AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Welcome home.” Luke takes my hand as he opens his car door. I hadn't realized we’d stopped moving. He pulls me from the car. My head tilts back, taking in his home. Our home. The one that will be all mine after I kill him.
I smile. I’ve always wanted a castle.
5
LUKE
“No offense, Mr. Knight.” Selene slurs her words only slightly. “But Cassandra isn’t the girl for you.”
“How so?” I hold my whiskey but don’t drink it.
“She’s a little…” She wobbles her hand to indicate ‘crazy’ or something similar. “She’s never listened to me. And is generally a brat.” Selene sits next to me, alcohol heavy on her breath. “But if you’re looking for company and willing to pay, then—”
“Tell me more about Cassandra.” I look at her father, the man a mix of adderall and cocaine.
“She’s willful, smart-mouthed, and violent.” He runs a hand through his thinning hair. “Look, Mr. Knight, nothing would make me happier than for you to take her off our hands, but I don’t want this to come back on me. If you were anyone else, I’d wrap her up in a bow and deliver her to your door. But you—” He clears his throat. “You’re different.”
Because I could have his entire family killed, their bodies buried on one of my many properties, and no one would be the wiser. Yes, I realize.
“Violent?” I ask. “What has she done that’s violent?”
Her mother gives up the seduction attempt and plops down in an armchair across from me. “We tried to get her to learn piano.” She takes another swig. “She pulled a piano wire free from her grand and threatened to use it to strangle her teacher. He never came back.”
“Let’s not forget the French tutor.” Her father shakes his head. “Best damned French teacher in the city. She stabbed him in the leg with her pencil.” He grabs one of the fire irons from its stand. “She has no care for what we give her, for the sacrifices we made. We’ve even had to sell some family heirlooms to keep this house for her, to make sure everything is nice.” He proffers the iron. “These are antique, if you’re interested.”
I know why they’ve sold heirlooms. Not for their daughter, but to maintain the façade of being the wealthy Carlisle family. But they’ve fallen into drugs, alcohol, and disrepair. The family name will end with them.
“Put that down,” Selene hisses at him, then turns back to me. “She’s a problem for us, and she’d be an even bigger problem for you.”
“I see.” I steeple my fingers. “And you’ve kept her here even though she’s twenty? She has no interest in college?”
Selene waves her drink, spilling a little on the sofa. “She’s not college material. I mean, she’s smart. Loves to read. Always scored high on whatever tests the eggheads gave her. What would a girl like her do in college? I mean, I never went to college and look at me.” She smiles and reveals the lipstick smeared on her teeth. “Cassandra was supposed to be married off and getting her MRS degree, but she’s damaged goods. No man wants a crazy woman for a wife. What’s that book about that? He keeps her in the attic.”
“Jane Eyre,” I say.
“No.” She shakes her head. “Doesn’t ring a bell.” She barrels on, “But Cassandra, I’m sorry to say, will never amount to anything. If you want some fun with her—” She taps her finger on her chin. “How much would you offer for a night with her?”
I bristle, but try to keep my voice calm. “Excuse me?”
“She’s a virgin. We know that for sure. If you wanted to be the man to pop her cherry, we’d entertain an offer.”
“And she wouldn’t mind her virginity being sold like that?” My grip tightens on my glass.
“We can drug her, hold her down, whatever you want, as long as the price is right.” She licks her lips with lascivious hunger.
My glass shatters as my blood boils and it takes every ounce of control I possess not to strike them both down and beat them to death with one of their antique fire irons.
Selene pops up. “Oh no, let me help.”
“I’m fine.” I deposit the broken glass on the side table and pull out my handkerchief to wrap my bleeding hand. Rising, I say, “I understand the Carlisle family has fallen on hard times.”
Selene’s overdone face cracks as she adopts a self-pitying look. “Marty made some bad business choices.”
“This again?” Cassandra’s father glares at the fire.
“I will send for Cassandra to—”
“To fuck her?” Selene smiles.
