Page 59 of Out of the Shadows
“Happened when I was quite young, I’ve had it for ages, really. I was seven, and well, I’ve always been taller and broader than most of my classmates. Anyway, one day during recess, one of the kids in my class decided that my ‘fat ass’ was taking too long to climb up the jungle gym, and he pushed me. I fell really awkwardly and landed right on a sharp metal edge. It bled like hell.” His tone was blank, but his throat bobbed as he swallowed hard and looked away. “Does it bother you?”
“No! No way, don’t even think that.” Tentatively, I stretchedout my hand again, and when he didn’t stop me, I traced it more firmly this time.
His eyes closed, but there was still a sharp crease between his eyebrows. I crawled a little higher on his chest and planted a kiss on his jaw, his cheek, his temple, and finally on his scar. I peppered his entire face with tender kisses until the lines smoothed out and the corner of his mouth pulled up.
***
On my way to the car, I scrolled through my notifications, my stomach turning to ice. Several texts, ranging from unpleasant to boiling with rage, had trickled in over the past few hours. Had Colt seen them too?
God, I hoped not. I didn’t want him to know how far my father had gone and how often I had been forced to play along.
Dad: Call me as soon as you read this.
Dad: Really? Don’t you at least have the decency to give me a call after your abandonment of your duties?
Dad: I’m not a man you can just ignore. You should know this by now. Call me now.
Dad: You better have a good explanation for all this.
Dad: You ungrateful brat! How dare you defy me like this? Do you have any idea what you’ve done?!
Dad: There will be consequences for this, young lady.
It took me a few seconds to realize what he was talking about. Right — the date he had arranged for me, the one I had deliberately chosen not to attend. I knew he would lose it and expected his anger — yet it was something else to experience it firsthand.
My head was blank, with a strange buzzing in my ears. Iwould literally rather doanythingother than deal with him right now, but his threat made me nervous. I thought I was beyond his reach, but that only made me more suspicious. What would, or could he do, being so far away from me?
I needed to know what I was dealing with. My thumb trembled as I tapped the little phone icon next to his name. It rang twice before he picked up.
“About fucking time,” he snapped. “Where have you been?”
“Nice to talk to you too. Thanks, I’m good. Yeah, lectures and training are going well. Where have I been? Oh, just out with friends.” I certainly wasn’t going to tell him the truthnow.
“Friends. Sure.” He scoffed. “Save the sarcasm. You embarrassed me, Hailey. How could you just stand Nico up?”
“Nico?” I asked incredulously.Surely not …
“Yes, Nico. You finally made an impression on someone, and he wanted a second date with you. Imagine my surprise when his father angrily called me and told me you didn’t show up. I was mortified! Do you have any idea what you just threw away? And for what? To run around with Colt, that bumbling fat idiot.”
The only way he could’ve known about it was if Nico had run to him and tipped him off. My blood pounded even harder in my ears as anger gripped me, both at Nico, the little fucking snitch, for violating my privacy, and at my father for talking about Colt that way.
“Colt is not an idiot.I don’t carewhat I justthrew away. I don’t want to—”
“I don’t give a shit what you want or don’t want.You benefit from this family, you live a privileged life. You could at leastdo me a favor here and there.”
My mouth dropped open, but he continued speaking before I could even think of an answer. My chest tightened as if an invisible hand was pulling a band tighter and tighter around it, and I struggled for air, my fingers curling around my phone so tightly my knuckles turned white.
“Now you have blown it with Nico. Congratulations, well done. I’ll tell you one thing — the next time I can convince someone decent to take you out, you’ll show up and be on your best behavior, or you can kiss your time at college and your degree goodbye.”
“Excuse me?” I croaked. He wouldn’t really cut me off, would he? I mean, yeah, he probably would, but until now, I had assumed he would never even consider it because it would reflect badly on him. Unless … unless he made up some excuse. With that silver tongue of his, his friends would surely believe any lie he spewed.
“You heard me. You’re going to go on these dates, and if you’re lucky, you’ll find someone you can tolerate, but I honestly don’t fucking care. If you don’t feel up to that, you’ll just have to live with the choice I make.” He was dead serious. This felt like a bad dream, and I was tempted to pinch myself.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Language, young lady. It means that if you don’t play along, and continue to defy me like this, I’m going to find someone to take you off my hands sooner than you’d like. And then I won’t even consider whether you might like them.”
I stood rooted to the spot in front of my car, every muscle rigid. My heart dropped. He was serious, and he saw nothing wrong with doing this.
