AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, of course, since you asked so nicely.” I release her arm with a shove. “I’ll see you at school, bird. Have fun working.” I stand up and take a step away from her. If I didn’t have Tia with me, I would play with her a little longer, but my sister comes first. I walk down toward the ice cream section of the store. I have plenty of time to play with my toy, and I intend to do a lot of that soon.
I need to get her alone again. Maybe I can visit her at home. My nose wrinkles at the thought of her tiny, dirty apartment. I don’t want to fuck her there. What are my choices? I can’t take her home to my place. An idea forms in my mind. An idea I like more and more the longer I think about it. Tomorrow, I’ll find a new place for my little bird, a cage I’ll have the key to.
I knowit from the second I pull into the driveway. There’s something wrong.
Tia is happily oblivious, talking about how much she wants to watch a movie and eat ice cream together later tonight. I don’t want her to think I’m ignoring her, so I give her a couple of grunts and nod where it seems appropriate, until the sight of a familiar car parked in the courtyard in front of the house is all I can think about. I would know Richard Kingsley’s Mercedes anywhere. He babies that thing like I’ve never seen anybody baby a car. Tucker isn’t allowed anywhere near it. His own son, and Richard would kill him for so much as laying a finger on the silver exterior.
If he’s here at the house, something big is happening. He doesn’t randomly visit this side of Wicked Falls. It means stepping down from his throne and leaving the castle he lives in on the other side of town. He’s never been anything but respectful and civil toward me, though I have to imagine he looks at me as my father’s son. Not as myself.
I play it off, taking the groceries from the back of the truck while Tia goes on and on. “You’ve got to do something for me if you want to watch a movie later during ice cream.” She looks up at me as we approach the front door. “You have to go up and take a nap.”
“A nap?” She wrinkles her nose and looks at me like she has to be imagining things. “I don’t need a nap. I’m not a baby. I’m almost seven.”
“Really? Tell that to me later on when you fall asleep twenty minutes into a movie you picked out. I’ll end up having to watchthe whole thing while you’re snoring and drooling all over the place.”
“I don’t snore! And I don’t drool.” Because she’s too smart, she holds up a finger. “And if I’m asleep, you can turn the movie off and watch something else. Duh.”
Just before opening the front door, I crouch in front of her and look her straight in the eyes. “Go upstairs and take a nap, or no movie and no ice cream. That’s final.”
I can tell she’s weighing her options while my heart pounds in my ears. I need her upstairs and away from whatever is happening between Richard and Dad. Or rather, to Dad, courtesy of Richard. I really doubt he showed up for a friendly chat.
“Fine,” she huffs. “I’ll take a nap. We’re still watching a movie, though, right?”
“You bet. Go ahead.” I give her a gentle nudge toward the stairs, and she wastes no time running across the hall and racing up to her room. Thank fuck.
The kitchen is on the way to Dad’s office, which I’m assuming is where they would meet up. I put the ice cream away quickly before standing in the hall, staring in that direction, listening to the muffled sounds coming from behind the closed door. I can’t make out what they’re saying—or what he’s saying, only Richard, since it seems like Dad is staying quiet for the most part. For once.
“Where do you get the audacity,” Richard almost barks as I reach the closed door, “to embarrass yourself and me by confronting me in public? What the fuck goes on in your head? Or have you drunk it all the way?” he asks. I have to grin to myself, even if my father’s shitty decisions trickle down on me, and more importantly, on Tia. At least I get to witness somebody calling him on his shit.
“You wanna know why we met without you, you dumb shit?” Richard demands. His footsteps ring out on the hardwood floor. I can imagine him pacing in front of Dad’s desk, while Dad sits slumped in his chair like the miserable bastard he is. “It’s because of shit like that! You’re irrational. You’re a greedy, irrational drunk who has burned every last shred of trust in this town. I’m supposed to rely on you? The rest of us are supposed to bring you into the fold and keep you abreast of issues when we can’t trust you not to spill your guts to whatever wino you’re drinking next to this time?”
“Wait a second.”
As always, Richard steamrolls over him, as if he never spoke. “Things happen. You had our support. But there are limits, especially when it comes to business like ours. We can’t have someone so unpredictable in our ranks. Do you understand what I’m telling you? No more of these public scenes. No more throwing your pissy temper tantrums. And while we’re at it,” he adds, “I have fulfilled enough of your questionable whims. I got Wren Delaney into Wicked Falls University at your request—a full ride—but it ends there. Don’t drag me into any more of your personal shit. Got it?”
Hearing her name has a strange effect on me. My blood heats, but somehow my body goes cold at the same time. Of all names I wouldn’t expect to hear come out of Richard’s—the Headmaster of Wicked Falls University—mouth. He’s one of the few people I can think of with the power to hook Wren up with a full scholarship. I knew there had to be more to it than what’s on the surface.
But the request came from Dad. My fucking father is the reason I have to see that girl every day. Why the hell would he go out of his way to secure a spot for her? It wasn’t enough for him to fuck her mother and cause my mother’s suicide? No, he had todouble down and make sure to destroy every last part of me. He had to destroy everything that was ever good about our family.
“Don’t make me come out here again.” I’m almost too late by the time I realize Richard is storming toward the door. Before he reaches it, I run down the hall, past the kitchen, through the living room and up the stairs. I’m on the landing at the top by the time Richard’s footsteps ring out.
I want to stop him and ask if he knows why Dad made him accept Wren. The impulse is almost too strong to ignore. I have to grip the banister and bite my tongue while he marches out before slamming the door. Then it’s a matter of forcing myself to my room, instead of going back out and finding my little bird.
The little bird who must have worked her way into Dad’s pants, the way her slut mother did. But no, she was inexperienced before I entered her life and her pussy. Then she has something on him and is blackmailing him with it. I can’t imagine another reason why he would ask a favor like that, not to mention for her, of all people. It’s the most random thing imaginable.
Everything around me goes red in time with my heartbeat picking up speed, pushing boiling blood through my veins. I should’ve known it was something like this. That she had something to do with getting into my school, a school where she doesn’t belong.
Obviously, she deserves much worse than I have given her so far.
But that’s going to change. Starting now.
17
WREN
Sometimes, the universe pulls through for me.
Dragging my ass out of bed this morning after barely getting any sleep last night was practically heroic. I wanted more than anything to stay where I was, with the blanket over my head, to shut the world out. Buck was up all night with his friends—I’m really starting to wonder if any of these people have apartments of their own. Why do they always have to come here? And why do they have to be so damn loud? Then again, with paper-thin walls like the ones in this apartment, it’s kind of impossible not to hear everything, even if a person is trying to be quiet.
