Page 23 of The Devils' Darling

“You’re all seeming a little bit rattled by this.” He examines me, his gaze shrewd and too intense.

“Of course. She’s one of us.”

“A fellow student?”

I draw a breath. “Yes.”

“Soon to be your stepsister—assuming you don’t find another way to sabotage things.” His gaze narrows.

I duck my head in shame. “I won’t.”

Fuck, where is this going?

“Is Tino in love with her?”

I jerk my chin back up. “What?”

“Tino. He seemed very upset.”

“Um, no. I mean, no, it’s not like that.”

“Good, because she’s going to be my stepdaughter soon, and your sister, and Tino isn’t right for her.”

Maybe I should be offended on Tino’s behalf but I’m too grateful to realize my father doesn’t seem to have any further suspicions about our relationship with Mackenzie.

“Or Kirill.”

Those words make my blood run cold. He’s leading up to something with this. I know how his mind works.

“She most certainly wouldn’t be right for you.” He stares at me hard. “That would be sick, especially considering she’s to be your sister.”

I swallow, unable to speak.

He smiles at me coldly. “I will do all I can to bring her back here, but once I get her home, I think she will be moving into this apartment with her mother and me. Where we can keep a close eye on her.”

Shit. It’s like the jail cell clanging shut. Even if we free her, if we stay here, we won’t get to see her. I wonder how Mack will react to all of this. She won’t like it. She’s a grown woman, after all. They can’t keep her under supervision like she’s a child.

My hands are shaking, and I do my best to hide it.

My father continues, “You know, when I was young, my friends and I would do crazy things like sharing a woman.” He shrugs as if he’s talking about the weather.

I cannot believe my buttoned-up father is saying this.

“It was stupid kid stuff. Boys will be boys, right? Then one day it went wrong. Feelings got involved. There can only be one winner in that case.” His all-seeing gaze is cutting through me like a damn laser, right to my fucking soul.

“Who was the winner?” I dare to ask.

He gives a slow smile. “I was.”

I swallow. Does he mean my mother? Was my mother passed around between guys the way we do with Mackenzie?

“Mom?” I whisper.

“Christ, no. Not your mother. I couldn’t marry a girl like that. I won her, and then I discarded her because she was used goods. We ruined that girl. Be a shame if anyone tried to do the same to Mackenzie. I am sure as her older brother, you’ll do all you can to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

Blind anger surges in me. Even now, with Mackenzie missing, he’s using events to twist things the way he wants them. Tino, Kirill, and I have all been fucked up and betrayed by our fathers in their sick rush for power and control.

It hits me then that Mackenzie was, too. Her dad was in debt and almost got her killed because of it. No wonder we have all bonded so well.

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