Page 203 of Midnight Curfew

I thought I’d lose Sophia, too.

Pulling her into my arms, I hug her close and tight. “I’m sorry.”

She embraces me back in that way only Anna-Katherine does. Bringing her arms in between our bodies, she cocoons herself in my arms and buries her face in my neck.

“I’m sorry,” I tell her again. “I’ve been an idiot. Of course you’re confused.”

She sniffles, and I feel her melt against me.

“I love Anna-Katherine,” I say, “and I love Sophia, and I’m never going to leave you.”

But I know that doesn’t guarantee my father won’t come after her again. Or he won’t feel threatened now that I’m financially worth three times what he is.

She lifts her head up, tears wetting those big blue eyes. “What are we going to do?” she whispers.

Lightning cracks overhead, thunder rolling six seconds later.

The storm is coming.

“We’re going to get rid of him,” I say.

30

Dallas

“The canals are rising!” Macon shouts somewhere in the house. “No one goes over, get everyone back!”

I sit on the edge of the bed, staring into the woods behind the house, registering only certain things. The palms whip in the wind and rain, the afternoon sun covered by clouds, and my family moves around the house, closing shutters and stowing the deck furniture.

Eyelids heavy, I close them, trying to think about how to fix everything I did wrong, but I can’t get past the one thing that keeps chipping away at my head.

He never wanted me.

He came back to beat us. All of it was pretend.

He was working me. Distracting me, maybe?

How could I not have seen that?

Lightning strikes, and I hear my nephew cry out. “Daddy!”

The house whines in the storm, windowpanes rattling, a shutter flapping somewhere, and I know I should be out there, helping, but I turn up the song on my phone. “Take Me Back to Eden.”

Mariette’s needs to be secured. Other residents need help. Hurricane parties are happening as people batten down the hatches and settle in to do the only thing they can—drink.

But I just want to drown out the rest of the world and be anywhere else.

My eyes burn, and I lean my elbows on my knees, bowing my head. I don’t think I can say no to him. I can tell myself it’s because he’s threatening the Bay, and he made it clear that if he has me, he’ll be gentle with them, but when he told me to get in the shower last night, I was excited.

The truth is I didn’t want him to let me go.

I rake my hand through my hair. “Fuck.”

All he wanted all along was revenge, and I was so damn stupid to think I was in control. He was able to overcome me, and for some reason, it’s not unexpected. I kind of deserve it.

But in ten years, he’ll be fucking everything in that Den, broken and not even realizing he’s addicted to the power, the dominance, the escape…He’ll up the ante so he can feel excited, just like his father.

I squeeze my lids, still closed. Just like me.