AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“The contract is on the counter there,” Kir says, gesturing to the glass case where pawned jewelry is kept as a weak attempt at security.
Pops tried to give my mother a piece once, a gold bracelet someone had pawned, but she refused it. She didn’t want anything that had come from some sort of distressed situation. When she put it that way, I felt the same. Too much bad juju. After that, I never tried on any of the jewelry again.
But he did once give her something he bought new. At least he said he did. And I have it now. Not that he knows. Or has ever noticed.
“Um, contract?” I ask with an involuntary squeak.
I look at the brothers, and then my father. No one responds.
“You’re coming to work for us, Charleigh. Your father has signed the contract. This will all but erase his debt. Now you need to sign.”
I scowl even as my behind stings from my spanking, a rush of fearlessness surging through me. “I’m not signing anything.”
Kir looks at me like he wants to hit me. Like no one ever challenges him. Or if they do, they don’t live to talk about it.
I want to drag my fingernails down his handsome face, leaving raw streaks of ripped flesh. Something that would hurt like hell, but what appeals most is how it would hurt his pride.
That, I would enjoy.
“I wouldn’t sound so cavalier if I were you, Charleigh,” Vadik says. “Your father has offered you.”
That’s a lie.
I look at Pops, who alarms me by doing everything he can to avoid my gaze. “No. No, Pops. You didn’t.”
He continues to look down, balled up in shame, and nods his head the tiniest bit. Just enough to let me know that yes, my very own father has sold me out.
How… how could he do this? In what world does this happen? And tome? I’m on the brink of a new life. I don’t have time to work for these guys, whatever it is they want me to do.
My own father. I might not expect much of him, butthis?
I clasp my stomach like someone punched me in the gut. I want to double over and sob, then beg, beg to be left alone.
The three brothers, handsome as they are, watch me coolly. There’s no compassion in their eyes, nor pity. Just apathy. And indifference so ugly it almost takes their good looks down a notch.
Almost.
“What… what the hell canIofferyou?” I ask, trying to steady my voice as I look from one man to the other.
“Sign here,” Kir repeats.
I pick up the pen thrust in my direction. I’ve never seen such a grave, determined expression on someone’s face. And yet, I need to push one more time to try and help myself.
“What if I don’t?” I say, mustering all the haughtiness I can.
Kir glances at Pops, then his brothers. Then me. “Well, we understand you have another sister. She might be kind of young but…”
Evie?
My stomach, already in bad shape, lurches and I can taste the bile that doesn’t want to stay down. No, not Evie. Never Evie.
I’ll die first.
“Fuck you,” I spit at them.
Kir releases a booming laugh. “Those are big, dirty words for a virgin.”
What did he just say?
