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“Ha!” Vadik booms. “And there we have it.”
Oh my god. Has Kir taken a liking to me?
Is this something I can make work in my favor?
“You’re getting soft,” Vadik growls. “You both are. And it makes me sick.”
I close my eyes and breathe deeply. Please, please, please…
I can’t get my hopes up. It’s stupid to flatter myself. These men could probably be in love with me and they’d still send me to the slaughterhouse. That’s how they operate. They have no conscience. No ability to care.
They are sick, horrible people.
I don’t deserve this. I don’t.
My phone vibrates and because I’m tired of hearing the guys argue, I pick it up.
* * *
CHAPTERSIXTY-ONE
Charleigh
“Evie. Hey.”
“Thanks for returning all my calls, Char,” she says in full-on smartass, something she’s perfected like a champ.
I wait for my irritation to pass. On top of everything else, I am not in the mood to take shit from a bitchy teenager.
“Sorry. I’ve been… busy. What’s up?”
“Pops says you might not be coming back home.”
Did I just hear a crack in her voice? Is the little monster actually upset?
And did Pops really say that? What the hell?
Now what do I say?
I don’t want to lie, but I don’t want to get her hopes up, either. Poor kid has been through more than most sixteen-year-olds.
So I lie, not because it’s better for her, but because it’s better forme. Which is pathetic and lame.
“Don’t listen to Pops, Evie. He’s being ridiculous. But hey, while I’m gone can you do me a huge, huge favor?”
She sniffles. Shit, she really is upset, which breaks by damn heart. I’m just another person in her life who’s going to let her down. “Yeah?” she asks.
“There’s a lot going on for me right now, Evie. Pops too. So I need you to try really, really hard to stay on your best behavior. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for me. I just really need this. If you need help with anything, call Victoria. You know how she’s always been there for us.”
Now my voice cracks. But that’s okay. I want her to know how serious I am. I can’t help her the way I used to. She needs to start helping herself. She has to grow up fast, just like I did when Mother died.
“Char, what’s going on? Where are you?” Evie asks in a small voice.
The voice takes me back to when she was little, when I vowed to always be there for her because our mother couldn’t. She was such a beautiful little girl. Dark curly hair and huge brown eyes. After Mother died, she was afraid to sleep alone. She held my hand everywhere we went.
She didn’t want to lose me, too. After all, she’d basically just lost both parents.
I put my head in my hands. I’m not even sure who or what to hate. My father? The guys?
