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“How are you here in Stark’s place, Daddy?”
He released me again and looked at Stark. “Montgomery is my maker. I serve him until I’m released.”
My head whipped toward Stark. “You’ve been holdin’ my daddy hostage all these years?”
“No,” Daddy interjected. “It’s not like that. He protects me.”
“From what?” I asked.
“I think that’s enough enlightenment for one evening,” Stark said.
There was no way in Sam Hill that my daddy would let anyone keep us all apart. I refused to believe it. Stark was forcing him to stay here somehow.
“No.” I walked over and shook a finger in Stark’s face. “You let him go. Right now.”
“He is free to leave, Masie. All he must do is ask,” Stark insisted.
My gaze whipped toward my daddy, who nodded. “He’s telling the truth. I serve him, and I don’t want to leave.”
I couldn’t accept that. My daddy loved us. He worshipped the ground Mamma walked on. He would never hurt us by pretending to be dead all these years. Not when he would’ve known the pain we were in.
“How stupid do you think I am?” I looked at Stark. “I’m not lettin’ him stay here.”
“After you pass the final test in front of the leaders to prove you are Anna, you may do anything you like, Masie Kicklighter, including working this out with your father.”
The anger and pain were too much. Did Stark have any clue what I’d been through? What my sister and mother had been through? And all along my daddy had been here in town, right under our noses. I didn’t give one flying weasel fuck about his Anna or their stupid tests. I was done with all these lies, secrets, and bullcrap.I’m so done with these vampires!
“I’mnotAnna,” I seethed at Stark. “And this thing between us is over. I want my dad back. I want you gone, Stark. Or I swear, I’ll take you out myself.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
After I left Stark’s house on foot, Charlie magically appeared and offered to drive me the rest of the way home. I accepted, of course. It was a good fifteen miles, and even if I was livid, I wasn’t stupid. It was almost midnight in a town infested with vampires! I just hadn’t been able to get a signal yet to call for a ride.
I hopped in the car but didn’t speak because I was too busy chompin’ on my rage. The world I knew didn’t really exist. Vampires were real andeverywhere. Some of the people in town, like my uncle, were in on it, and now there was a bunch of vampires who thought I was the reincarnation of Anna.
My mind flashed to that night in the ER. The doctor had said he was rooting for me.He knew. He knew about vampires and Stark wanting to claim me. How many others were in on it?
Not surprisingly, all that stuff didn’t bother me as much as finding out that my uncle knew my daddy was “alive,” and that they’d both let me, my mom, and Maybell suffer. How could they do that to us?
Yes, Daddy said there were rules about telling, but obviously those rules had loopholes. Proof being…Every. Fuckin’. Person in town knows!
Okay. Okay. Maybe not everyone, but old Merril knew, and so did my uncle and the doctor. I had to assume there were more. Why leave me, my sister, and Mamma hanging like that?
And don’t get me started on Stark. The big hairy balls on that vampire!From day one, he’d divulged the truth about what he was and had every opportunity to tell me about Daddy.But no…
Why don’t you trust me, Masie?I mocked his voice in my head. I saved you, Masie. Let’s have dinner, Masie. Here’s my cool plug-in, Masie. Oh, and your father is in the kitchen.
“Asshole!” I barked.
“It’s a lot, isn’t it?” asked Charlie, keeping his eyes on the road.
“Which part?”
“The whole vampire thing.”
“Yeah,” I replied bitterly, “it’s…a lot.”
He glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “If you want my advice, don’t fight them head-on.”
