Page 10 of Bully

Even if she had brown hair in the picture.

Dane began reading some files he loaded. “Sloane Archer, age twenty-nine. She lives in the South End of Boston,” He clicked through the tabs, “Credit score is eight hundred and ten and she has over—” he whistled animatedly, “four hundred thousand dollars in her savings account.” Looking over his shoulder at me, he shrugged, “Well done.”

“Focus.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Dane droned, flipping through some more information at a speed far too fast for my eyes to keep up with.

“There.” Maddox stopped him, pointing to a spot on the screen. “Occupation.”

“Dancer.” Dane surmised and then leaned back in his chair to look at me again. “As in, perhaps a dancer at your new club?”

“You’re sticking your nose in places it doesn’t belong.”

“God, you’re really no fun anymore.” Dane moved on, pulling up more stats on Sloane. “Raised in Brookline by her parents, Tom and Meredith Archer. Two older brothers, Steven and Skylar Archer.” My brother shrugged nonchalantly. “Straight-A student in high school, spent four years at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Graduated with dual degrees in art history, and interior design and then—” He hesitated, clicking a few more times.

“What?”

“She never used the degrees anywhere.” He said, looking back over at me. “She started working in your industry right out of college.”

“So.” I snapped, angry that he was judging her before he even knew her.

“So,” He scowled, “Seems like a waste of time to spend four years earning something you never use from the moment you leave the school. I wonder what happened to her.”

“God!” I groaned, rubbing my hand over my face. “Nothing had to happen to her to make her want to work in the sex industry. Not all stories are bad ones.”

Maddox grinned, unconvinced. “Let me guess, one of your girls said that.”

“You two are really so stuck-up Stepford Wife Street you forget where you came from, don’t you?” I barked, staring them down. “You came from the fucking sewer! We all did! We had the tragic life and fucked up childhood and fell into the sex, money, drugs, and death lifestyle because of it! But that doesn’t mean that everyone else in that life is broken somehow. And even if they are, we’re no better than them! It doesn’t matter who we are today, we’re still trash!”

Dane stood up and put his hands up in defeat, “You’re right. I didn’t mean that there was something wrong with her. I just figured something happened to her to change the direction she went in. That’s all.”

“We remember where we came from, Tamen.” Maddox joined in, “Because we fight every day not to go back. I fight every day to keep my kids shielded from that life.”

“Well, I don’t.” I snapped, “I didn’t run away from it. I changed it to work in my favor, and there’s nothing I’d do differently.” From his chair’s armrest, I retrieved my jacket and put it on. “Thanks for the help.” I nodded to his computer. “Delete it all.”

“I’ll email it to you.” Dane called as I walked out of his office. “I’m sorry!”

But I didn’t stick around to hear anything else.

Nothing had changed since we were kids, Dane and Maddox were always reminding me I was the broken one while they were the victims of it.

I chose that life.

I chose the darkness.

I couldn’t walk away from it even if I wanted to, because so long ago, the darkness chose me back.

Dane and Maddox were taken to Harlow House when they were kids by an evil man who saw how vulnerable they were and all the ways he could mold them into the perfect little monsters he craved. I, on the other hand, made the mistake of loving that evil man and his little monster son just enough that I willingly joined them. I walked into that Hell on my own because I thought being with someone, anyone, was better than the days of complete solitude all alone without another human being around.

God, I had been so wrong.

Chapter 5 – Tamen

Shewaslate.

I warned her about her tardiness, but she was fifteen minutes late, anyway.

The bones in my neck cracked like twigs as I paced the plush carpet of my penthouse seating area, each footfall echoing in the otherwise silent space, the darkness inside me growing more intense with every passing moment. I couldn’t stand someone wasting my time, it felt like a physical brand with a hot iron to my skin.

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