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I nodded, unsure if that was an insult of sorts.
“Why?”
I tucked some hair behind my ear. “I, uh, well, that’s your bed. I didn’t think you’d want a stranger in it.”
His scowl deepened.
“Sit down,” he demanded.
I wondered if anyone had ever told this man no. The way he ordered me around made me want to stand my ground, but then there was the other part of me that knew better than to push the person in charge. I walked over to the sofa and sat down, telling myself that I’d get to leave soon and I’d never have to lay eyes on him again. Which was a good thing because the dirty, twisted part of me, which I had worked so hard to hide from the world, was attracted to this brutal killer. No amount of ipecac would get that demon out of me. But then it had never worked when Tabitha shoved it down my throat. Whatever demons she thought were inside of me hadn’t left. My boobs had only gotten bigger. If she had known about my sexual thoughts and the books I read, she’d never have let me sleep under her roof while I dated Hayes.
Huck didn’t sit down, but remained towering over me while he looked down at me. “For six months, you had to put on a fucking good act for my brother.”
The disgust was clear in his tone and expression. I was used to disgust. I’d grown up with it in my face daily. But seeing it on his face bothered me.
What all had he found out about me? How much could he have learned in such a short time? Did those things I had been wrongfully accused of show up? And why the heck did I care if Huck Kingston was disgusted with me?
Fine! Be disgusted with me. But get in line, buddy. You aren’t the first one.
“Hayes would never have put a ring on your finger had he known the truth, but then you know that. How did you think you were going to pull off being a minister’s wife?” He let out a hard laugh then. “You were good at it. I was even fucking fooled at the funeral.”
I fisted my hands in my lap. I would not let this man get to me. He wasn’t a saint. His judgment was laughable. At least I’d never killed anyone. I should be disgusted with him.
“Not gonna defend yourself?” he asked, raising one eyebrow as he looked down at me. “Not gonna tell me that you can explain things? You had to have made up some crock-of-shit story to tell my brother in case he ever heard the truth about how you’d lost your scholarship and when. Because it sure as fuck wasn’t a year ago, when you’d finally gone back home.”
He bent down until his eyes were level with mine. The disgust was still there, but I saw something else. Something that should send me running from this room and this house. It wasn’t the first time a man had looked at me like that. I knew what it meant. I’d learned from Roy that a man could be disgusted with you and feel lust at the same time.
“And to think, I had felt like a fucking asshole for making you take off your clothes for me,” he said, tilting his head as a slow, sadistic smile spread across his face. “Then, you spread those legs and bent over, and that pink pussy was glistening with your arousal. I should have known it then.”
His hand shot out, and he grabbed my face with his massive hand. Squeezing my chin so hard that I wanted to cry out from the pain, but I didn’t. I was afraid to move or make a sound.
“You played that part so well. Embarrassed to strip for me when you had done it for money. And my baby brother never knew, did he?” He let go of my face, shoving it away from him as he stood up.
He had found out I’d worked at a strip club for almost six months. No one knew that. I’d worn a wig, colored contacts, and gone by a different name. I hadn’t applied to be a dancer. I didn’t think anyone would want to see my body naked. I started as a server. I was just required to wear a short skirt and pasties over my nipples. After one week, they convinced me to get onstage. Customers had wanted me up there, and the money was the reason I gave in, but I would have done anything to keep from having to go back to my father’s house. Tabitha had made my life a living hell. She was the reason I’d studied so hard in school, determined to get a scholarship to a college as far away from her and the home I’d been forced to live in.
This man didn’t deserve that explanation though. I didn’t know him. One day, I would have told Hayes. He’d have understood. At least, that was what I had told myself when the guilt of my lies taunted me.
“Your disguise was a good one, but that ass?” He released a dark chuckle that made me shiver. “Any man who’s seen it bare would recognize it.”
The dark part of my soul that I feared would always make me bad, no matter how hard I tried, flickered inside me. My body wanted him to like it. That was sick, and I knew it, but it didn’t matter to the demons I tried so hard to fight.
“Don’t get me wrong; your stepmother is a horrible bitch. I get why you didn’t want to go home, but then if you hadn’t been fucking your married professor, then you wouldn’t have lost your scholarship,” Huck drawled.
He was wrong there, but then telling him that was pointless. No one had believed me then, and this man sure wasn’t going to believe me now. I dropped my gaze to my lap and held my hands together, hoping this would end soon and I could go.
“The cleaning business can’t pay as much as that fucking body of yours did. What was it, the guilt over lying to Hayes? He’s dead. You could have gone right back to the pole. More money. Less work.”
No. I had hated every moment on that stage. I’d hated myself for doing it. When my dad had had his first heart attack, I’d gone home and sworn to myself I’d never do something like that again. If I had to work myself to death, doing shitty jobs, I would.
Huck sat down on the table in front of me. His knees pressed against mine. When he leaned forward, resting his elbows on his thighs, and looked at me, I had to remember to breathe. Up close, it was hard to remember how dangerous he was. Those eyes of his were consuming.
“The man you were working for is dead, but there are those who aren’t happy about it. You escaped that day while everyone else in that house was found with a bullet in them. They know by now that you were the fiancée of my brother. You’re a walking target. Your apartment has already been broken into and ransacked. There is little left of your things, but what is left is being brought here.” He paused and leaned closer to me. “The only way to keep you from being killed is for you to stay here. But you’re not getting a fucking vacation. You’ll cook for us and keep things clean. When we have people over, you’ll cook the food. You’ll fill drinks. You’ll do whatever we ask of you. So, what’s it gonna be?” He tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. “Leave here and get yourself killed within the hour or stay?”
Was this really a choice? I wanted to think he was lying about my apartment and being a target for some crazed drug gang or whatever they were. But I had seen him shoot a man in the head. These people didn’t joke about this kind of thing.
It was clear he didn’t want me here, but he was doing this for Hayes. Maybe he was right, and Hayes wouldn’t have had anything to do with me if he’d known about my past. I didn’t mind cleaning, and I loved to cook. I was good at that.
Huck cupped the side of my face roughly. “What’s it gonna be?”
