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“Nalla, you can tell me what’s wrong.”
Lowering her head, she braced her hands on the lip of the sink, splaying her fingers out, looking at the short nails she had clipped just days before. Funny, when she’d been doing that snip-snip stuff, she could never have guessed where her life would go in a mere forty-eight-hour period.
Bitty. Her father. Now… this.
“I love you, Nalla. I want to fix whatever’s wrong between us.” There was a choked sound. “We used to be close, you and I. I don’t understand what’s happened.”
Memories of when she’d been a young at that grand mansion came back to her, and she relived those nights of getting jacked into party dresses, and having her hair brushed, and of bows and nail polish, of Mary Janes and short white socks. There had been dolls, too. And tea parties.
Hermahmenhad been there for all of that. It had only been after the great divide, as Nalla had always thought of it, when they’d all left the mountaintop and the grown-ups had gotten grim, that things had begun to shift. Or maybe it was more like she’d started to get older and had recognized all the autopilot that was going on, time that was precious to her not being as significant to Bella because of all the other things the female was more concerned about.
“Were we ever really close?” Nalla said dully. “Or was it because you were in charge of keeping me alive and fed and clothed?”
“Nalla…” Those blue eyes welled up. “Of course we were, and I want to bring us back to where we used to be—”
“You want to fix what never was.” Tears came to her own eyes andshe slashed them away. “And I do think you love me, although only because there’s a piece of him in me. It’s never been about me. It’s always about—”
“That is not true! I can’t believe you’re saying this—”
“I know what was done to him when he was a blood slave.” That shut hermahmenup, Bella’s face going pale. “You think I don’t know what those bands are on his neck and wrists? I know what he was.”
Bella put her hand out in what looked like a blind way, locking a grip on the back of one of the table’s spindle chairs as if her balance was off.
“We’ve never kept that from you.”
Nalla shrugged. “You never talked about it, either.”
There was a pause. And then in a hoarse voice, hermahmensaid, “Some things you are not going to want to hear about firsthand. And I’ve always worried about you, too—”
Nalla pointed to the archway hermahmenhad come through. “You walked in here, supposedly to check on me, but the first words out of your mouth are thathe’sworried about me. It’s the story of my life. ‘Let’s not upset your father—’?”
“I’veneversaid that.”
“You don’t have to. The subtext is there—and please don’t deny it. We both know what’s been going on.”
“But you never talk about your life. I don’t know anything about—”
Nalla yanked her fleece down, exposing the still-raw bite mark on the side of her throat. “I fed a male of worth tonight and I do not regret it. I’m not going to apologize for it, either. And if you think I’m in a big hurry to talk to you two about what happened, you’re out of your mind. Father already hates him, and I know that you’re going to back yourhellren—and I’m not interested in having this male threatened by a member of the Black Dagger Brotherhood.”
And no, she didn’t care that Nate had promised not to see her. This was her business, and her father needed to back the fuck off.
“Nalla, we want you to go out and live your life.”
“Maybe, but on your terms.” She threw up her hands. “Do you want to know what happened to me last night? A bunch of males at a club bet who could get me. They think it’s a game, proving who can bag the Brother Zsadist’s daughter—and live to tell about it because my father is so fucking scary.”
“That is terrible.” Bella shook her head. “There’s no excuse for that kind of behavior. But we can’t control what others do, you have to know that.”
“Yeah, well, it’s just one more way him being who he is affects my life. I have spent so many festivals sidelining things because no guy wanted to ask me to dance in front of him, so many nights alone, no future except work—”
“Again, I’m really sorry, but your father didn’t have anything to do with that—”
“Yes, he did. He threatened four males I know about, and God only knows how many I don’t—oh, he didn’t tell you?” As hermahmencontinued to look surprised, Nalla nodded forcefully. “I always heard about it afterward, when I was hoping for a second date or even a first one, and the guy went hands-off because yourhellrendecided to ‘set them straight.’?”
Bella rubbed her eyes like her head hurt. “He is protective of you, but that’s crossing a line.”
“You think? He was going to throw one of them off the bridge downtown if they treated me wrong. And before he tries to excuse it by saying he’s just watching out for me, those males didn’t even take a chance on me. They just up and left. I never had an opportunity to even try to find a relationship—and finally, I just gave up. I sat alone in my room…” Or with Bitty, who was naturally shyer. “… and didn’t live because it was easier than dealing with him.”
Bella dropped her hands as if in defeat. “You have to understand where your father is coming from.”
