Page 5 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

Valerie had warned Caroline that he worked for their father now and was basically his right-hand man. It didn’t surprise her that Kyle and her father were attached at the hip, considering how far up Senator Jenner’s ass her dad’s head had been. But she’d never thought Kyle would be in their home, especially since her father was still recovering.

“Well, hello, beautiful.”

His tone, arrogant and too familiar, sent her stomach twisting. Bile rose up and burned the back of her throat. She was being strangled by her fear, and there was nothing she could do. Every self-defense and martial arts class she had taken hadn’t cured her of the paralyzing fear this one man could create. She’d faced down three-hundred-pound drunks and an angry husband with a two-barrel looking for his wayward wife, yet Kyle’s sly smile still made her want to piss her pants.

She resisted the urge to close her eyes in an effort to block out the memories clawing to the surface. Who knew someone so beautiful could be so rotten?

“Cat got your tongue, sweet Caroline?”

“Don’t struggle, sweet Caroline.”

Fifteen years had passed since that night, and his words, his tone, still made her skin crawl with disgust.

Her father had asked her to attend a dinner party at Senator Jenner’s home in Boise, where they were going to spend the night. It wasn’t the first time she’d met the senator’s son, Kyle, but his attention on her was definitely new. He’d spent the whole night courting her, fetching her drinks and sweets, and dancing with her out on the porch. She’d felt like a princess.

Until she’d been woozy and excused herself to go lie down upstairs. Kyle had offered to help her, but she’d said she would be fine. Before she blacked out, she remembered feeling weightless and dreamy but somehow different from the sensation of being drunk. Besides, she hadn’t been drinking alcohol that night.

Later, she woke up in pain. Kyle was on top of her. Inside her. He was raping her, and she was too dizzy, too weak, to do much but whimper and cry.

“Please . . . stop . . .”

He hadn’t stopped, though; he’d laughed. He’d insulted her and mocked her until he finished with her.

“A virgin is just a whore in training.”

When she’d woken up the next morning, her memories had blurred together. Her head had pounded painfully, and when she’d tried to sit up, the room still spun. As she started to climb out of the bed, she’d cried out sharply at the shock of soreness between her legs. Caroline had pulled back the blankets and realized her dress was torn, her underwear gone. When she stood up, she winced, trying to fight past the fog and the hurt to remember what had happened, and then she saw it.

Blood on the sheets.

Nausea had rolled up her throat until she was doubled over on the floor, vomiting up everything she’d eaten the night before. A flash of Kyle’s laughter intensified the pain in her head, and she’d curled up on her side, sobbing.

When her father had come knocking at her door to let her know they’d be leaving in an hour, she’d been so shaky and confused, she hadn’t been able to say more than okay. Once she heard his footsteps retreating, she’d changed out of her destroyed dress and stuffed it into her backpack. She had tried to scrub the vomit out of the carpet with one of the bathroom towels, but it only seemed to make things worse.

Once she’d dressed, she headed for the stairs, but before she could take one step, someone had grabbed her arm and pushed her up against the wall.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Caroline closed her eyes against the evil sneer of Kyle’s voice and whispered, “Let me go.”

“Not until we have a little talk about what happened last night,” he said, pulling her into the hall closet, despite her struggles against his grip.

“What happened last night? You raped me!”

Kyle closed the door behind them with a chuckle, and Caroline backed away from him, her heart hammering as she remembered that laugh, mocking her when she was begging him to stop.

“Now, if you have any thoughts of walking downstairs and telling your father I raped you, I’m going to advise that you reconsider.”

Caroline would have laughed if her throat hadn’t been closing with apprehension. Being stuck in such close quarters with Kyle had scared the hell out of her, and his dark tone hadn’t helped. Had he always been so much taller than her?

“It’s the truth—”

Kyle’s forearm was suddenly there, pressing into her throat as he shoved her back against the closet wall.

“The truth? The truth is your dad has his head stuck so far up my father’s ass, if you say anything, he’ll tell you to shut the fuck up,” Kyle hissed, increasing the pressure on her throat until she couldn’t speak. “I’m going to save him the trouble.”

He brought his face close to hers, his disgusting breath hitting her nose. She’d reached up to his arm, digging her nails into the fabric of his shirt to get him away from her neck, but he just cursed at her.

“If you tell anyone about last night, it will be your word against mine,” he said, releasing her neck only to grab her hands and pin them above her head against the wall. “But on the off chance that I am arrested, you can bet your ass I’ll make bail. And when I do, I’ll be coming not just for you, but your little sisters too. Val’s . . . what? Thirteen?” His lips ran across her cheek until they reached her ear, and nausea roiled again in her already empty stomach. “It won’t take much effort to get them alone, and when I do, well, they won’t be as lucky as you.”

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