Page 98 of Dash

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded as I smeared some cream on my scone. “If it were up to him, he’d lock me up in my tower, surrounded by sweets, riches, and comforts, and never let me out. He’s protected me since I was a kid.”

“Why did you need protection when you were a kid?” Mina selected a tiny chocolate torte from the three-tiered trayand plunked it on her gold rimmed plate.

“Oh, that.” I took a small bite of my scone, chewed, and swallowed recalling the memories. “Dash always protected me, my sisters, and Nix from my father.”

“Was Richard Astor really as bad as the rumors say?”

“Yes and no.” I sighed. “My first memories of him are of a come-and-go parent. He wasn’t around much, but he wasn’t mean or violent back then. He adored my mother and she seemed to love him. We were happy kids until the day she died.”

“I know loss.” Mina’s stare was full of compassion. “It’s a cruel bitch.”

I agreed wholeheartedly.

“Do you think your mother’s passing changed your father?” Mina asked.

“I know it did.” My appetite went away, so I returned my scone to the plate. “When my mother died, my father was angry at the world, at God, for taking her away. He drank himself to oblivion every night when he was around. Nix and Dash got the worst of his physical anger. I got neglect and constant put downs, and so did my sisters. He used to wince when he saw us girls.”

Mina frowned. “Why would he do that?”

“I think we reminded him of Mom, and he couldn’t take it.” I poured more tea, refilling our cups. “Maybe he pushed us away because he feared he would lose one or all of us like he lost Mom, which is exactly what ended up happening.”

“Nix died and your sisters left.”

“Yeah.” In the end, Father had lost everyone, except me, perhaps. “Whatever his reasoning, he turned into the ultimate misogynist. I mean, he treated Nix harshly, but at least he had expectations of him. He had no expectations of us females. He paid for our education only to make us ‘marriageable.’ He thought of us as problems to be solved; weak, helpless, fragilecreatures he had to provide rich husbands for.”

“Very feudal.” Mina grimaced. “That must’ve been rough.”

“It was, but Dash made it better.” A smile curved up my lips as I dropped a sugar cube in my tea and stirred. The silver spoon chimed against the cup’s fine porcelain. “Dash wasn’t afraid of confrontation. He stood up to Father. He was a year older than Nix, big for his age, and also brave and strappy as hell. He taught himself how to fight on YouTube. He hated when Father put me down. He stood up for me so many times I lost count.”

Mina drew back. “Why did your father, a global tycoon, put up with a rebellious young hellion like Dash?”

“Good question.” I brought the cup to my lips then put it down. “I think in Father’s own strange way, he respected Dash and the courage he displayed since he was a kid. Dash also had traits my father coveted but could never achieve: chivalry, nobility of character, and integrity. He wanted to make Dash one of his minions, but he failed.”

“Sounds like the Omega I know,” Mina said. “So, instead of throwing him out of the house, he educated him alongside Nix?”

“When he couldn’t tame Dash, Father’s pragmatism prevailed. Nix refused to do anything that Father asked unless Dash came along.”

“Juvenile blackmail,” Mina tossed out.

“You got it. Dash and Nix were unbeatable together. When your Trev came along, the three of them became a legend.”

“Yeah, I married a legend.” Mina flashed me a quick grin. “What happened to you girls after your mother died?”

“A few months after Mom died, Father came back to the ranch and razed our family home to the ground.”

“What the hell?” Mina stared, her jaw slacked. “Why?”

“I think he couldn’t stand to set foot in the old ranch house without my mother being there. Maybe he felt her loss too keenly. I don’t know for sure. He bulldozed the house, then packed us off to boarding school. Nix and Dash had been going away to school for years, but to us girls, losing our mother, getting uprooted from our home, and dropped off without hardly any warning was devastating.”

“Fucked-up lizards.” Mina’s earrings chimed as she shook her head. “That must have been traumatic for all of you.”

“It was frightening.” I remembered the terror so clearly. “We felt abandoned. Orphaned all over again. We were terribly homesick. My sisters and I used to meet in the school attic every night. I’d tell them made up stories, fairytales mostly, about brave girls who slayed dragons and saved kingdoms.”

“They learned their strength from you.”

“I don’t know about that.” I shrugged. “Each of my sisters is different and strong in her own way. Here’s a question for you. Why do I feel like you’re socially hacking me?”

“Because I am shamelessly and boldly hacking your brain,” Mina admitted without the slightest trace of guilt or embarrassment. “I like you and I want to find your sisters as fast as possible. You’re my best source for the small details that matter. Character, preferences, quirks, everything you share with me is important to my search.”

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