Page 70 of Whirlwind

“Are you nuts?”

His eyes lit up, his lips parted. He liked my violent aversion. It entertained him. Bile rose up my throat at the memory of another pair of eyes reacting the very same way to me. “I’m calling the shots here, Vi.” He pinched my nipple, the pain piercing through me. “Swear to God, I’m going to rip down that fucking Victorian rat trap and build a few townhouses. Terrific piece of land.”

“And if I do what you want, you’re going to put the house in my name?”

He let out a dark chuckle. “I’ll need a return on my investment, honey.” He adjusted my blouse over my chest. “I’ll sell it to you. And the better behaved you are, the better price you’ll get.” His cold lips brushed mine. “There are a lot of blow jobs in your future.” He released me and jerked the vehicle into drive. “Come on, Vi. You’ll be living in the lap of luxury—unlimited shopping.”

“Oh, Ladd. I grew up with money, I don’t give a shit about—”

“My bad, Miss Hildebrand. How about this—it’s temporary. We can separate once your daddy gets what he wants from me, and I get what I want from him—is that better? We can get specific, and I’ll have my lawyer put it all in writing for you. Now that is one sweet deal. Jesus, do I really have to twist your arm here?”

I let out a dry laugh.

Five used to twist my arm.

He’d get mad at me over whatever I’d caught him doing, barrage me with a slew of curses, threaten, and twist to drive his point home. Once I’d seen him do it to a girlfriend at school. She’d whimpered and begged him to stop, cried and pouted. He’d kissed her, and suddenly they were hugging.

Unlike his girlfriend, I never whimpered, I never begged. I’d kicked him once. Pushed him and stomped off.

But it didn’t matter. He’d do it again.

“Violet, are you listening? Did you hear what I said?”

“No.”

“If you know what’s good for you and your Whisperwind, you’re going to sit tight on my cock for a while yet and nobody else’s.”

I pressed myself against the door, staring straight ahead, my pulse a tennis ball on permanent catapult.

Whisperwindwas an icon of Meager’s early glory days of yore. Other impressive houses had been built by other families, but they’d been torn down in the spirit of modernity, others withered in the clutches of debt or rot. Only Whisperwind remained.

Ever since I could remember, owning that house had been a dream of mine. I grew up seeing Gigi’s wistful face whenever we’d walk by it, listening to her stories of “back then.” My grandfather had even built me a dollhouse that looked just like it complete with the house’s Wedgwood blue siding, its gable, the turret. I still had it in my bedroom. A need to rescue our ancestral home, to restore it to its original grandeur, had taken root in me. To preserve this final piece of the Dillon family legacy, their significance in our town. It was special to me. Precious to me.

I wasn’t going to let Ladd take it away and destroy it. Never.

Finally, the Range Rover came to a stop. The front door of the house flew open and my father stood there, stern eyes hooded in the harsh glare of the headlights.Ladd raised his hand and waved at Dad.“By the way, I told him I found you with another man.”

“You are such an asshole.”

“Real life, Violet.”

“Fuck you.”

“You sure will, sweetheart. Need help with your bag?”

I slammed the door behind me. Grabbing my small suitcase from the trunk, I slammed down the hatch hard.

He hated that.

Like I hated being called Vi.

I strode up the long walkway to my front door as a cold barbed wire snaked through me, ripping at my insides.

Monsters. There were monsters everywhere.

Expect the unexpected.

28

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