“If I’m his wife, will I be a toy?” I ask, arching a brow.
My father is pissed I ran off for five years. He’s doing a bad job of hiding his anger and frustration. He also thinks for some reason that if he scares the absolute shit out of me, I won’t talk back. He doesn’t know who I am anymore and if he thinks that I’ll even be here in a month’s time, he doesn’t know me at all and never did.
“You’re too much like your mother. I forget that sometimes. The fire and spirit that she had. The defiance. It’s what got her killed, you know that, right?”
“You mean it’s why you killed her?” I ask.
He leans forward, his perfectly perfect white teeth on display as he smiles at me. “I didn’t kill her, Leighton. She was my wife,” he rasps.
“But you know who did,” I state.
I don’t remember my mother. I don’t even remember what she looked like. My father doesn’t talk about her, he doesn’t have any pictures around and as far as I know, she’s just some ghost from the past. I don’t even know her name.
“Doesn’t matter,” he says with a shrug of his shoulder. “Your new husband will marry you, because that is what I demanded. My demands do not require him to treat you any better than he treats his other acquisitions.”
“And how is that?” I ask, trying to hide the shakiness of my voice.
He laughs softly. “Like an animal, Leighton. By the time he is finished with you, you won’t even know your own name anymore. I’ll see you again, when your transformation is complete. I require him to keep you alive for a while, more for my own entertainment than anything else.”
I watch as he turns around and walks out of the room. The door locks into place, and only then do I let a single tear fall from my eye. My father isn’t trying to scare me, the truth is far too terrifying to need to lie.
MOUNTAIN
It’s time.
We’re all parked a few blocks away from the entrance into Premiere Valley, knowing that if we drive anywhere into the actual township, park and wait for orders, we’ll be watched, noted, and marked as suspicious.
Standing next to Dragon, I’m surprised that he’s decided to come on this trip, but I don’t ask him why. He’s made it clear that he needs to be here for whatever reason and that’s enough for me.
We’re in a blacked-out van, the license plate is fake as fuck, the windows blacked out, everything is in place and we’re loaded with whatever we need to finish this job properly. The house is going to explode, whoever is inside will die, especially Tom Richardson.
“We got the okay. He’s shutting shit off in five minutes,” Dragon announces.
There are only three of us on this mission. Me, Dragon, and Silver. We’ve been thicker than pigs in shit for years, we grew up prospecting together, and these are the men I trust with my life, every single part of it.
Dragon starts the van, shifts it into drive and heads into Premiere Valley. The van is silent, all three of us getting into our zone. This part won’t be so bad, but the warehouse afterward, that’s going to fuck us all up. There is no way that it can’t.
We won’t be walking into a consensual relationship with a harem or call girls that are there to earn a living. This is different, this is ugly and twisted, this is girls who are bought, used, and discarded like trash. This is sick fucking shit. This is deeper and uglier than any of us have ever seen firsthand.
The house we pull up to has a gated entrance, it opens automatically thanks to Worm. Slowly Dragon creeps forward, down the tree-lined drive. It’s all fancy as shit. This is what you see on television, shit that doesn’t seem real.
This is some fucker that’s too rich for his own damn good, a man who is bored with having everything so he takes, he buys, he maims. Dragon doesn’t park in front, instead he pulls around to the back, to the servant entrance.
Worm gave us a floor plan of the house, we know exactly where every nook and cranny is in the place. Dragon turns around after shifting the van into park.
“You guys ready?” he asks.
Without saying a single word, we nod, then tug our masks down. There’s no way in fuck we’re walking in there without covering our faces. If something happens, if someone sees us, if there is some kind of glitch, there is no way in fuck that we’re going down for this.
We all check our weapons, ensuring that they’re loaded before we step out of the van and make our way inside. Dragon goes first, I slip in behind him, Silver is the backup to my backup. We turn the corner, and at the base of the stairs, there he is.
Dragon lifts his gun, then grins when the fuck’s mouth drops open in surprise. I watch as he looks behind him, then shifts his gaze back to us. Before he can utter a single word, I rush past him. There is someone up there, someone that he thinks that he can hide away. Probably some girlfriend or his wife, maybe she’s an innocent, maybe not, doesn’t matter, she’s dead too.
I hear the gunshot, knowing that Dragon forced him to hold the gun in his own mouth and pull the trigger. It’s sick as fuck, but it’s the only way to ensure that it looks like a suicide. Nobody will think twice about some rich asshole ending it all, suicide doesn’t discriminate, which is why it was the easiest plan to make and execute.
In reality, a man like him has no conscience, he wouldn’t ever take his own life because he’s too goddamn selfish.
I clear several rooms that I come across, then the one at the end of the hall is locked. Glancing down, I am surprised to see that it’s locked from the outside. Flipping the deadbolt, I push the door open and freeze at the sight in front of me.
It’s a girl, a woman. Her back is to me, her long blonde hair skims the top of her ass. She’s wearing what looks like shorts and a t-shirt. She must realize that I’m not Tom. Slowly, she turns around and that is when my breath freezes in my chest.
She’s young. No older than her mid-twenties. She’s also fucking gorgeous. “Are you here to kill me?” she asks, her voice floating around me. Her voice doesn’t even shake, not even the slightest tremble.
“Who are you?” I growl.
“Leighton Richardson, his daughter.”
Without a word, I march toward her. I have my gun in hand, ready to end her. When I’m directly in front of her, she surprises the shit out of me. She lifts her hand, cupping my mask covered cheek. Her eyes search mine and then she gives me a small smile.
“Can you please kill me?” she asks on a rasp. “Death will be a relief compared to what he has planned for my future.”
The tremble of her lips finally betray her attempt to be strong and brave. It is sweet. It also isn’t going to tempt me to end her life. I wouldn’t, couldn’t, do that to her. She is far too beautiful, her eyes far too innocent and yet haunted for her life to end just yet.
“Nah, mi reina. You won’t die today. Maybe you’ll wish you had, but you won’t today.”
Without another word. I bend slightly, shoving my shoulder in her stomach and stand with her chest draping down my back, my arm tightly wrapped around her upper thighs.
“Anyone else in this house?” I ask.
“Just my father and his gopher.”
I hear a second gunshot and I smirk to myself. Looks like they found his gopher. There’s a moment of silence as I jog down the staircase, Leighton bouncing against my back with each step that I take.