Page 219 of Hold Me Until Morning

I intended them both.

Pruitt tightened his hold.

Painfully wrenching down on my wrist, so hard I knew it would bruise.

“Watch yourself,” my father warned, his attention on Pruitt, as if he were suddenly concerned for my well-being.

I would have laughed at the absurdity of it if I wasn’t currently gulping through the fear.

Pruitt gritted his teeth, though he loosened his grip a fraction as he continued to haul me toward the car.

I fought him harder, my boots skidding on the loose gravel, arms flailing as he shoved me into the backseat.

One second later, a car came around the bend.

I screamed, begging for someone to notice, but it blazed by without having any indication that anything was wrong.

But it was.

It was wrong.

So wrong.

Everything.

Everything.

Pruitt pushed me into the middle before he crammed in beside me, and my father rounded the front and got into the driver’s seat. He eased back onto the road.

“How could you do this?” The words were croaked and bent in two, my eyes on my father’s cheek that was reflected in the rearview mirror.

The muscle ticked, and he glanced up, eyes meeting mine. “I’ve always had bigger plans for you, Hailey. You just weren’t ready to take them on yet. You were too soft. It was Pruitt’s job to guide you. Mold you into who I needed you to be. He didn’t do the best job of it.”

Disgust barreled through me, sickness gliding through my veins as awareness began to seep into my consciousness.

Pruitt flinched at my side, barely contained anger vibrating from his flesh.

Hatred.

I could feel it. The way he hated my father.

Hated that he was in control.

I blinked again as my mind spiraled through the information that I’d gathered on Pruitt.

His crime ring went deep and dark.

Illegal gambling. Racketeering. Money laundering.

Murder.

I’d had an inclination that there might be someone above Pruitt. That he wasn’t at the helm.

And it was my father—my father who was in control the entire time.

All the worry I’d possessed, the way I’d been scared to go to the authorities because I was worried his connection with Pruitt might somehow implicate him when he was innocent.

Except he wasn’t innocent.

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