“That’s it.”
I glared at him, trying to read beneath his skin and failing. Usually, I was a good judge of character, but at every opportunity, Tiernan stymied me. I hated it, but I was also unhealthily intrigued by his many mysteries.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
“I’m not going to school today,” I pressed, still waspish because he was being too nice, too reasonable and it was making my head throb and my heart pound. “I’m staying with Brando.”
He gave me a condescending look. “I’ve already called the headmaster. You’ll start tomorrow.” He stood up then, all-business and cold impartiality once more. “I won’t have you using Brando’s illness as an excuse to slack off, though. I expect you to get straight As and exhibit exemplary behavior if you want to remain in this house.”
“If you kick me out, I’ll take Brando with me,” I threatened mildly as he turned away, but fear saturated my chest like battery acid.
“No. You won’t,” he said simply on the way out the door, and even though it wasn’t the first time he’d threatened me, it was definitely the most terrifying.
I held Brando for a long time, questioning everything—was Tiernan a hero or a villain, this house a cage or a home, my life over before it had even started or filled with new opportunity—until I fell into a fitful, confused sleep next to him. I dreamt of the reaper coming to get me, only he offered me a rose instead of death, and when I woke up, someone had left a new Hulk action figure on Brando’s bedside table.
There was a note scrawled on expensive paper in slightly uneven script.
Brando,
What do you think the Hulk, Deadpool, Jessica Jones, and Captain Marvel have in common?
You’re all incredible individuals destined for great things despite the poor cards life has dealt you. We have no doubt you’ll achieve great things just like your favorite superheroes. Adversity only made them stronger and wiser, as it will with you.
From The Gentlemen of Lion Court
That night Henrik, Ezra, and Walcott turned the dusty front parlor, the only room with a television in the entire mansion, into a movie theater for Brando and declared a Marvel movie marathon.
Brando, still sluggish but much recovered after a checkup and stitch-up by Dr. Crown, was over the moon. Happier than I’d ever seen him as he sat on the velvet couch tucked into Ezra’s hulking body, Walcott on the other side of him holding the popcorn they shared. Henrik sat in a chair by himself, but he was the most vocal, making everyone laugh with his commentary.
I sat on the floor at Brando’s feet because I needed the space so they wouldn’t see the tears that haunted my eyes. So they wouldn’t know that this was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for Brando.
When Walcott leaned down to offer me popcorn, I whispered thickly, “Thank you for this, it was a great idea.”
“You should thank the boss,” he replied, squeezing my shoulder. “It was his.”
Something gunked up my chest, made my heart beat too slow and my breath too shallow. I spent the rest of the night waiting for Tiernan to show his face, maybe even join us.
But he never did.
I was as grateful for his absence as I was oddly despondent over it.
And that freaking terrified me.
When I finally slept after staring at the ceiling for hours thinking of the man I’d been so sure was a monster, I had nightmares sandwiched between my dreams.
Chapter Five
Bianca
“Stop squirming,” Tiernan ordered as he drove through the dense morning traffic on the New York City streets, one hand casually resting on the wheel, his Patek Philippe watch gleaming in the pale spring light.
I stopped squirming in my seat, but the plaid uniform skirt still itched at my bare thighs beneath it. I tried to tug it down over my knees, but the gray and green fabric remained mid-thigh. When I wriggled again, Tiernan’s free hand lashed out to clamp around my leg.
“Enough,” he ordered, squeezing so tight I wondered if it would leave a bruise.
A dark part of me wished it would.
We’d already dropped Brando off at his all-boys school in his dapper little uniform. It was emotional to watch him join the other kids. He was all excitement, even though it was a totally new school in a new, huge, and strange city. I admired the adaptability of kids. Even though I was only seventeen, I was nervous about the newness of everything, whether or not they’d know immediately that I was an imposter in their wealthy midst.
“Listen,” Tiernan said on an annoyed sigh. “You’ll be fine. McTiernans don’t cower before anyone, least of all a hoard of immature teens.”
“I am a teen,” I reminded him. “And I’m not a McTiernan.”
“For all intents and purposes, you are now,” he corrected, looking over at me at a stoplight. He looked so dashing in the luxe interior of the Aston Martin that I felt the absurd urge to touch him to make sure he was real. “Chin up, Bianca. The elite can smell your fear.”
“You would know,” I muttered, looking out the window even though the view was so much better inside the car.
Yesterday had left a storm of conflict in my soul about the enigmatic man, but I’d resolved myself to remember his overwhelming bad qualities instead of the infinitesimal good ones. He’d barely mourned my mother, demanded absolute obedience from me while simultaneously treating me like dirt, and his intentions taking Brando and me in were more than slightly shady. I couldn’t trust him, shouldn’t let my guard down around him, and I couldn’t waver for a single second or I knew the jerk would take advantage.
He chuckled as we finally swung into the parking lot at Sacred Heart. I pressed my nose to the glass, craning to see the entire massive brick edifice.
“Wow,” I breathed, shocked at the beauty of the grounds and the perfectly appointed students milling around on the front steps with their Prada tie clips, preppy plaids, and expensive shoes. “This is like something straight off Gossip Girl.”
Tiernan ignored me, reaching into the back to grab my new designer bag and dump it into my lap. “Get going.”
“What, you aren’t going to wish me luck on my first day, Daddy?” I asked sweetly, batting my eyelashes.
His mouth flattened and that hand found my thigh again, squeezing hard enough to bruise. “No. I will remind you of the rules. You do not speak about me or the private matters of our home. You do not fuck around. Straight As or I’ll have you pulled out of SHA and put into a school in the fucking ghetto. Is that understood?”
“Crystal clear,” I muttered.
“And, Bianca?” he practically purred in a way that was both sexual and threatening. “No boys.”
“Jealous?” I baited with a mean smile.
“I’m not jealous. Legally you are mine, and I protect what is mine at all costs. You don’t want me to have to remind some teenage boy that your body isn’t theirs to do with as they please.”
A shiver rattled my bones before I could brace for it, alerting Tiernan to my ridiculous arousal over his possessiveness. I watched his eyes flare neon green, then darken.
He leaned close until all I could see were those eyes and all I could smell was his smoke and sin scent. “You don’t want me to have to remind you, either.”