Page 32 of Deadly Little Games

“Little Freya LeClair,” Dominic says, his gaze slowly scanning her from head to toe, and I step forward, ready to protect her but think better of it. “My oh my, haven’t you grown up?”

She alternates her weight from one foot to the other under the scrutiny.

My fists clench, and the urge to forcefully escort her outside and instruct her to flee overwhelms me. To run as fast as she can. But that would only get a bullet between my eyes and hers.

“Looks like it. Now why am I here?” she snaps, and I let out a heavy exhale. Fuck. She needs to learn to keep her mouth shut.

Dominic laughs, biting into his cigar. “You’ve got your mother’s feisty attitude. I always loved that about her until she ran her stupid mouth too much, and we all know what happened then.”

With no response, Freya thrusts her hands into the pockets of her jeans.

“I’ve heard your brother is missing, and he owes us a lot of money. You wouldn’t know where he is, would you, Miss Freya?”

“I thought he went away to college,” she says, and the room stays silent for several heartbeats.

“Whatever the case, I need him or the money he owes. I don’t give a fuck how you get it, but there better be fifty grand sitting on my desk within forty-eight hours. Now leave,” he snaps, and Freya hurries out of the room. “I meant all of you!”

“What?” I ask, frowning.

“This is your mess, too. Now clean it up.”

I maintain a composed expression until we exit his office and step outside. We have to help her, not only to get the money back, but also to address the underlying problem. Alec stole from us, and we need to find him.

I slide into my car and Freya, Lucas, and Hazen jump in. We don’t talk until we’re out of his driveway and heading to Lucas’s.

“How in the fuck are we going to get that money?” Lucas curses from the back seat, and I huff.

“We don’t have to get anything.” I pause, looking to Freya. “She does.”

Her lips curl into a scowl, radiating anger from the corner of her mouth.

She’s way too easy to play with.

Chapter Sixteen

Freya

The moment I entered his office, my heart started racing and hasn’t calmed down since. Being in his presence again was like a painful stab in the chest, reopening old wounds. I never wanted to see him again, ever, after what he did to me and my family. And now thanks to Alec, I’m stuck picking up the pieces. Fucking hell. I can’t breathe. And what was Mia doing there in his office looking like she was ready to move in? Does she not care about my brother at all? I never liked her, and now I know why.

Gage pulls up in front of Lucas’s house, and as soon as the car stops, I quickly exit. With each step, I inch closer to the edge of the cliff. I stop, then look out into the deep blue ocean. The waves crash against the cliff, one after another. I open my mouth and unleash a deafening scream that echoes around me. The desire to jump like I did two weeks ago, to let the raging waves consume me, lingers within me, yet my legs remain rooted to the earth.

I squeeze my eyes shut, attempting to suppress the flood of memories, but they overwhelm me.Being back in that house, the one place I swore I’d never step foot in again, was like a dam breaking.

Ten Years old.

My cheek stings, and I fight back the tears that threaten to fall. I can’t let him see me weak, it’ll only push him further. He reaches back and I squeeze my eyes shut as his hand cracks against my face and whips my head to the side. He grips my cheeks and wrenches my head back toward him.

“You fucking open your eyes and show me some fucking respect, you little whore,” Dominic growls, and I reluctantly open my eyes. A lone tear falls down my cheek, sliding over his hand.

Three boys surround him in a circle. One with light-brown eyes and blond hair. One with mossy-green eyes and midnight-black hair, and the last boy with ocean-blue eyes and short brown hair. They just stand there, watching Dominic hurt me. I try to plead with them with my gaze, but they don’t do anything.

The last thing I see is my mother crouched in the corner of the room with a glass pipe between her lips. She watches us with glazed-over eyes but doesn’t move. He squeezes harder until everything fades away into nothing.

I’m going to fucking kill Alec myself when I find him. How could he put me through this? He’s my protector. My constant. The only person in this world I can rely on, and now I’m picking up all the pieces and trying to put everything back together.

If he stole that money, he must be hiding at college and that message was wrong. It has to be. I’m not going to stop until I find him.

Footsteps crunch against the gravel, coming up behind me.

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