Grace #2
“Yes, Chase. It’s time to come clean. Or do you want me to read the juiciest parts out loud?
Although…” She clicks her tongue. “You’re a piece of work too, little sister.
I really concluded something was really wrong with your head when I realized you two were ‘on the run’ together.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it after I read everything he’d done to you.
Because he so kindly decided to write down how many times he beat you and raped you. ”
She grabs the diary and reads out loud a few scenes from the past. The first memory burns my skin like a hot coal. The second makes me want to vomit—my face and ears burn red with shame.
“You really are sick, Grace. After all of that, you still felt like you wanted to give yourself to him? You’re a crazy bitch. No,” she says, lifting one finger as she licks her upper lip with a smile, “let’s be more precise. You’re a crazy, lying bitch.” She puts extra weight on the word “lying.”
She flips back to the very beginning of the diary, where my entries and drawings are.
She smiles contemptuously and sucks on her lower lip, then lifts the book.
“It wasn’t that photo shop that forgot to develop the photo,” she says, tapping it with a bright red nail.
“When I accused you, you acted all innocent—and what happened? Our parents protected you. Even though you were lying. You were playing games with me—and with everyone else, too.”
“It was only that one time,” I snap, “and I regretted it. I swear I did. If I could turn back time, I wouldn’t take that picture from you.
And you”—I point at her, accusing—“you blame me, but you’re the one who made me go meet Chase.
He had no idea I even existed. Then you fucking left me there—you got the weed and took off.
Did you think it was funny? Did you laugh at me with your friends? ”
She raises her hands in protest.
“Don’t blame me for what this madman did to you!
I didn’t tell him to kidnap you and use you to satisfy his perverted desires!
He talks about Mr. Miller like he’s the scum of the earth, calling him a pedophile asshole, when he was one himself.
Weren’t you, Chase?” Sharp hatred flashes in Nikky’s eyes.
“You were fucking a fifteen-year-old at twenty. What’s that if not pedophilia?
Or does being in love mean you aren’t a pedophile?
Are your feelings or hormones an excuse?
I don’t just hate Grace—I hate you, too.
What happened between the two of you is both your fault.
I really don’t get how you could sleep with him after all that, Grace. He’s a sick psychopath.”
Chase starts toward Nikky, furious, while she’s still laughing, low and provocative.
I step in front of him and grab both his wrists to stop him.
The air—and his wrists in my hands—turn hot.
He looks down, then meets my eyes. I don’t feel fear or disgust. I break the moment and let him go.
I’m not disgusted with myself, and when I’m with Chase, I’m not afraid of Nikky.
My anger and resentment erupt like a volcano.
“And you, what did you do to me?” I shout, shaking. Nikky’s face tightens, aghast. She realizes I’m not on her side.
“You take everything so seriously, Grace. You blow up every little thing.”
“I blow up every little thing?” I force a laugh.
“I almost died because of you and your buddies, Nikky! You beat me, kicked me, and let them do the same. You were having fun with Bo while I was being raped on the floor by three guys. Those beasts beat me, sank their teeth into me, and…” My voice shakes.
My face burns, tears sting my eyes, and adrenaline courses through my veins like poison.
“Then you tossed me into an alley like I was a bag of trash. I was lying there naked, helpless, half-dead in the cold!”
“I called the cops!” she yells. “Why do you think they went there? I”—she points at herself,”—saved your life.”
“And should I be grateful for that?” I wipe my nose with my wrist.
“Do you think I had it better than you? Lucas found us and offered us a deal. I didn’t like it.
I didn’t want to take it. But I didn’t want to die at twenty-five.
That man… is worse than Chase. Much, much worse.
” Tears glint in her pale-blue eyes. “He offered us a job. Bo and the gang started dealing for him—and they served as goons, too. They sold the same shit Chase was selling back then. And I became a high-end whore,” she says, pointing at herself, eyes shining with tears.
“Do you know how disgusting it is when old men ask you to suck on their soggy balls? When their limp cock can barely get hard, but they still shove it down your throat? And you have to let it every fucking time, because if you don’t, Lucas will punish you.
Not long after I joined, he got Chase out of prison. ”
“I didn’t get it”, she went on. “How did you get away? Why didn’t they find you again?
