Chapter 2
“No, Tricia, she’s actually not.” Barrett strode past me toward my bedroom as if he belonged there.
“Unless you want me to get my granny up here? If you would like, we can have her explain to you all the reasons you’re going to do exactly what we told you to do.
She is coming home with us, as per the plan.
You’re going to continue to pay for her credit card, which she hardly uses anyway, and provide anything else she needs to ask you for.
If you don’t agree, we can look into things a bit closer.
. .” He paused. “We wouldn’t want that, would we? ”
Barrett used to be polite to her, but apparently those days were over.
My family had tried to ruin me in his home.
Rumors would likely circulate due to her sister’s actions at that party.
Maybe the people who heard them would know Ted was an accused serial rapist before they heard my aunt’s other version—where I seduced her boyfriend.
But rumors still would persist.
My aunt’s face twisted, derision not pretty on her features, so like my mother’s.
“You Lents. You think you control everything? You don’t.
I’ve got news for you. She is here by my good graces alone.
You have no idea how much worse things could’ve been for her.
” She almost sounded hysterical. “The second I can, she’ll be sent to boarding school—a far kinder fate than my sister wanted for her. ”
She shouted the words, and half the remaining martini ended up covering my shirt.
I didn’t drink it myself, and the smell brought back memories so fast and hard, I finally unfroze.
I shouted in surprise, and Barrett turned around quickly to protect me.
I obeyed my reflex, tugging the fabric away from my body and trying to squeeze it out as if the chill burned.
Way too dramatic. I forced myself to calm, adjusting my shirt back as best as I could. She’s not going for death by martini.
“I’m okay.” I said for my sake as much as Barrett’s, since his laser focus on me when I gasped seemed to be awaiting a target.
Jeremy wasn’t deterred at all. As Barrett rushed into my bedroom, Jeremy stormed past my aunt into the kitchen and returned with a soft blue towel. He began patting at the martini covered fabric, his voice intentionally calming as he said, “Let’s get you dried off.”
“You let him touch you like that? On your breasts!” she shrieked. “You little slut.”
Whack. I didn’t anticipate her slap, so I didn’t see it coming. I cried out, bending over in shock.
“Hey, don’t you touch her.” Jeremy’s voice became frighteningly low.
He yanked her arm back, jerking her two steps away from me.
“Back off. You never touch her again, do you hear me? Your daughter in London? Does she like her life? Her husband works for a subsidiary of a company my uncle owns. Do you understand what I’m telling you?
Alatheia is with us now. And if I’m being totally honest, if you weren’t a woman, you’d be on the ground right now for what you just did. ”
Barrett rushed out of the room, carrying hangers. “Did she just hit her?”
I turned away from them all, facing the wall, because I couldn’t resist the urge to cry.
I couldn’t stop myself, even though I hadn’t been hit since Chicago.
I never saw it coming then, either, but I should have expected it.
Violence hung in the air of the apartment from the day they moved me into it.
I always knew, it was only a matter of time.
Is it going to leave a mark? I didn’t want to start school with a black eye, but I once had one last for almost a month after a PI accidentally punched me.
Fuck. I put my fist in my mouth, trying to keep the tears at bay. I bit down hard, the pain a sharp distraction from the way my face throbbed and my memories crashed into one another.
“Take these.” Barrett said to Jeremy, passing him the clothing. “I’ll grab the rest. You’re going to regret that, lady.”
I couldn’t turn around, couldn’t help them, and couldn’t do anything other than bite down on my fist and breathe.
I blinked fast, trying to keep tears from falling.
Jeremy pressed a hand on my back, so I let him lead me away from the closest living relative to my late mother.
Her twin. Identical. Identical to my mother, who I missed so much my chest hurt with it.
I shouted, spinning on my heel and releasing my fist from my mouth.
“Why do you hate me?” I kept my eyes closed, tears pouring out despite my attempts.
I couldn’t control any of it anymore. “Why?” I couldn’t look at her, so I just waited, my heartbeat sounding too loud and too fast in comparison to the tick of the clock.
She didn’t answer me. Instead, a distant door slammed.
