Chapter 35
Chapter
Thirty-Five
CLAIRE
My palms are clammy as I navigate the district downtown, and I’m fighting to keep down the bile that keeps rising up my throat with every footstep, despite the tough act I put on for the others a few nights ago.
As much as I trust them to get me out of this situation once I’m in it, I know nothing is foolproof.
If it was, then maybe I would’ve been born into a family who actually wanted me.
Maybe bad things wouldn’t happen day in and day out in the world.
I made sure to dress inconspicuously, but also in his favorite colors.
Not that I think colors alone will get his attention, but because his favorite colors on me will.
They didn’t have an exact time or location for where he would be today, as he hadn’t shown his face in public since the night Thea, Fletcher, and Nathan infiltrated his auction.
But I know his schedule well enough to know that Wednesdays were non-negotiable when it came to his favorite brunch house.
It wasn’t strictly for the food of course, although it tasted as good as it looks.
He brought me along a few times in the past. He happened to also conduct some of his most lucrative meetings there—the kind that you don’t simply reschedule because you’ve been grazed by a bullet.
The kind where one can casually and quietly orchestrate half the city’s underbelly over eggs benedict and imported coffee without looking suspicious.
I slow as the corner comes into view, forcing my breathing to even out, to match the unhurried pace of the people around me.
I’m not wearing a wire, or any monitoring device for that matter, because once he has his opportunity to get his hands on me, that would be the first thing he searches for.
But I know the others are watching from multiple spots along the street.
I didn’t let them tell me exactly where because if this thing blows to shit, I refuse to bring them all down with me.
I survived him once. I can survive him for long enough for them to end it.
I repeat what I told the group in order to ground myself, but even I’m having a hard time believing it as I pass the first window to the brunch house.
I briefly glance inside and notice that no one looks like they’re walking into a predator’s den.
They’re laughing, scrolling on their phones, complaining about wait times as if they’re blissfully ignorant to the evil surrounding them.
My mind wonders, not for the first time, what it must feel like to live a life where the worst part of your day is a bad cup of coffee.
But the thought cuts short when I recognize his frame slightly slouched over in what I now know is his regular booth, across from some sleazy business partner.
I pause midstride, debating whether I keep walking or stand here and purposely draw his attention, but it appears that my legs are already making the decision for me, because I’m suddenly like a deer in headlights.
My lungs have seized up and my heart is pounding so violently that I’m convinced it’s visible through my ribs and that at any second someone will ask if they need to call an ambulance.
My vision starts to go black, the unexpected anxiety attack washing over me at the worst possible time knowing he could see this and come out acting like the good samaritan or claim that he’s my father and no one would bat an eye as I’m whisked away into this monster’s car.
Because no one would dare question the mayor’s morality, and if the press released headlines and tabloids over the fact that he has a “daughter” they knew nothing about, he would do the honorable thing and claim he keeps me out of the spotlight for my wellbeing.
And they would fucking praise him for it.
“—Ma’am? Ma’am?” The feeling of someone’s hand on my shoulder has me jumping backward, landing on my ass as I trip over the concrete and my fear in one clumsy step.
The stranger puts his hands up as if to say he doesn’t mean any harm, but all I can do is roll over and puke.
The contents of my own breakfast a few hours ago painting the sidewalk in a macabre fashion that has several other onlookers looking at me in disgust. “Are you alright?” the stranger asks again, and it takes me several more seconds to catch my breath enough to answer him.
“I—uh, I’m sorry.” I push myself back to my feet as I dare a look inside the brunch house again and this time, Harrison Clark is looking right at me.
I don’t bother to explain myself any further to the man as I take off at a brisk pace up the sidewalk, not daring to look back.
I don’t need to. I already know that he will be following me.
Up the sidewalk and past different blocks I can feel his presence.
By the time I reach one of the city parks, I’m out of breath and dizzy and find myself leaning against the trunk of a tree.
He hasn’t approached me yet, but I know he’s here.
He no doubt has his men scouting the area for any other trouble before approaching me, especially if he thinks that I’m in bed with Thea or Nathan.
My only saving grace is how busy it is; moms and dads watching their children play, dogs being walked on their leashes, people riding bikes along the path.
I wasn’t lying when I said he wouldn’t risk a scene, but I know he won’t let me just walk away either, and trying to physically prepare myself for what I have to do feels like swimming in concrete.
“Well, I never thought I’d see you again.
” The tone in his voice sends alarm bells ringing in my head.
“Have you enjoyed your taste of freedom, Claire? Have you realized that life on the streets isn’t all that it’s cut out to be and made your decision to come home?
” There’s something about the way he says it, like it’s something warm even though it’s never been anything but a cage.
My fingers curl into the rough bark behind me, as every instinct in me tells me to run. But instead I let go and turn around to face the man who makes up all of the monsters in my nightmares.
“I was wondering how long it would take,” he continues as he straightens the cuffs of his shirt, but I don’t miss the flinch when he aggravates what is so obviously a bandaged shoulder under his suit jacket. “You always were, well, predictable.”
“Predictable?” I echo, unable to help the breathless laugh I release.
“That’s funny. I don’t remember me escaping being a part of your plan.
” I don’t miss the anger that flares in his eyes, and I doubt anyone else would have managed to catch it before it was gone.
But I’ve spent enough time around him to know every one of his cues.
“And yet here you are. Came back all on your own, just like I knew you would.” He steps closer to me, unhurried as his eyes rake up and down my body.
