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“Stop making a scene.” I gesture for Con to help my step-daughter to a seat, but he shakes his head like I am giving him a choice.
“Lili,” I drawl out, keeping emotion out of my tone and expression. I hate to sound like an asshole, but I can’t risk the Accandis walking before signing. This deal has to go through or the bloodshed will never end. I can’t have Lili living in a world where she isn’t safe.
Her spine goes rigid. “Daddy,” she mocks me with a side tilt to her head and a green, narrowed-eyed glare.
That one word has invisible fingers wrapping around my heart and squeezing at the sound of a sweet voice dripping with venom.
CHAPTER 2
LILI
I am so angry I sway a bit where I stand at the end of the hallway.
“You can either sit at the table with us with your mouth closed or return to your room.”
I ignore Bastian and turn to the man who desperately tries to look like Elvis and fails epically. Bastian isn’t my real father, but he’s sure as hell picked the worst timing to marry me off like I’m his to do with as he pleases.
“You need this, right?” I ask the Elvis wanna be. I know his name but I refuse to use it and give him power over me. I dread the words I already see forming on the end of his tongue.
“With your consent or without.” The coif of hair on the top of his head bounces as he speaks. The first thing I’ll do the second I am under that man's roof is give him a buzz cut in his sleep. That thought makes my bunched up muscles relax.
“You do realize you sound like a douche, right?”
The man flashes a grin at me, but it’s the downright unhinged smile on his son’s lips that has my skin crawling. The way his light blue gaze travels up my legs and over the swell of my breasts has me shivering with disgust.
“Irons, where is the contract? I’m ready to sign.” I look from my step-father to my husband-to-be, panic locking my throat.
Bastian keeps his eyes locked on me as he answers. “Behind you, Accandis. Sign and initial each page. Your son, too. Then we will have a deal.”
William Accandis and his two pieces of trash sons, Liam and Noah. Identical twins from head to toe. They even share the same dimpled grin and leering smiles.
Gag me. If I’m unlucky enough to not get out of this with my life, intact I know the numbered days I have with those two will be torture from sun rise to sun set. They can’t seem to do anything without the other one mirroring the same motion. One stands, the other one does, too. They probably get hard-ons at the same time.
And Bastian the rat bastard is handing me off to one of them for a little peace time. What a joke.
I can’t keep the massive wave of heat out of my cheeks. I mean nothing to this man. Less than nothing. No wonder my mother left only a few months into their marriage. I only wish she didn’t leave me behind on her way out of Bastian’s life.
The way Bastian speaks with enough ice to keep the poles frozen for decades to come, makes my heart want to shrivel up and die. Tears burn the back of my eyes. How long have I wanted my step-father to see me as a woman and not some chess piece he can move on his proverbial board? Too long, is the answer. Too damn long. I thought he called me back from college because he was finally ready to admit how he feels about me.
Ha. Well, I was dead fucking wrong, wasn’t I.
I look on in dismay as my life is signed away and there isn’t really a damn thing I can do about it.
“When I get you home, I’m going to enjoy teaching you to obey me.”
My gut wrenches. “I can’t wait to see you try,” I hurl back at Accandis junior as he puts his name on my step-father’s marriage contract.
“I own you with this.” Liam snatches the contract off the table and shakes it in my direction while his twin smiles at me in a way that says he can’t wait to tag team me with Liam. Their father does nothing to rein in his sons’ vile behavior. I guess they didn’t fall far from the tree.
I’m a lot of things. Quiet, meek and a pawn are three things I never could get into. I blame my maternal Irish blood. My mother says it's all my father's bad blood in me.
Either way, the result is the same. Me fueled with high octane juice and the ability to have tunnel vision when I’m pissed.
I don’t realize my feet are moving until I’m across my step-father’s stupidly large penthouse and placing my palm across Liam’s face.
“No one owns me. The only thing you will do is fear for your life. Because the first night in your home, I’ll kill all three of you in your sleep.” I enunciate each of my words so they know I mean every single one of them. I jab a finger into Liam’s flat chest. He’s not as tall as Bastian, so when I speak his eyes are level with mine. There’s malice swirling deep in those dark eyes. He takes pleasure in hurting people and it scares me more than I will ever admit.
He takes a step back from me. I guess he sees my brand of crazy, too. He’s not as dumb as he looks.
