14. Cash
Cash
Snow crunches under my boots as I trudge through the snow. There’s less of it now. Down in the valley, patches of green are becoming visible. Trees are no longer laden with snow like they were before.
Knox says we’re over the worst of it, which means Princess Sienna can finally fuck off back to the land of fake where she came from.
Secretly, I don’t want her gone just yet. I’m clinging to the hope that her car will be too fucked from the snow to get her back down the mountain.
Of course, where there’s a will, there’s a way, and I’m sure if she can get out of here, she will.
She needs to go, but the thought of never seeing her again weirdly claws at my chest, making it hard to breathe.
I need to have my way with her first before she leaves, but she knows the effect she has on me and is acting smug.
I’ll show her smug when I lay her naked across my lap and spank her round ass.
Noticing movement in the trees, I come to a stop and raise my rifle, waiting for the deer to reveal itself.
Twigs snap, leaves ruffle, and the deer finally materializes. I shoot it straight in the heart, the barrel of the gunshot echoing through the open expanse as I stalk toward the dead animal and toss the thing over my shoulder. That should keep us fed for the next week.
I head back to the main cabin and see Sienna sitting outside on the porch, admiring her phone instead of the view. Typical.
I get closer to the cabin, my crunching footsteps in the snow announcing my presence. Sienna looks up, and her eyes immediately home in on the dead deer slung over my shoulder.
“No…” she says in horror. “You didn’t.”
“Sometimes we do what needs to be done.”
“Is that what I heard? A gun?”
“Pfft.” I throw the deer onto the ground, and Sienna continues looking at it in horror, like I’ve murdered an infant. “I’m sure you’ve done far worse things in your life than kill a deer.”
Sienna’s eyes find mine, but it’s like she’s looking straight through me. “What did you say?”
“I think you heard me just fine.” I unsheathe the knife from my belt and lean over the deer, slipping the blade underneath the deer’s skin to strip away the fur.
Sienna shrieks and disappears inside, and the irrational side of my brain feels bad about skinning the deer in front of her.
I wipe the blade clean in the snow and go in with the knife again. The tearing sound of flesh echoes through the air, each tear sounding harsher than the last. Blood gushes from the deer, spilling over the snow and turning it red.
And then it completely consumes my vision.
My focus is on Mom’s red lips and nothing else.
Aside from the weird paintings on the wall, her lips are the boldest feature in this room as she opens and closes them, saying words I can’t hear.
I heard all I need to. The rest is garbage.
“When will you be back?”
My father puts his arm around my mom and takes over the conversation. “We’re not sure yet, son. But Jackie will take care of everything.”
The housekeeper may as well have become my mother at this point.
Ever since their business took off last year, they’re almost never home.
I head to school, eat the meals Jackie prepares for me, and spend the evenings alone in my room.
Mom used to paint her lips a different color, one less jarring. She smiled more back then, too.
She’s turned into a completely different person. One who can’t function without her Dior heels and loads of diamond jewelry.
“See you later, Cassian,” says Mom.
Her heels echo down the marble hallway. We moved into this huge house six months ago. My parents didn’t need to buy a property this big—they’re barely ever home. But like everything in this superficial city called Los Angeles, it’s all for show. All about appearances. Nothing is real.
I head up to my bedroom and lock the door as soon as I’m inside.
I crash on my bed and toss a pillow over my face, groaning into it.
There’s too much space, too much money, and it’s all become suffocating.
In the long weeks that my parents are away, I head to school, resent my peers for having families that actually give a fuck, and steal money from the safe, paying Jackie double.
If my parents can afford to fly in private jets every other week, they can afford to pay Jackie more than the meager amount they give her.
“They’ll come around soon enough,” Jackie tells me, in an attempt to reassure me that they still care.
I’m hanging on by a thread when I see their posts all over social media. They run a production company, and their movies are even more insufferable than who they have become.
When they finally return, everything is the same. Mom still cares more about her clothes than anything else; my father updates me on shit I couldn’t care less about. They talk about their shared company like it’s their newly adopted child, and I’m old news.
Everything is the same.
Apart from the fact that they no longer have rings on their fingers.
I grab Mom’s hand and lift it into the chandelier light, making sure I’m not seeing things.
“Hey! You need to learn some etiquette.”
Who the fuck says ‘etiquette’?
“Where are your wedding rings?”
My mom sighs and looks at my dad. “Things happen.”
“Yeah? Like what?”
“We’re not the same people we were when we first met, son, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I will always respect your mother, and we are still partners. Just in a different way now.”
I clench my hands into fists.
This never would have happened if they hadn’t had the bittersweet taste of success.
I walk into the warm cabin as the day draws to a close and find Sienna alone on the couch sipping a glass of red wine.
She stares into the flames, which I find odd since her phone is right there beside her, facedown on the couch.
Sienna notices me, and the melancholy expression etched across her face transitions into something harder, more guarded.
“I thought you’d be out killing more deer.” She gestures to the window, the sky the same color as the fire. “Don’t they come out at dusk?”
“I’ve killed enough for one day. I know my limits.”
She glares at me. “Good for you.”
I take a seat beside her on the couch. “I’m guessing you’ll be on your way tomorrow.”
“Terrible shame for you.” Her eyes come alive in the flames. “You had a chance to do something other than degrade me with snarky comments, but I guess you let pride get in the way. Big mistake.” Her eyes turn shrewd. “What the hell is your deal anyway?”
My cock comes alive in my pants as I think about what she said to me last night. About me ending up in her bed.
“My deal is that I know exactly who you are, Sienna Lane.”
“You don’t know a fucking thing about me,” she quips, her face turning red. “But that’s the problem. Ignorant people think they know everything.”
I lean forward in my seat, scanning her body. Her feet are curled up beneath her, and the overly large flannel she’s wearing has slipped to reveal one bare shoulder.
Fuck, I promised myself to never entertain her species again. I’ve had multiple run-ins with people like Sienna who sacrifice their souls just for a taste of the high life. I know how these things go.
But my cock hardens, my focus narrowing to her golden skin, the curve of her exposed shoulder, wondering what she looks like naked.
Fuck, I can’t let her leave until I find out.
I hate to admit that I’ve been obsessed with her since she showed up in the blizzard. Stroking my cock alleviates the problem for a bit, but one look at her and the same problems come roaring back. And it’s getting more and more intense.
“I’m not ignorant,” I respond. “And I do know everything there is to know about you.”
“Okay.” Sienna swivels her body around to face me on the couch. “Tell me all about myself.”
“For starters, I know you’re only famous because you ruined somebody else’s life to get there.”
She stares vacantly at me like she did earlier on the porch.
She’s no different than any of the others.
“You’re right.” Her voice is barely above a whisper. “You hit the nail on the head. Congratulations.”
Sienna grabs her phone and drags herself off the couch, leaving me alone with the crackling fire and an ache in my chest that feels a lot like regret.