“Let me look at you, Princess. Look at me.” When I blinked open my still tearing eyes, Jeremy held four pairs of skirts in his hands. Despite that, he examined my wounded face with his gaze. “Bet that hurts. I’m so sorry, but you’re going to be okay. I…I want her dead. I mean actually dead.”
“Can we go? As soon as Barrett comes back out.” As if I called him into being, he appeared, carrying more clothing. “Can we go now?”
“Are you okay?” He sounded frantic. “I can’t believe that just happened.”
I could. It is always a matter of time.
“No red mark.” Phoenix ran his fingers through my hair, and I laid my head on his lap.
His gaze might be a bit more vacant than I liked, but he wasn’t lost, which meant a lot.
He stroked my hair over and over, seemingly enchanted by the repeated motion.
“They let her live. They have so much more restraint than I do.”
I once thought he might strike the PI with his skateboard, and the guy didn’t even mean to hit me. He didn’t though, not turning to violence when his temper got hot. Phoenix might be impulsive, but he wasn’t stupid. He might talk a big game, but I knew he wouldn’t have hurt my aunt, either.
I sniffed. “I feel like such a big baby. I got slapped, so what? I need to get over it. I’ve had worse.”
He met my gaze. “I hate knowing that even more. Still, I’m glad they both threatened her.
I’m also glad she knows our position now, too.
Kit knew they had some idea the power we wielded, but not all of it.
Barrett probably emailed him.” I’m not sure why that made him laugh, but it did.
“Got to cover our bases. Anyway, you’re staying and that’s the bottom line. Sorry I wasn’t there.”
I took a long breath. “Are you going to be okay tomorrow?”
“No. I’m never okay in school. But I’ll be. . .alert? If that’s what you’re asking me. Right now, everything is beautifully blurry, but even I know I can’t get away with it at school. I hate school.”
I remembered getting to see the video game he was creating when we were alone a few weeks before, and I couldn’t help finding him utterly talented and brilliant.
In his game, he made the zombies the good guys, and humans were the ones who didn’t understand.
Humans tried to kill them, when they just tried to keep their community safe.
A muted game, but he intended it to have very little noise as a finished product.
Just breathing, while they tried to explain to a world that wouldn’t listen.
The project reminded me of the man, a reflection while a creation at the same time.
I hated how pain chased him constantly, as real and visible as a ghost that lingered behind him in shadow form.
I understood the drugs, even if they scared me—he avoided his pain with them. He hated using them, but he didn’t know another way.
I hated that he thought it made him a zombie.
If he ever did anything with the game, it would sell a billion copies. Despite my easy acknowledgment of his gift, his imposter syndrome was loud, so for some reason, he couldn’t see it.
He stroked my hair again, his gaze as peaceful as it ever became.
“But it will be better this year. You’ll be there, and that will make it much better.
” He smiled, a wistful expression. “Julian suggested you be his girlfriend, with him as the public face, the way Kit is for Mom. He intended to tell everyone at lunch tomorrow. He told us last night after you fell asleep.”
Wow. I used to wake up at the slightest noise, but apparently, they shared conversations while I was out. I really do sleep better with them here.
“And?” I wasn’t sure why he decided to tell me, especially if they all decided already.
Phoenix’s lips curled into a devious grin. “I told him if he did that, I would kiss you on the steps of Pullman at opening bell. That way, everyone would know you actually belonged to me.”
I lifted my head, heat flooding my cheeks as my heart beat faster. “Oh, I…see. So, you didn’t like that idea?”
“No. You’re mine in public or you’re no one’s. Jeremy said, if I intended to do that, then he would post on social media everywhere, telling the world you are his girlfriend.”
Double wow. All of this while I was sleeping? “This is complicated?”
Phoenix nodded, still stroking my hair calmly.
“Barrett pointed out it would be best to just say you were his, since he’s not there.
Besides, as the eldest, someday you’ll be his wife, legally.
Traditionally, the oldest male marries the wife legally.
Things kind of dissolved at that point, so we had to move to text to avoid yelling at each other. ”
I put my head back down, chin hitting my neck with a snap. “Have we made a terrible mistake?”
His thumb stroked across my forehead. “No, Red. We’re good. I think. . .I think ultimately we will do what you want. When you figure out what that is, you’ll tell us.”