Page 9 of Twisted Empire

She didn’t listen. There was an electric energy coming off her as she grew more agitated. She fought me, twisting and kicking and shrieking through clenched teeth, but I held on until she froze stiff, her wild eyes meeting mine. “Are you going to be the one to do it?” she finally whispered.

“Do what?”

“Kill me,” she said, her voice cracking. “In the hunt.”

“Jesus, of course I’m not going to fucking kill you.”

“So you’d rather let the others do it while you watch?” she said in a flat tone, like she’d already resigned herself to her fate.

I shook my head. “I didn’t even know about the tradition until today. I’m not going to let it happen, I swear.”

Her eyes narrowed with disbelief. “How the hell can you keep lying like that? I told you, I know everything! Your father filled me in a few hours ago.”

“That’s exactly why you have to listen to me. He’s—”

She cut me off again. “No,” she said, her voice soft yet seething. “Don’t you dare try and say he was just making shit up to play us off against each other. He wasn’t lying about any of it. You were lying to me, all along. I know it.”

“Tatum, I didn’t know about the hunt.”

“Bullshit. You knew everything. You were playing me,” she hissed. “I heard the recording, you know. Every word is burned into my brain. I can recite the whole thing for you if you don’t believe me.”

I frowned. “What recording?”

She started to recite what must’ve been a video recording made at one of my third-level interviews; one of the ones where I said all sorts of fucked up shit I didn’t mean, just so they’d let me in.

Fuck.So my father didn’t just record everyone else in his world. He recorded me too, just in case he ever wanted to use what I said against me or anyone else.

I hated him more and more with every passing second.

“You told me you loved me,” Tatum went on, the rage in her eyes giving way to sadness again. Tears spilled out over her cheeks, washing away parts of the smeared makeup.

“I do.”

Her eyes were glazed now. She wasn’t listening to me. “I said I wouldn’t fall for it. I tried so hard not to. And I didn’t, not all the way. Not until today. But then I actually started to believe you. I thought….” She shook her head. “I thought you had to be telling the truth. The way you looked at me earlier…”

“I was telling the truth.”

She finally seemed to hear me again, and her forehead creased with a mixture of fury and puzzlement. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you still denying it?” she asked, her upper lip curling with disgust. “I told you, I heard the recording! I heard you saying it was all a trick, just to ruin me.”

“No.”

I tried to wipe the tears from her face as I spoke, but she recoiled. “Don’t touch me.”

This wasn’t working. I had to make her fucking listen.

I grabbed her arm again. “Tatum, calm down. I’ve let you have your say, and I’ve listened to every word. Now let me have my say.”

She squirmed free. “No. Fuck you. I want you to get the hell—”

I clamped my hand over her mouth. Her eyes immediately widened with shock. “I guess we’ll have to try something you’ll actually respond to, then,” I said, squaring my jaw.

She whimpered but didn’t move.

I glared down at her. “It’s my turn to speak, Doll, so you’re going to kneel and listen. Now,” I growled.

I pulled my hand away. Tatum’s eyes flared with indignation as she stared up at me, but she didn’t argue or lash out at me again. In her fiery gaze, I could practically see the battle raging in her mind between the part of her that despised me and the other part that still desperately wanted to serve me, powerless against my demands.

The latter finally won out, as I knew it would. Her bottom lip wobbled and she sank to her knees, slowly and shakily.

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