“You think I’m weak?”
“I know you are,” he says. “That whore has no business being near Vargas business. I’m disappointed in you lot—I thought Nolan was better than that. Letting some pussy control him. You’re the same, choosing pussy over family?—”
I’m out of my chair and around the table before I even realize I’ve moved. Mama’s shriek of surprise echoes throughout the kitchen as I jerk my father up, a fist in the front of his white tank.
“Don’t talk about her like that.”
A cold, calculated smile spreads across my father’s face and I realize my mistake. Motherfucker. I see the backhand coming and I don’t stop it. I don’t even try to dodge it. I take it as my punishment because I let my anger get the best of me.
When my father’s fist connects with my face, blood fills my mouth and my head snaps to the side. Then it’s my shirt in his hands.
“You fucked her, didn’t you?” He backs me up against the nearest wall. “Tell me. Are the three of you passing that little bitch around? Is she putting out for a roof over her head?” His smile is more than amused, it’s fucking ecstatic. He doesn’t even give me an opportunity to answer him. He throws his head back and laughs.
“Of course she is!” he bellows. “God, I bet her old man would love to see his precious little princess now. On her back fucking my son and two of my dealers and enforcers for nothing more than some food in her belly and a bed to sleep in.”
Sickness churns in my gut. “You don’t know anything,” I spit back at him.
“No?” He raises a brow at me and then removes his hand from my shirt, stepping back. The side of my face that he’d hit is sore and I can taste nothing but rust on my tongue. Darrio shakes his head. “I think I know all I need to, boy.”
He shuffles back to the table and retakes his seat. Mama stares at me from her place, eyes wide and begging me to pretend like none of this ever happened, but I can’t. I’m not like her. I can’t accept a punch and act like it’s love.
I bow my head until my chin touches the skin above my collarbone. “What you know is nothing,” I say quietly.
Darrio grunts and turns his head, glaring at me. I see his dark look from my periphery, but I don’t return it. Let him think I’m too weak to look him in the eye. He’ll regret it when I have my hands wrapped around his throat as I watch the light leave his eyes one day.
“A woman like that will bring you nothing but disappointment, son,” he says coldly. “She might be a pretty little thing and you might enjoy the fuck, but soon enough she’ll move on to someone better. She’ll do it again and again until that pussy of hers is all used up and there ain’t nothing left to her but sagging tits and a desire for everything she’s lost.”
An ache blossoms behind my rib cage, spanning outward. Each inhalation strengthens it, making it grow heavier and more painful.
“She’s not like that.”
He doesn’t believe me, but that’s all right. He doesn’t have to.
I know the truth. Lex and Nolan do too. All I need is them. Them and her.
Someday, we won’t need to use him anymore and when that day comes… I look up and meet my father’s stare as he lifts his spoon to his mouth and sips on the chunky broth. All of his sins will come back to haunt him.
20
JULIET
Is it possible to fall in love with another person’s darkness?
The question permeates my thoughts and my mind all through the next several days and well into the next week. Not just one of them, but all three of the psychopaths that have captured me and locked me in their orbit. I’m still thinking about the sex I’ve been having, aboutthem, when Megan makes her next move.
The door to the girls’ bathroom opens and I spy the lineup of girls that walk in. Not a single one of them heads into the stalls and the one other girl alone in the room with me at the sinks takes one look at them and leaves without drying her hands.
I sigh. This was bound to happen at some point. If I’m honest with myself, I kind of hoped it would eventually. Except, as I count how many girls there are, a note of irritation slithering through me, I’d hoped it would be fair.
The door to the bathroom opens again and Megan strides inside with her friends on either side. The girls split, allowing her passage through. All the while, I watch them in the reflection of the mirror. There’s a total of seven of them and one of me.
Unease prickles along my nape, but I finish washing my hands and then I move over to the dryer. Before I make it there,one of the girls—someone I don’t recognize—steps in front of me. She’s tall for a woman, with an athletic build and lips that are too thin for her face.
I stare at her as I lift my hands and wipe the backs of them straight down the front of her shirt. She stiffens and her upper lip curls back away from her teeth. I keep eye contact, not daring to look away as I finish drying my hands on her clothes since she’s in my way.
No one says a damn word.
A second ticks past, then another and another. It isn’t until the sound of a lock clicking and a bolt sliding into place echoes throughout the tiled room that someone finally moves. Lo and behold, it’s exactly who I expect too.
