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She held firm, trying to get between my fingers and his hand, but she said softly to me, “You’re wrong because I do. He’s an abuser. He ruins lives and shatters souls because he can. He’s that type of man. And you’re wrong because I know he’ll hurt you.” A tear slipped down her cheek, but she was still working on my hand. “He’ll take you away from me, and I’ll never have you again. That’s what he’s going to do if you let him.” She dropped her hands and stepped back. “You make the decision. Hurt him and give him something to weaponize against you, or walk away completely because you can still do that.”
“I can’t.” The image of how my mom looked, when I walked through the kitchen and saw her there was burned in my memory. She’d been completely hollow. “He’ll keep hurting my mom, and I can’t keep letting him do that to her.”
“Scout,” Ramsay started.
I ignored her, not letting myself feel anything as I looked down at my grandfather. “Me for her. That’s the only choice I’m giving you. I become your next puppet and she walks free. She gets to live how she wants, love who she wants, do anything she wants. You will completely withdraw from her life, having no influence over her at all, and that includes her money. She’ll be able to have free access to her own money and all the money she’s inherited and earned until this day. Me for her.”
He didn’t say anything, but the control was almost all gone. He’d snap. I’d seen him do it before. He’d roar. He’d throw things. He’d hurt things—sometimes people.
“Grandson,” he almost whimpered, a sound I’d never heard from him before.
“Me for her. That’s the deal.”
“Or what? You’ll break my arm and—” Snap.
Too late. I broke it.
Snap, snap.
There were the other two places.
A muffled scream left him.
I let him go, stepping back, and because I’d never get this again, I pulled Ramsay into my arms. My hand to the back of her head. She came right in, stepping to me. Her arms went around me as mine folded around her.
Finally.
Home.
She’d become it, and I’d never realized. I hadn’t known.
I knew now, and it was too late.
She heaved out a sob, her body sagging into mine, holding on for dear life.
My grandfather was cradling his hand to his chest as he staggered to the couch. His eyes were daggers at me. An unnatural pallor came to his skin, but he lifted his head enough to say, “You for her?”
I started to answer.
He finished, “Or your mother?”
Ramsay stiffened in my arms.
A deep growl came from the middle of my chest. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s why I came here to have a word with your girlfriend.” He was starting to pant, but damn if he didn’t stay to finish his threat. “I have influence over the Prestige family. I can either help them bury her or bury them. Your girlfriend or your mother.” He reached over, pressing a button on the side table.
He stood, a little unsteady, as the door flung open. One of his men swept into the room. “Sir.” He immediately went to my grandfather, who kept his glare on me. “You’ll tell me your decision when you come to me. You have twenty-four hours.”
84
RAMSAY
“What are you doing here?”
I stiffened before I stepped back from Scout because no way had I heard his accusing tone right. “Excuse me?”
He wasn’t even looking at me. He was still glaring in the direction his psychotic grandfather went. He flung an arm out. “Why would you come up to a private suite? How could he get so close to you?”
Uh-huh. No way. “Are you blaming me for this?”
“No, but what the hell were you doing here? How’d he get you here?” He started pacing, his hands on his hips, and that was when I really took in his state, or the lack of his state. His hair was messily rumpled, like he’d been raking his hand through it on a non-stop basis. His sweats hung from his lean hips and he was wearing a ragged and torn T-shirt. I’d been in a flight-or-fight mode when he suddenly showed, then I was flooded with relief, then panic, and then horror as I heard everything.
“I came for the dance. A hotel employee just brought me up here. I thought Kira wanted us to show up in the penthouse first, so I went along with it. Once I realized this was beyond sketch, I was curious. That was your grandfather? He’s diabolical.”
He snorted, turning to pace the other way. “Tell me about it. My God! He had you here. Alone. What the fuck, Ramsay? You have no idea how bad of a person he is. What he could’ve done to you. He would’ve gotten away with it. He gets away with everything. Everything. And you—”
