Page 107 of Sinning for Santa

He’ll hate me for leaving. He’ll think I did it to be stubborn, but I couldn’t tell him the real reason why. He would have tried to stop me and then my sister… No. I can’t even think about what would happen to her.

Hurrying to the glass doors of the apartment building, I key in the code and the door clicks open. The lift up to the fourteenth floor is too slow. It feels like the longest minute of my life, and when it finally stops and the doors ease open, I slip out and run up the carpeted passage to my sister’s apartment.

I have the code for her door too, so I don’t bother knocking, keying it in and stepping inside as soon as it opens.

Standing in the entrance of her apartment, I listen for voices but hear nothing, so I click the door closed and slowly walk up the hall that opens to the small kitchen and living room.

“Cutting it close.” Eddie sneers from the kitchen counter where he’s sitting rigidly on a stool.

I’m not sure why he’s here too, but it doesn’t surprise me. He’s the one that set this in motion, after all.

“Where’s Presley?” I ask, my eyes moving through the room to see my father and Dr Xavier.

The sight of the man that haunts my nightmares sends a rush of nausea to my stomach, and I try to force the feeling away by keeping my focus on why I’m here.

Presley.

“Presley went back home with your mother about an hour ago,” my dad answers, and I glare at him, my eyes burning as I realise they were never going to take Presley in for treatment.

They knew I’d come to save her.

I’ve been tricked.

“You don’t need me then, do you.” I spin on my heel and hurry up the passage, my sight set on the door and just getting beyond it.

“You’re not leaving,” Eddie sneers from behind me before my hair is yanked back and I cry out, feeling some of my blonde strands rip from the roots, “unless it’s with Dr Xavier.”

“No!” I scream, hoping to cause enough attention that a neighbour might hear as Eddie overpowers me and drags me back into the living area, where my father and the doctor look bored.

I hate them.

I hate them all!

“You need to go with the doctor, Jaxcen,” my father insists, not an ounce of compromise in his tone.

“No. Daddy. I don’t need to.” I plead as Eddie releases me and I stumble forward, too close to Dr Xavier who I haven’t seen in a number of years.

He looks a little older, but I’d never forget those eyes, or that voice.

“Listen to your father, Jaxcen. You know it’s for the best,” the doctor insists.

“No.” I shake my head, wrapping my arms around me as I take a step back, only to bump into Eddie’s chest.

“You’re not thinking straight,” my dad snaps, like this whole thing is an inconvenience. “You’ve been led astray. Sinned in the worst way, but I forgive you. Eddie forgives you. Just go with Dr Xavier.”

“No, Daddy.” I sob, my emotions taking over. “You don’t know what he does.”

“You will go with him now, Jaxcen.” My father ignores me, his words clipped.

I’ll never be safe around these three men.

Spinning on my heel, I knee Eddie in his junk and take off again towards the entrance, but this time, two men, dressed in some sort of medical uniform, step inside the apartment, their hard eyes trained on me.

No.

I skid to a stop, quickly backing up, realising I’m trapped.

As I step backwards into the living area, ignoring Eddie’s groaning, my eyes dart to the glass doors that lead out to a narrow balcony.

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