Page 46 of Waste of Worth

“She doesn’t need to be here. She’s fine where she is. I’m not bringing her home.”

“Are you sure that is the road you want to travel with me?”

Not at all.

Dino was more than certain this wasn’t going to end well for him.

Anytime in the past that he had refused Ben’s wishes had almost always ended rather violently for Dino. Broken bones. A battered, bloody body. His mind in tatters, much like his mental health.

There was a reason Dino was so shut off from the world and often debilitated by the nightmares living inside his head.

Ben was every single one of those reasons.

His uncle’s way of making sure Dino learned his lesson the first time, as to ensure the next time he would get what he wanted, was to beat the lesson into him. Quite literally.

It didn’t even matter to Dino.

Not now.

He was more than willing to take a lesson from Ben as long as the end result was the same. Lily stayed where she was because Dino allowed it, whether Ben liked it or not. His sister was not going to be fodder for Ben’s games. She had always been free and safe from their uncle and aunt’s abuse—she would remain free and safe from it as long as Dino had his say.

This was his say.

“Let me tell you something,” Ben said as he turned to face Dino, leaving his back to the crowd.

Dino pushed away from the wall, stopping only a half of a foot from his uncle’s frame. Despite Ben’s age, he was still a rather intimidating man in height and stature. His dark eyes could quickly shut someone up without ever having to speak a word. It was almost as though the man could promise violence with a look, and Dino knew what was promised, was always gifted.

He still didn’t care.

Not on this.

This, he wouldn’t move even an inch.

“No, let me tell you something,” Dino replied, never once looking away from his uncle. “I know a few things where Lily is concerned, things that you are not aware of. Like the fact she won’t be easy to find because she doesn’t stay in one town for long. Or the fact that the only time you might get a hit off of her is when her passport gets dinged from traveling into a new country because the accounts I set up for her to use have fuck all to do with the accounts you have access to. That is, when she happens to use accounts at all, because she likes cash far more, and we both know how damned hard it is to track cash, Ben.”

Ben’s glare burned, but Dino didn’t back down.

He couldn’t.

“I let her go because she wanted to, because she deserved to have her time,” Dino said firmly, never allowing even the hint of his nerves to show in his tone. If he did, Ben was liable to pick up on it and use it to hurt Dino with in some way. They’d done this before—many times. Very rarely did it end to Dino’s favor, but he had to at least try. For Lily. “And when she is done with having that time for herself, or when I am ready to call her back, then I will do just that. But not one fucking second before, Ben.”

“That feels like a challenge,” Ben murmured.

Dino’s jaw ached from clenching so hard. “I’m not budging on this.”

“Seems there’s a lot you won’t budge on lately, Dino.”

He didn’t grace that with a response.

It didn’t seem to matter all that much to Ben.

“No matter,” Ben said, tossing one hand high as if to wave the whole conversation away. “Seems interesting to me how you’ve forgotten what denying me will earn you, Dino. Haven’t I gotten that stubborn trait of yours disposed of already?”

Dino’s throat thickened at the veiled threat. “Beaten out of me.”

Ben smiled. “Call it what you want, Dino.”

“I call it what it is.”