Page 4 of Promise of Punishment

Dad mostly hates me because he can’t take away the trust fund I inherited on my twenty-first birthday. It was set up through the ancestral peerage for the firstborn son and has been passed down this way for centuries. It’s indestructible.

Dad stares down his nose at me. “For years, we’ve been cleaning up the mess you made that night. There were witnesses.”

“Guests!” I state. “Your disgusting guests. That’s who saw. What can they do? I’ll take them down with me, and they know it.” In truth, I don’t know who those people were. My parents didn’t keep a record of the guests at their parties, and I never had to attend another one after that night.

I pray he hits me. The moment he does, I will beat him to a pulp. Age, drinking, and a poor lifestyle have made him plump and sloppy. There was a time when I feared him, but those days are long gone.

“It’s only because of the people I know that you’re not rotting in jail.”

“This conversation is getting old, Father.” I step around him.

“I didn’t summon you here to let you walk out with your trust fund.”

I swing around. “Don’t worry, Father. I have no plans to take your beloved estate. This place holds nothing but bad memories for me.”

“For me, as well.”

Something is off. He’s too calm. Mum wanted me here for a reason. She made me think Tessa was coming home for the summer. She might be the reason Tessa didn’t tell me she wasn’t. My sister didn’t forget like Mum said. She wouldn’t.

I stop and tilt my head to the side, studying the twisted man who never knew how to be a father. “What are you playing at?”

My dad loves games.

His blue eyes tighten in a scheming way. “I understand you still participate in illegal fighting.”

And here it is. “I do.”

“How about a bet?”

I fold my arms and raise my brows.

He walks slowly toward me. “If you’re as good as you believe, this should be easy. One match with a man I’ve hand-selected for you. If you win, I drop the murder topic, never bring it up again, and promise to keep all knowledge of it sealed, even what happened to your sister. You know how desperately she wants to keep that from the public.”

The fucker.

“And if I lose?” It won’t happen. I haven’t lost a fight in two years. Only one person is good enough to match my strength and speed, but he could never match my rage. My best friend, Lachlan. Neither of us are dumb enough to fight each other, nor do we feel the need to unless it’s to spar. Fighting other people together in and out of the ring, however, is something we’re not against.

“If you lose,” my father says, drawing closer, his face smug. “You give control of your inheritance to me. I can’t keep you from getting your title when I die, but I can assure you’re left with nothing.”

I don’t know what the man he wants me to fight looks like physically. He might be older, but I have agility and youth on my side. I have years of practice and training. I’ll also protect my sister in any way possible. I’m the only person in this family who ever has. She’s come a long way since the assault. She’s smart and has friends. If a story about her past made the news and social media, it would kill her. I don’t trust my parents not to use her to hurt me.

“I’ll need you to sign an NDA about what happened to Tessa. You and Mum.” Lachlan’s family has a lot of connections and a family barrister they trust. I’ll have him make sure the NDA is ironclad.

“No problem,” Dad says as if he has nothing to worry about.

The man can bluff along with the best of them. He’s never seen me fight, unless he’s had spies follow me. He could have. The best he could do with that information is find me a worthy opponent. I’ve fought older men, military men, karate masters, and the scariest motherfuckers you’ve ever seen. I’ve had my ass handed to me many times, but I always win because I’m unpredictable, changing my tactics with each fight. I have a rage-demon that lives inside, and lastly, because I’m not afraid to die. I’ve gone as far as setting up protection for Tessa through Lachlan, should I ever lose a battle and my life.

So unless the man my father chose to fight me wants to die, I’ll walk away the victor.

2

HE NEEDS A HOSPITAL

July

Fable, 17

I peer around the corner of the tall brick wall that surrounds the secret garden. To my relief, the plastic bins I left there two days ago are still tucked behind an overgrown bush. Everything at this part of the property is wild, even the thick forest back here conceals the place I found after three months of exploring the vast grounds of Hale Manor. I ventured farther than I ever had on that spring day, but winter had finally passed, and I was tired of being cooped up in the carriage house turned servants’ quarters. Hale Manor had eighty acres of countryside and woods I wanted to investigate.