Page 92 of Not Your Little Girl Anymore

My fingers tighten around Alec’s arm, making sure he doesn’t do something stupid.

“It was far too easy, my friend.”

“I’m not your friend,” Alec bites back.

Dad ignores him. “A lonely boy with two drug addicts as parents. I was going to arrest them when the time came. Make them pay for ruining my marriage. Unfortunately, news broke that a young boy named Alec had found them dead. What a shame.” He shakes his head with no filter. “But you… When I was notified that two kids had left a bar and your little friend said your name, I knew what to do. There aren’t many kids with the name Alec Sokolov. You made it far too easy.”

Alec chuckles, scratching his jaw. “You’re an asshole.”

My father shrugs. “I take that as a compliment.”

“Stop. Both of you!” I shout, looking from one to the other. My eyes stop at my father. “And Mom. What’s your excuse for her death?”

His lips pressed together tightly. “What happened to your mother was meant to happen. She disobeyed me. But I suppose the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.” His voice is taunting. Not a single shed of kindness in his words.

I stare at him. Disgust curls in my stomach. “What happened to you?”

Dad smiled. “Your mother spread her legs for another man, and you think something is wrong with me?”

“You are as cruel as they come. You know that?” My hands ball into fists. I’m struggling to keep my temper at bay. “I hate you.”

Before I can register what is happening, my father pushes himself out of his chair and dodges toward me. His chest heaves with each ragged, angry breath as I stumble backward, feeling my back collide with the hard wall beside the door. The pain shoots through my body, leaving me gasping for air.

“What the fuck!” Alec’s voice is jagged, angry himself.

My vision blurs as I try to grasp everything that is happening. The smell of sweat and fear fills my nostrils as my father’s rough hand grips my throat with an iron-like hold. It’s tighter and more painful than the first time he held me like this.

“Alec,” I rasp.

My eyes widen as I look into my father’s eyes. They were once lively, and now they are darker than ever before. The veins in his temples pulsate visibly.

“He can’t save you, Princess. No matter how hard he tries.” My father’s words sketch themselves into my head.

I’m trapped, helpless, and terrified as I gasp heavily for air. My face tightens the more I struggle, my heart pounding throughout every cell of my body. I bring my arms up, scratching deep into my father’s arm. I kick and scratch, fighting with everything I have. He doesn’t budge.

My ears buzz, but I’m able to make out Alec’s voice when he yells, “Get your filthy hands off her!”

I turn my eyes towards his voice, barely making him out. My head feels dizzy, like I’m going to pass out at any given moment.

My father uses his body and shoves Alec with full strength. I vaguely make out him stumbling backward. A loud thud blasts through the room, followed by a clicking.

No. No. No. My father pulled out his gun.

“Hey. It doesn’t have to be like this,” Alec says. “Let go of her, and we can go our separate ways.”

My father pulls my neck forward, slamming it back against the wall. I scream from the agony that shoots through my head and down my spinal cord.

“It wouldn’t be this way if you stayed the fuck away from my daughter like I had told you to in the first place,” my father says through clenched teeth. His grip tightens on my throat.

“Dad,” I try to say, but it’s ragged. “I-I can’t… I can’t breathe.”

This is it. I’m going to die in a police station.

Suddenly, a loud bang startles me, and my father releases his grip on my throat. My weak legs wobble, and my knees drop to the floor as I clench my chest.

“Raleigh, what the fuck is going on in here?” A man’s voice comes through.

“He tried to kill her,” Alec states.

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