Total pages in book: 168
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164910 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 825(@200wpm)___ 660(@250wpm)___ 550(@300wpm)
“She’s in the Bay.”
Jerking my head, I see Dallas slide his hands into his pockets.
Ending the call, I watch him step closer, his T-shirt damp against his body, outlining his stomach. His wet neck and hair glow under the dim light from the hallway.
“I had Officer Jaeger take her,” he says.
“You did what?”
She’s not even here? I look around for any sign of her. Why would she leave her phone?
He looks at me with eyes so calm I want to punch him. “Krisjen and Clay will give her some ice cream and make sure she gets some rest.” He blinks. “She’ll be perfectly safe.”
“She’s not safe without me!”
“She’s not safe with you,” he retorts.
I stuff my cell in my pocket and charge toward him. “Who the fuck do you think you are?” I growl. “You know her for two seconds and think you have a right to make decisions about her life?”
“When your best friend tried to take off her clothes tonight, she ran to me,” he fires back. “Not you.”
Take off her clothes? What?!
He wouldn’t have done that with me in the house. I was right down the hallway.
Dallas goes on, “He told her she would be spanked for the windows.” He glances behind him, and I follow his gaze, seeing her beautiful work. “So he offered to go easy on her if she let him do it instead.”
He wouldn’t have done that with me in the house.
But he would’ve done it. It sounds exactly like something he’d say. I picture Milo behind me, down the stairs, and out the door, thinking he could try to lay his hands on her. Did he think I’d pass her around to my friends, too?
He probably didn’t even bat an eyelash about me finding out, because no one knows me. Not him, not my father, not Dallas.
I meet his eyes again. “I’ll take care of it,” I say in a low voice. “But I’m not discussing this with you. Sophia and I—”
“Anna-Katherine.”
“Sophia and I,” I grit out, “are none of your business. Is that clear?”
“Not even close.”
Awesome. I’m not going to yell at her, but she involved him and now he thinks he has a say. Another rule to add to her list.
“Did you know my mother worked for your grandparents?” Dallas points out.
Maybe I heard that somewhere. It didn’t interest me, because they’ve all worked for us in some capacity.
He drifts around the room. “A young, beautiful woman cleaning their house while your father—a young fucking prick—lived there, too.”
I inhale a big breath, knowing where this is going. I don’t even have to guess.
He goes on, “One day, she had my father come and get her and she never went back.”
I’ve never known my father to force a woman physically. He’s very good at using the power he has to coerce people into doing what he wants, and they will often feel as if they don’t have a choice. He loves that. The reluctant surrender.
“He must’ve freaked her out pretty good,” Dallas adds.
I’d imagine so. An episode from my childhood slides to the forefront of my memory, of him making a maid clean his shower on her hands and knees.
He was in it, naked and masturbating over her with the water running.
Dallas stops and levels me with his steady but firm gaze. “Extreme wealth and unlimited power make people sick, Callum,” he states. “When you can have anything you want, you get desensitized. You need to up the ante in order to feel excited.”
I tip my chin up. I don’t need a lesson.
“And then once that becomes normal,” he continues, “you need to up the ante again.”
Is he really educating me on a life I’ve lived for twenty-two years?
“But you know this, don’t you?” he says, as if reading my mind. “You know sickness. Especially after what you tried to do to Liv.”
I didn’t realize I was still scowling until my face falls. What I did…
What I did to Liv? I am nothing like my father.
But before I argue back, he starts pacing. “Stop me when I’m wrong,” he tells me. “Your father sees Anna-Katherine growing up, likes what he sees, and figures he can have anything he wants.” He shrugs at me, cocky. “Why not, right? He’s had young girls before. Why shouldn’t he get a taste before the rest of St. Carmen? He’s the man, right?”
I lock my jaw, my hands aching with anger as they curl into fists.
“Once he’d had her to himself for a while,” Dallas muses, “and he’d had his fill…”
I can’t swallow, the lump in my throat too big. I drop my eyes and shake my head, but more to myself than to him.
“…he took her into the Wolfe Room, didn’t he?” he goes on.
No. I squeeze my eyes shut. No, no, no…
I grab a student’s desk and shove it to the ground. Goddammit.