Page 91 of Savage Little Lies

I feel bad about lying to him, but I’m stuck in this now. I had to dig myself even deeper into the hole when he found my passport with my real name, and the only reason that he didn’t immediately connect me to the mob is because my mom didn’t want me taking my father’s last name, didn’t want him to know about me. Not until she was flat broke and had to turn to Sean for help. Giving me her name instead of his is one of the few things she ever did right before she died of an overdose.

Bitterness sours my stomach as I enter the hotel, walking through the small lobby that smells like bleach to the elevator that creaks on its way up to the third floor. My steps become heavier and heavier as I approach Room 312, feeling like my fate hangs in the balance.

I lightly knock on the door. The moment it swings open, I’m grabbed and yanked inside the room.

“What the hell?” I gasp as I stumble inside the small room, nearly crashing into two other men.

“Haven’t heard from you in a while. You don’t answer my texts.”

I look up at the sound of my father’s disappointed voice, spotting him standing at the window with his back to me.

“I’ve been busy. Apparently, so have you…”

He whips around, his broad, stocky body so wide he barely fits through most doors. “Too busy to let me know that the Ivanov-Suyunov deal is in pieces? That was your mission, yeah? And you didn’t even report to me when it was done!”

“I knew you would hear about it,” I tell him, tension winding up my spine as his men stand around me. “I’ve been busy keeping up my front around Dmitri.”

Sean clicks his tongue as he walks toward me. “That’s the other thing that I wanted to talk to you about.”

I automatically shrink back as he gets closer to me. I know that tone, and I know that stony look on his face. I’m in trouble.

He suddenly lashes out and grabs my arm, jerking me forward. “Have you been sleeping with him? Tell me the fecking truth, Cara!”

I cower as he shouts in my face, years of instincts taking hold of my body. “I…I was just trying to get close to him! You told me to do it by whatever means necessary!”

“I meant by being a little cock tease! I didn’t expect you to turn yourself into his whore!” he snaps, his grip tightening to make me wince in pain. “How dare you betray me like that with an Ivanov! You’ve disrespected the family! Spat on the O’Malley name!”

I bite back a comment of how I don’t even feel like an O’Malley. I don’t have the last name, and I don’t have the respect of one either.

I’m just a pawn in my father’s game.

“You told me not to fail. And I didn’t,” I say, trying to stand up for myself. Why should he care about my methods when I still got the job done?

“You’ve disappointed me,” he growls, his head shaking.

My eyes sting as I stare at him, my chest aching as he pushes me away from him like I’m nothing.

“What more do you want from me?” I ask him, my voice wavering. “I’ve done everything you’ve asked! You told me to break up his marriage, the alliance, and I did! He burned the bridge between the Ivanovs and Suyunovs, just like you wanted!”

My father sneers at me. “You crossed a line by sleeping with that Russian scum. What next? Are you gonna tell me you’re in love with him too?”

I wrap my arms around myself, feeling small and weak. He always makes me feel that way.

“It’s over now. I did the job you told me to do,” I plead with him rather than lie, trying to dampen his anger before it spirals out of control. Because it’s true, I am in love with Dmitri.

“I thought an arranged marriage might work for our family too. But if you’re going to spread your legs for trash, I should at least be making good money off you, finally earn back that child support and tuition money you owe me.”

My blood turns cold as my eyes widen. “What?”

“You heard me,” he says as he glowers at me. “I can’t trust you with anything else. Like most women, you’re only good for one thing.”

I shake my head harshly, nearly making myself dizzy. “No! You can’t sell me like I’m your property! I’m your daughter!” The asshole wouldn’t even pay for me to go to graduate school and now he thinks I owe him a debt for a few thousand in tuition and child support?

“Take her to the ranch just outside town,” he orders his men, who both take a step closer to me.

Oh god.

“No! Don’t do this! Please!” I beg him, my eyes threatening to water with desperate tears. This is my nightmare. My hell.