heard that thisgentlemandoesn’t like to share what’s his, but then maybe, in this case, he’ll make an exception. Let his men break you in for him.”
Wraith lets out a low rumble. “You promised me she was a virgin.”
“And virgin she is. Just thought you’d like her a little more… experienced. Willing and eager.”
“She’ll be willing and eager enough,” Wraith responds, with a growl, and when his eyes sweep back to me, there is a strangely protective gleam there. “But she’s mine now. No one touches her. She can run, but she won’t get far.”
My father holds up his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Right. Now that it’s settled, she’ll go prepare a bag, and we’ll finish up with our business talk.”
“I’m not preparing anything,” I protest weakly. “I’m not going with him! You can’t just… sell me like I’m something.”
He blinks at me, once, twice. I have obviously served whatever usefulness I might have had, and he is done with me.
“What did you think was going to happen? That you’d just continue to walk free? That I’d keep providing for you to stay alive? You killed my son. I never wanted you anyway, you were a mistake. You should be thankful that I’ve provided for you as long as I have. You’ll make Mr. Hughes a fine woman, I have no doubt. Unfortunately, you have a knack for surviving.”
His cruel words are like a sucker punch to the gut.
