Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98000 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 490(@200wpm)___ 392(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
But we haven’t done any business yet. All he did was call her, and they’ve been in the room for hours, fucking each other’s brains out while my mom sits at home.
Pain shoots through my jaw as I grind my teeth together.
A while later, the woman comes out completely naked, followed by my father, who’s wearing a robe. They’re both sweaty and disheveled. He clearly doesn’t care if I see her or know that he’s cheating on my mom.
“Aren’t you cute?” The naked woman pinches my cheek, and I jerk away from her.
“Fuck you,” I tell her. “He’s married.”
“Sweetie…I know.” She winks at me, and my dad laughs. My face flames with both embarrassment and anger. “You get a couple of years older, and you can have your turn.”
My stomach twists, and it takes everything in me not to lunge at her, not to hurt her for embarrassing me and betraying my mother, but like always, I don’t do anything. I can’t. Not against my father.
He orders room service, and the two of them eat at a small table, the woman still naked. He did get me food, but the thought of swallowing any of it down makes me want to vomit.
When they’re done, she goes back into the room and gets dressed. When she’s in the living room again, she approaches me first. “See you later, sugar. You’ll understand one day.”
“That my father likes sticking his dick in dirty whores?” In reality, I know it’s not her fault. I know he’s the one who owes my mom his loyalty, and she’s either just doing her job if he’s paying her, or maybe she thinks they actually have a future together.
She gives me a sad smile and walks over to my father, the two of them kissing, tongues in each other’s mouths as I seethe.
The second the door closes behind her, my father is standing in front of me. I don’t have time to realize what’s happening before he backhands me across the face. I stumble with the power of his hit and fall onto the coffee table, hitting the floor along with a plate and cup from earlier.
“You’re cheating on Mom,” I shout defiantly.
“Your mother lives in a beautiful home and has more money than she knows what to do with. She knows better than to complain where I stick my dick.” He grabs the front of my shirt and jerks me to my feet. “She knows how to stay important to me. She runs my home and raises my kids. She does what I tell her because if she doesn’t, she’s worthless to me. You should learn a lesson or two from her. This world”—he hits his chest—“I fucking own it. You’re only allowed to stay in it if I want you to. The sooner you learn that, the better.”
There’s no doubt in my mind he would kill her if he wanted to…that he would kill me. And then who would Aislin have?
I hate what he’s doing to Mom, to us. It makes me sick, but he’s right. This is how this world works. Did I think he really loves Mom? Loves me?
This time when he smacks my aching cheek, he does it lightly, playfully. “Now clean this mess up while I get dressed. You’re going to get to see what happens to someone who doesn’t do as I say. Let Conan and your uncle Rian in when they get here.” Without another word, he walks out of the room.
Learn what happens when someone doesn’t listen to him? I thought we were here for guns. But I guess it could be both.
I hate him, but God, I want his power.
What does that say about me?
I clean up the mess, and just as I finish, there’s a knock at the door. I look through the peephole to see my uncle Rian with a huge smile. Conan stands beside him, saying something to my uncle.
“Hey,” I say, opening the door.
“What happened to you?” Rian comes in and holds my face gingerly.
I know better than to tell him the truth. We are a lot of things, but we have a code, and both Rian and Conan aren’t the kind of men who would like my father hitting me. Would they do anything about it? No, but it would embarrass my father.
“This fucker at school. He was picking on someone, but don’t worry, I beat his ass.”
“You used the moves I showed you?” Conan begins bouncing on his toes, pretending to box. He’s always been a good fighter, both with brute strength and skill. He’s studied martial arts too.
Rian pretends to fight him, the two of them going at it for a moment, and not for the first time in my life, I wish my father were one of them. But then, even though Uncle Rian isn’t abusive to Cillian the way my dad is to me, he’s not a good father either.