“You’re not keeping up your end of the bargain,” I growl at her in the hallway outside of her parents’ condo.
“You could have declined the invite.”
“I like having your parents fawn over me.”
“There wasn’t fawning,” she argues.
“Your granny tried to get a photograph of my crotch.”
“Oh my god, I swear to god I told her not to. I am so sorry.”
“If you wanted it that bad”—I lean in to whisper—“I could have just given it to you for free.”
I smirk at the strangled little noise she makes.
“Good night, Dani,” I call over my shoulder as she stands there speechless.
I don’t knowwhy I’m in a good mood.
Well, I’m not in a good mood, but I’m not in a bad one either.
I should be furious.
Dani’s blabbing about the kidnapping.
Alleged.There’s no proof.
But maybe I should go ahead and engage a legal firm just to be on the safe side...
No. No one can know.
I’m still hoping that this will all just go away.
And—what? That Dani will go away?
At the end of the evening, when her dad pulled out the family photo albums while Dani begged him to stop, it almost—almost—felt real.
That was dangerous.
That’s getting into Dad territory, thinking the girl you victimized is falling for you. Or that you’re falling for her.
Dad certainly believed, even as he was being hauled away to rot in prison, that he was in love with all six of the girls he kidnapped. Even though I knew the hell he put them through.
You don’t put people through the type of hell he did if you actually love them.
But I’m not putting Dani through any sort of hell. She wants me around her.
It’s a dangerous line of thought. And that makes it enticing.
I wish she came home with me tonight.
Why? So you can watch her sleep?
Yeah.
My phone rings.
It’s my mother.