I was sniffing around—even spreading my legs for a few people to get information…
Sometimes even the walls have ears.” She shrugs and scratches the varnish on her nails.
“Lucas has his hands in a lot of businesses. Chase is his genius helper, but everything has a price, right? Chase wanted to stay out of it as much as possible, so he just did the dealing—but that wasn’t enough for Lucas.
He wanted him to be more involved, be part of the family business and his life.
That’s where you came into the picture. Lucas used you as leverage.
Yes, I know about those videos on the dark web…
I even saw a few,” she grimaces. “I felt sorry for you when he beat your back bloody or tore out your teeth.” She clears her throat and steadies herself.
“Lucas had him arrested as punishment for betraying him. Chase didn’t want to hurt you, but like I said, Lucas punishes you if you say no. He’s capable of anything.”
“Jamie,” I say in a tiny voice.
“They made his body disappear, along with all the evidence… But I’d like to continue, if I may…
” She draws a deep breath, then lets it out, trembling.
“Chase could get out of jail on one condition: he had to stay away from you—he could only watch from a distance. But everything went to shit when you met the gang. They knew nothing about any of this. I only met them a few times after we started working for Lucas, too. Then things moved fast. Lucas no longer felt it necessary to rein Chase in, because he figured he could step in any time he wanted if his little brother didn’t do his job.
You became important to Lucas because he knew you were the key to Chase’s loyalty—he’d do anything for you. ”
“How did you get your hands on the diary?” Chase asks her.
Fear glints in Nikky’s eyes. She wrings her hands nervously.
“I’ve had enough of this life, Grace. I don’t want any more soft ballsacks and limp dicks in my mouth, or ass.”
“What have you done, Nikky?”
“They offered me a better life. They said if I gave them the information they needed, they’d protect me. They offered me money and a new identity.”
The silence is deadly. I can almost smell blood. Chase doesn’t look surprised at all.
“Oh my God!” She claps a hand over her mouth. “Lucas knows what I did, doesn’t he?”
“He’s been watching every single one of your steps for months.” Chase looks at me, indifferent.
“And what does this mean?” I ask desperately.
“You were the bait,” he says, looking at me coldly. The icy edge of his words cuts into my heart.
“What?” Blood drains from my face. My sister and I stare at each other, tears in our eyes.
“We both knew Grace was a thorn in your side—an infected wound in your heart.” Chase’s tone is matter-of-fact.
I freeze.
Nikky trembles. Her face twists into a grimace.
“It was Lucas’s idea to make you reveal yourself.
As long as Grace was with Cyrus, the pain in your heart eased.
But as soon as you realized she was with me again…
” He circles Nikky. “You did what you’d been planning for months.
You gave them that confidential information, then came here to hurt Grace one last time—to rub salt in the wound, to shove her face into her sin.
” Chase circles closer. “The sin of loving me.”
“Everyone has always loved her—wanted her. What the fuck is so special about this little whore that everyone wants only her?” She’s sobbing hysterically.
“Did you betray Lucas because of your jealousy and resentment?”
“And as revenge for the last few years.”
“It was you guys who stole the dope from Jamie,” I remind her. “It was your fault they killed him. You knew how powerful the people he got tangled up with were, and you still dragged him into it.”
“If Chase hadn’t kidnapped you that day, our parents would still be alive. We wouldn’t have been forced into that goddamn farmhouse. I wouldn’t have gotten mixed up with Bo… Everything would’ve been different. I wouldn’t have become a whore.”
“And why? Why are you still blaming me? Why did you want to hit me one last time?”
“Because everyone should get what they deserve. You leave this madman and go back to Cyrus, with whom you’re not happy—everyone knows that.
Chase will be sad, maybe sad enough to lock you into an underground prison again.
Although, if the king is off the chessboard, Chase will have no one left to protect him.
The cops can put him away for good, because no one will clean up his mess or make him look innocent.
And I’ll leave this hell behind—free, with a lot of money and a new identity.
” The muscles in her neck tense. “He said he won’t kill you two.
He only wants Lucas, not you. But Lucas has a weak spot, too,” she says, looking at Chase.
“Lucas might be cruel, but he loves you. He’d go through hell for you. ”
“Just as I would for him.”