Page 15 of The Tangle of Awful

She scampers out of the room without another word. I pick up the plate and inhale the entire slice before answering Jude. Once the taste of pussy is gone, I set my plate aside to level my uncle with a firm glare.

“I need to find what Aubrey’s been up to.”

Jude doesn’t react or move. He just sits there, staring at me from behind his white mask, frozen like some eerie wax sculpture in a museum. Even though he unnerves me, I don’t bristle or fidget. I’m not six years old anymore. Jude’s harmless as far as I’m concerned. A weird-ass freak, but harmless.

“Why?” he grunts out.

“She’s back.”

He nods as though he already knows that part. Go figure. Asshole probably has secret footage of her keying my car.

“I want her gone.” I gesture at his many computer monitors. “Besides, she could be a liability.”

A liability to my dick…

“A liability?” He leans forward, elbows on his knees, all of his menacing attention directed solely at me. “To whom?”

Mostly to me, but I’m not going to admit that.

“To Dad. She’s hiding something and if it gets out before we get a handle on it, Dad’s shot at attorney general will be over before it even started. Just check her socials and—”

“Already did.”

I frown at him. “Are you telepathic now too?”

“When Neena disappeared, I picked through everyone’s social media, looking for clues as to where she could’ve gone,” he says with a grunt, “including Aubrey’s. Nothing worth pursuing.”

“What about her dad? Ex-boyfriends? Friends? Can you check into them too?”

Jude sighs. “I’ll dig some more.”

The tense muscles in my neck slowly begin releasing. He’ll get me what I need to know. Jude always comes through for the family…and Aubrey’s no longer a part of it. Time to clean house and kick our dirty little girl back to the curb where she belongs.

Hugo

I thought by getting Aubrey back home, things would slide into an old routine—one where she’s my stepdaughter and I’m here to look after her. If only it were that simple. One look at her this morning with her big, trusting jade-colored eyes, pouty pink lips, and messy golden hair and I was gone for.

I didn’t just want to provide for her—a home, a safe place, a loving environment. No, me being the sick bastard I am, had other ideas.

Safe in my bed, beneath me, with my dick deep inside her.

It took everything in me to keep my newly inappropriate desire for Aubrey at bay. No matter how much my dick thinks she’s sexier than she has any right to be, I need to erase those toxic thoughts right away. She’s younger than my son, for fuck’s sake. Worse yet, she’s my wife’s daughter.

My mind is a mess as I let myself into my brother’s house. Callum is prickly at times, but he’s soft on the inside. Always was. That’s why Dad taking his high school girlfriend fucked him up so bad. He’d still be living with the hurt and betrayal of what they did to him if it weren’t for Willa. His new girl—and yes, she’s a girl because she’s not much older than Aubrey—fills him in a way I’ve never seen before.

“Cal?” I call out, craning my neck to listen for any sounds of life within the house. “Can we talk?”

It’s then I hear the faraway sounds of two people having sex. Feral male grunts. Sweet, feminine moans. The soft thud of a bed hitting the wall over and over and over again.

Must be nice to be getting laid on the regular.

The only action my dick’s seen is that of my right hand for months and months. I know things with me and Neena are over, but I still can’t risk taking a woman to dinner or meeting someone through a dating app without it getting out to the media. I can see the headlines now:

Future Attorney General Cheats on Wife…Will Washington State be Next?

Feeling bitter about my entire goddamn situation, I help myself to Callum’s liquor stash while he finishes his fuckfest with Willa. It’s too early in the damn day to be cracking open a bottle of Cal’s rare Stagg Jr bourbon, but I’m having a hell of a week and need something to get my mind out of the gutter.

Two fingers’ worth of a glass—hints of licorice, fennel, and dried fruit—burns a delicious path down my throat and warms my stomach. The chill of my perverted thoughts of my stepdaughter dull right along with the edge I’d been sitting on since the moment I saw her yesterday.

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