Her second cousin. Her mom’s. Dusan. He was the head of theDenisovitch syndicate. If they were friends, he might…
“Ya skazhu emu, kak zdorovo my razvlekaemsya s toboy.”
Not friends. She could feel the world slowing down. Shewished she didn’t speak Russian. Didn’t know what he’d said.
I will let him know how much fun we have with you.
She didn’t think they were going to dress her up. No. Sheknew what the fucker was promising.
It was all starting to go dark.
Cooper. She was supposed to be with Cooper, and it wassupposed to be a beautiful night. Not this. Please not this. Not when shecouldn’t fight. Couldn’t defend herself.
But then had she ever really had a shot?
Dimitry’s scarred face was the last thing she saw before theworld went dark and she entered Hell.
* * * *
Cooper was pretty sure he’d never seen his father as angryas he was in this moment. He watched as Kyle Hawthorne walked toward theoffice. He kind of wished he could go with him.
“How long?” Alex McKay asked. He wore some kind of leatherpants and the T-shirt he’d left the house in earlier.
When he couldn’t find Kala, he’d panicked and called Tashaagain. It didn’t matter how much trouble they were going to be in. He had tofind her. He couldn’t leave her alone. Despite Kenzie’s protestations, Tashahad driven him to all Kala’s haunts and when they found nothing, they’d comehere to the club their parents spent so much time in. Sanctum.
He knew what happened here. He understood the lifestyle hisparents were involved in. They were open about it. But this wasn’t how he’dthought he would see the club for the first time.
“She’s been gone about three hours, Uncle Alex,” Tasha said.
Tash and Kenzie and all the other kids called his dad UncleAlex. All of them except Kala. Years before she’d insisted on calling him Mr.McKay until his dad had given in and told her to call him Alex.
It had taken him a long time to figure out why she’d doneit. Because they weren’t cousins. They weren’t related at all. Their feelingswere not familial.
But she’d known long before he did.
Sometimes he felt like he was nothing more than the himbowho’d caught her eye, the dumb pretty boy who could never match herintelligence or ambition.
His father’s eyes never left his. “I meant how long has shebeen sneaking in the house and how far did this go? You want to play adultgames, son, you can answer adult questions. I need to know how far you tookthis so I know if Ian’s about to murder you.”
It took him a moment to realize what his dad was asking.“Dad, we didn’t… I mean we kissed and stuff but…”
“That fucking better be all you did,” a deep voice said.
It took everything Cooper had to turn and face the onefreaking man in the world he wanted to face less than his dad. Hers. He’d kindof hoped his dad would handle this part. “It never went past a make-outsession, Mr. Taggart. That’s what we were fighting about tonight.”
Ian Taggart stood at six foot five. Cooper himself wasalmost six two and wasn’t done growing, but right now the three inches betweenthem felt like the highest mountain. “Fighting? Do I want to know?”
Tasha moved beside him, standing with him. “Nope. Youdon’t.”
Ian’s face flushed a deep red, and his jaw tightened. “Sheis fifteen fucking years old.”
“You know she can be stubborn when she thinks she’s readyfor something,” Tasha said.
Cooper realized what was happening. He hadn’t meant to bringany of this up. He hadn’t thought about anything but the fact that she was outthere and she was alone. She would be horrified if her parents knew whathappened. He was going to hurt his parents, but maybe it was better thanhurting her this way. “It was me. I wanted to go all the way, and she said no.”
Tasha’s eyes actually rolled. “Dude, she stole condoms.”
Alex groaned and slumped down to the chair. The infamousclub Cooper had been so curious about looked a lot like a conference room. Atleast this room did. “Teenagers. We’re not going to survive them.”