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“He went off to college with his friends, ready to conquer the world. But one night, a mistake was made. A drunken one, and from there, everything began to slide. The college was ready to expel them; internships were being rescinded…so he made his first dirty deal in order to keep everything from falling apart.
“Now, he wasn’t able to do that for everyone.” He shrugged. “Some of his friends wound up in jail, and others had their career opportunities disappear as if they’d never been offered. He managed to get away unscathed, along with a few others who he eventually went into business with, and the mistake of the past was buried.”
There were only three people he could be talking about. Ward and Ford. Both of whom were now dead, and Knight, who still clung to this world like a bad sex tape.
“Soon, his career grew and grew. But he learned that not all dead things stay buried.”
“Is there a point to this fucking story?” I growled, finally breaking. “Or do you just like to hear the sound of your own voice?”
A hand wrapped around my throat, stifling my scream. Not that it would have mattered in this place. No one would come running. He lifted me from the floor, pushing me down on the bed, his weight bearing down on me. Nails dug into flesh as I flailed beneath him. The smell of iron tinged the air. I’d managed to rake my nails down his face before Drew seized my wrists above my head, leaving me helpless beneath the man I’d once called father.
There was nothing fatherly about the bulge I felt pressing against my stomach.
The urge to wretch was high, and I had to fight against the need to vomit everywhere. The only thing holding me back was the thought that I wouldn’t have anything to change into and I’d end up sleeping in vomit-covered clothes and mattress.
“Enough,” he roared. The back of his hand against my cheek effectively stilled me. My chest heaved as I fought to take in air. It was like breathing through a straw. “Do you know what I’ve had to do to get where I am? To build this legacy? I own this city, and soon, I’ll be on top of the world. The most powerful man in history. When your slut of a mother came back to Seattle after leaving to find herself, she sought me out. Told me she would ruin me. I couldn’t let that happen. Iwouldn’tlet that happen.”
“So…you…killed her…” I wheezed. Crowe smirked.
“I didn’t have to.” He chuckled. “Lina did all of that for me. I just,” he paused, “set things in motion. I knew Eriksen was set to be engaged to Lina. Back then, she was Marilina Brandt. I also knew that if he met your mother, he would call everything off. The two were fated to be together. So alike. And it worked.
“I knew Lina would be looking for revenge, so I did everything I could to help her get right under your mother’s nose without her ever knowing. A few nips and tucks later and she easily became Lina Davenport. It was supposed to look like an accident, yours and your mother’s deaths. Something Eriksen would never suspect was foul play. But your mother was sharper than I anticipated. Not surprising. Lina and your mother had been friends for years before college.
“Appearances are easily changed. Mannerisms are not.” His eyes gleamed darkly. “Hence the sudden bloodshed. Elizabeth and her entire squad of Vixens were cut down like the dogs they were. But somehow you escaped. Imagine my luck when I get a call from one of your father’s club whores. She saved you from the massacre just to broker a deal with me. Drug money for you.”
“You killed her,” I rasped.
He smirked. “Made it look like a dirty accident. Overdose. Some forged paperwork later, and you were reborn Bailey Jameson. You were only three, so I wasn’t worried too much about you remembering much. As you grew, there were a few things that snuck through, but that was what therapy was for.”
Tears escaped. “You…buried my…memories?” Dots were beginning to dance across my vision. If he kept this up, I’d pass out from lack of oxygen. My lungs were working overtime trying to keep air flowing through my body and to my brain.
“I needed to make sure you never remembered anything that I hadn’t put there.”
“Fuck…” I struggled against him, “you.”
“If only there was time for that.” He let go of my throat. I gasped as air surged into my lungs. The room spun slightly, but the dots in my vision receded. Standing, Crowe straightened himself. “You’ll be going to a nice little place Lina has set aside for you. Somewhere we can keep an eye on you and make sure your father stays in line. I’ve lost count of how many times he’s tried to rescue you over the years. Until he saw what I was willing to do if he didn’t obey.”
The beating.
The starvation.
All things my brain had been conditioned to accept as punishment for something I had done wrong. The very therapist I had gone to in order to keep my traumatic past at bay had, in fact, been conditioning me over the years to accept the abuse.
That fucker was definitely going on my kill list.
Right after these two fuckers.
And Lina.
And Sarah.
Shit, that list was getting long.
Inner psycho was sharpening her teeth in one corner and sayingfuck it.
“Well, I’m so glad you came to read me a bullshit bedtime story,” I sneered. “It’s cute how you try to make yourself out as the martyr, when you’re nothing but a coward who couldn’t make it to the top without greasing a few wheels.”
No reaction.
