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“What the fuck happened to you?”he growls, his eyes roaming across my body like a warm caress.Storming closer, he backs me up into the edge of my bed until I have no choice but to sit.His fingers are surprisingly gentle as they explore the bruised flesh that’s exposed from my ripped clothes and messy hair.
“You shouldn’t be in here,” is all I can manage.
When I feel his touch over the spot where Steve bit my neck, I wince and pull back.Malice brushes my hair to the side, and his eyes blaze with a raging fire.“I want names.”I shake my head.
I’m not nearly as stupid as my dad thinks I am.I know he does illegal things, and the men who work for him, like Uncle Jermaine and his sons, also do those unlawful things.Which means they wouldn’t hesitate to beat Steve and David to a pulp.I won’t be responsible for them possibly being arrested.
“You’ll tell me.”Malice crooks his finger to lift my chin.“The longer I have to wait to get my hands on them, the worse their punishment will be.”That’s all the warning I get before he turns and leaves as quickly as he came.
CHAPTER2
Malice
“Did she say anything?”Carmine asks as I slip back into his office, most of his men having left while I was with Odette, including the detective on the Cavanaugh payroll.
My eyes bounce off each man in the room before settling back on the boss as I shrug.
“Everyone out,” he instructs.
My father, Jermaine, and older brother, Holy, remain seated in front of the desk Carmine stands behind.Arms crossed, a scowl on his face, and aged an extra ten years when Odette didn’t return home from school on time.
He decided to give her more freedom for her senior year.A fucking mistake if you ask me, but I wasn’t asked.She needs to be locked up in a tower away from the peasants of the world.She’s too good to be sullied.
“Out with it, Malice,” my father snaps.
“She didn’t say a fucking word.”And this only incites my rage further.I can feel a thirst for murder rushing through my veins.The need to rip someone’s head off for causing her a single second of pain is nearly overwhelming.
“Then what the fuck were you doing?”Carmine’s eyes narrow with accusation.He has no idea how little he scares me when it comes to her.
“She won’t talk.Not to me, not to you, not to anyone.”I knew it before my first step to follow her upstairs, which I didn’t realize I would do until I moved.
I had planned on waiting before letting her know how obsessed I am with her because of how precious she is.Today’s assault has changed my timeline.
“Then what?”Holy asks, reading my mind, but he won’t give me away.Snapping his fingers like the idea is his, he grins at Jermaine and Carmine.“She needs a protector.”
My lips twitch, but I remain impassive otherwise.
“A bodyguard?At school.”Carmine mulls the idea over.
“Someone you trust,” Holy tacks on.“Someone who could pass for a high school student.”All eyes focus on me.I’ve never outgrown my rebellious stage, and I’m easily misidentified as eighteen or nineteen.
“Will you go back to high school, Malice?”Carmine asks, but the decision has already been made, he’s just giving me the illusion of it being optional.
“I suppose I’ll have to.”
When it comes to his daughters, Carmine Cavanaugh will break all the rules to keep them safe.When it comes to Odette Cavanaugh,I’lldo whatever it takes.
Even go back to a school that I once nearly burned to the ground.
* * *
She has no idea I’m here, following her around.My schedule was duplicated to match hers.AP Math, AP Bio, computer science, art, and working in the school’s café for extra credit.As soon as she discovers my presence, she’ll know exactly why I’m here and who worked it out.
Odette is incredibly smart, and while she’ll be angry at first, I’m hoping she doesn’t blow things because I’m only here to help.Carmine told me to watch and report back to him.Not interfere if I could help it because whoever is hurting her may not be a legal adult yet.
I told him I wouldn’t make any promises.
Someone is hurting the sweetest girl I know, and I’d rather cut off my own hand than stand witness to it, especially suspecting that yesterday was much more than just bullying and beating.I think she was sexually assaulted.Given how skittish she was and the way her clothes were torn, there was no way she was just avoiding home.
