Page 74 of Pay the Price

And okay, I was still going to lose sleep. But I wasn’t the same person I’d been two months ago. Maybe it was being kidnapped or finding out my dad was a piece-of-shit human trafficker. Maybe it was going to the gym and finally feeling comfortable in my body.

Whatever it was, I wasn’t going to stand here and listen to Gray Cantwell make suggestive comments about my fifteen-year-old sister without calling him out.

“Listen, you fucked with me and got away with it. I should have said yes when your dad asked if I wanted you reassigned. That’s on me. But if you come within ten feet of my sister, you’ll live to regret it.”

He smiled, but there was no warmth in it, just a dark glint of evil that made my blood run cold. “Do you think I’m scared of you?”

I held his gaze. “Maybe not, but you should be.”

There was a long pause where the silence in the kitchen felt thick as molasses.

Then Gray laughed. “You think you can hurt me? Why would I be scared of a sheltered princess like you, all alone and only here because Daddy got her the job?”

Once upon a time, the words would have stung because they’d been true.

But I wasn’t as sheltered as Gray thought.

Not anymore. I’d lost too much, and so had Ruth.

“I’m not the only one who’s here because Daddy got me the job,” I said, putting the cup in the drying rack and walking past him. “And I’m not alone.”

Chapter 44

Daisy

Iwas shaking when I got back to my office to collect my stuff, but I also felt good.

Strong.

Gray had tried to push me around, and instead of taking it, I’d put him in his place.

I bent down to pull my bag out of the big lower drawer in my desk, spotted a folded piece of paper on my keyboard, and felt momentarily deflated. After the confrontation with Gray, I was more than ready to get out of the office. I was looking forward to the gym, which had turned out to be an amazing way to release tension from my body, with the added benefit of clearing my mind.

Ireallyhoped I wasn’t being assigned a last-minute task before getting out of the office for the long weekend.

But I knew as soon as I unfolded the piece of paper that this was no last-minute task. I recognized the angry scrawl, written in violet paint.

I TOLD YOU TO LEAVE IT ALONE. NOW YOU WILL LEARN.

Chapter 45

Daisy

The compound was teeming with even more people than had been at Summer Shit. Bikers milled around in their Blades cuts, most of them without shirts thanks to the heat, while their guests hung out around big coolers stocked with beer, soda, and water.

The big fire pit sat in the center of the outdoor party space, but a fire wouldn’t be lit until later, after the sun went down and the temperatures cooled. For now, everyone just sat around, drinking and laughing, heavy metal blaring from the outdoor speakers while Pinky barked out orders to the men, handing them aluminum trays of food to put on ice under a series of long folding tables set up in the shade.

The women — biker and otherwise — were scantily clad in tiny shorts or skirts, a lot of them wearing nothing but bikini tops that barely covered their tits.

My own bikini top was under the crop top I’d chosen. It was one of Jace’s picks from when he’d first moved into the house, back when wearing the clothes he’d chosen for me was part ofthe game, along with the jean shorts that (of course) left my ass cheeks hanging out the back.

In the beginning I’d chosen from Jace’s mandated attire because I’d agreed to it as part of his terms for living in the house. But more and more, I realized I liked them. It was fun to dress-up, to play to my physical strengths (I was willing to admit I had nice tits, ifnicemeant big), and yeah, to get a little attention from the guys too.

And I’d definitely gotten their attention.

Even now, Wolf stared hungrily at me from across the open area in front of the compound’s main hall while Jace — his gaze raking my body every few seconds — tried to focus on whatever Mac was saying to him.

Otis was helping one of the Blades with a big grill — there were several — that wasn’t working, but even he glanced over every so often, and I wondered if they were plagued by memories of the fun we’d had at the Velvet Rope, because I definitely was.

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