“Don’t flatter yourself,” I say, quiet this time. The way I know he likes it. “I didn’t come back for you.”
He smiles at me then, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “No? Then enlighten me, Claire. What possible reason could you have for putting yourself back within my reach?”
The one thing that gets him off more than harming innocent children is when those same innocent children play right into his hand, making him feel like the smartest and most important person in the room.
So I take a step forward, close enough to see the faint scar near his jaw and smell the expensive cologne that used to make me sick for entirely different reasons.
Close enough to make this believable. “I ran,” I admit, letting my voice shake just slightly.
“I thought I could just…disappear, start over. But you were right.”
He goes still and I know I have him exactly where I need him to be. Hook, line… “There’s nothing out there for me,” I whisper. “Not really…” And sinker.
It’s almost like he’s malevolent, in the way I can feel the shift in the air. The satisfaction rolling off of him in waves from the validation and the control. It makes my skin crawl.
“Look at me,” he says softly as he tucks his finger under my chin, forcing my head up.
“Good girl.” His thumb drags lightly along my jaw, the gesture coming to him naturally from all the times he would do it before either praising me or punishing me.
A signal of his ownership. “I knew she was still in there.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I respond. Letting him believe that the person he molded me into is who I will forever be. That any memory of the girl I was before he took me was gone with the wind, with the past of my parents.
“There’s always a choice, Claire,” he says, his grip on my chin tightening slightly. “You simply tend to make the wrong ones when left to your own devices.”
I let my gaze drop, like I’m ashamed. Like I believe him and that I’ve already given up.
But behind the act, my pulse is screaming.
He’s too calm, too measured. And while I know he wouldn’t let his anger out here, his level of interest is nearly worse.
“You look thin,” he says suddenly, his tone shifting into something almost disapproving.
As if he ever provided me enough to allow my teenage body to fill out.
The truth is, I’ve actually put on weight and I know he’s testing me for my reaction, to see if I’ll take the bait. “Haven’t been taking care of yourself?”
“I’ve managed,” I reply carefully. I refuse to fall into his trap.
He tuts. “Well, that’s over now. You won’t have to manage anything anymore.” I don’t have to read between the lines; there’s no room for argument. “Walk with me?”
I simply nod my head as he takes my arm in his and walks us back in the direction of the brunch house. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you, Claire?” I let him guide me, my body leaning just enough into his touch to make it seem natural to those around us.
“Never,” I breathe out.
“Then you’d tell me if you took something important from me when you left, wouldn’t you?” His arm suddenly shifts, releasing my own as he rests it against my lower back, right on top of the seam where we’ve sewed the USB inside. This is the moment that is going to set everything into motion.
“I would, and I did.”
He managed to withhold himself from harming me until we got back to his office, but as soon as he closed the door, I had to prepare myself for the backhand I knew was coming.
“You know I hate marring your pretty face, my dear girl, but your actions simply cannot go without consequences.” He hits me again, this time using his fist as it curls up into my stomach.
The air leaves me in a strangled gasp, doubling me over, but I force my feet to stay planted.
“If you were having doubts about us, you didn’t have to hide them from me.
I would have taken care of you, protected you. ”
I blink up at him, letting my throat catch, letting just the tiniest flicker of longing show in my eyes the same way I used to, the same way he trained me to crave it.
My hand presses subtly against the USB that has now shifted to my side with the way my jacket is falling on me.
I was surprised he didn’t demand it back right away, but it’s my one source of leverage and possibly the only thing keeping me alive right now.
He doesn’t know where it is, and he needs that information.
He steps closer again, lowering his hand to brush a strand of hair from my face.
“You always think you have to do everything alone, but you don’t.
You never did. I could have…guided you. Continued to keep you safe.
All you had to do was let me. But instead, you thought you could play at independence, steal from me, and come out unscathed. Foolish girl.
Tell me why you took it.” I don’t need to ask him what he’s referring to before he tacks on, “Why would you steal from your own family? Did you think I wouldn’t notice?”
I breathe in deeply through my nose as his patience turns predatory.
“I just thought it might keep me safe,” I whisper.
“I thought if I had something, anything, that gave me a chance or a way out, I could survive.” The lie doesn’t sound convincing.
Out of all of the things to steal, why would anyone looking for an escape steal a fucking USB? And yet…he seems convinced.
“Survive?” he repeats, pacing the room back and forth in front of me. “Do you think you need to survive outside of me? Outside of what I provide? You’ve always been mine, Claire. You always will be. Why betray that?”
An involuntary shiver runs through me. “Because I needed to know that I could. That even if you weren’t there, someone could help me. That I wasn’t completely alone.”
An unreadable expression crosses his face as he tilts his head. “You? Alone? My dear girl…you’ve never been alone. And yet, here you are, hiding and scheming. Do you even understand the amount of danger you’ve put yourself in?”
“I know. But I couldn’t risk…nothing. I had to try.” That's why he chose me, after all. Because I’m smarter than the others, willing to do what they won’t. And if there is one thing about Harrison Clark, it’s that he loves a challenge.
He chuckles as he reaches inside of his desk before pulling out a syringe filled with the sedative I knew I would be likely to meet before the end of the night.
“Always clever, always testing boundaries,” he murmurs.
“And yet…still my girl. Even when you steal from me, even when you hide from me…you are mine.” I let the words settle between us, letting him feel the rush of control he believes he has as he injects me.
And even though I’m in pain and completely at his mercy when I’d rather be anywhere else, the smile that crosses my face as I succumb to the darkness is anything but fake.