Cain glances toward her over the rim of his glass before letting out a dry scoff.
“Relax,” he mutters coldly, swirling the whiskey in his glass like she’s already beneath his attention. “I’m not wasting my dick on you twice.”
I snort quietly under my breath, shifting my weight while I watch the smug look spread across his face.
Such a cocky fucking bastard.
“Don’t tell me your new little girlfriend already has you whipped,” I mutter with an amused grin. “That would honestly be the most pathetic plot twist of the night.”
“I do not have him whipped.” Her voice suddenly cuts through the room so sharply that the entire atmosphere shifts instantly.
A grin spreads across my face before I even bother turning toward the doorway, because the second that voice cuts through the room, I already know this night just became a whole lot more interesting.
“Well,” I mutter with a low laugh, “speak of the fucking devil.”
Nobody reacts right away. Then Sierra notices who just walked in. Her whole body jolts violently, terror flashing across her face so intensely it almost looks painful.
I step back slowly, enjoying the pure shock unraveling across her face, before I finally drop onto the couch beside Cain like none of this is anything more than late-night entertainment.
I hand him my empty glass with a grin and nudge his arm lightly toward the bottle while Sierra keeps thrashing against the restraints hard enough to make the chains scream above her head.
“Now this,” I say while leaning back comfortably into the couch, “is where the night completely goes to hell.”
“My dad is gonna kill you, you dumb ugly bitch!” The scream tears out of Sierra, shredding whatever composure she had left. “What kind of sick fucking joke is this?! Let me go!”
Tess starts walking toward her without rushing, the sound of her heels echoing softly through the room while desperate yelling keeps bouncing off the walls like she still believes somebody’s about to save her from this.
Then Tess’s hand suddenly lashes across her face—hard enough to throw her head violently to the side. The slap echoes through the room, and a second later blood starts to gather at the corner of her mouth before sliding down her chin.
“Shut the fuck up,” Tess spits directly in her face.
Silence crashes over the room instantly after that, broken only by Sierra’s uneven breathing.
“Your dad?” Tess repeats with a small laugh that sounds almost offended. “Sweetheart, your precious daddy doesn’t even want to fucking hear your name anymore.”
“What?” The word barely makes it out of her mouth while confusion twists across her face at the same time, like everything underneath her just cracked open without warning.
Tess steps closer and grips Sierra’s cheeks between her fingers, crushing them together until her lips twist into a pathetic pout while she tries desperately to pull away.
“Your precious daddy finally got tired of your bullshit,” Tess says sweetly. “Especially after all those cute messagesyousent him about your amazing new life, leaving the country with your husband, not needing his money anymore, not wanting anything to do with him or the business because you finally found real happiness somewhere else.”
Sierra rips her face away from Tess’s hand so violently, the chains clatter above her head again. “What the fuck are you talking about, Tess?” she asks, sounding more unsteady with every word. “What did you do?”
Tess simply stares at her, the silence stretching while a soft smile slowly spreads across her face, and somehow it feels more unsettling than the slap itself.
“I took care of you,” she says simply. “Clearly somebody fucking had to.”
“No… no! You’re lying!”
“You really still don’t get it, do you?” Tess mutters quietly, and for the first time since walking into the room, something genuinely ugly starts bleeding into her voice. “I hate you.” Her eyes slowly drag over the blood covering the floor before lifting back toward her cousin. “I always fucking hated you.”
The atmosphere in the room shifts instantly after that, like years of resentment finally cracked open inside her all at once.
“You took everything from me while acting too fucking innocent to even notice it happening. Every room you walked into immediately became about you, every guy wanted you, every girl wanted to be you, and everyone else just stood there kissing your ass because daddy’s money could buy you your own little kingdom.”
“What are you talking about?” she chokes out, tears pouring uncontrollably down her face while the words keep falling apart more with every second. “I never did anything to you! I always tried to be your friend!”
“My friend?!” Tess suddenly screams, years of frustration exploding out of her so violently that even Cain shifts beside me at the sound of it. “You callthatfriendship?!” Her chest rises sharply while her entire body shakes with rage.
