Page 29 of Selling Innocence

Hayden and Tor wore nearly identical expressions, ones I recognized even if I’d never seen them on these specific faces.

Annoyance.

I let out a hesitant laugh, one that doubtlessly came across more unhinged than I’d meant it to. It didn’t sound like the chuckle of someone amused but rather a nervous attempt to cover discomfort.

“Do you have something worth laughing about right now?” Hayden asked, his tone exactly like Dane’s when he wanted to trap me, when he knew everything but wanted me to spill about it anyway.

I swallowed down the laugh, though that didn’t help the pounding of my heart or the sweat on my palms. “I was just thinking about how my old bodyguards would sit me down like this when I got into trouble.”

“Oh really?” Hayden crossed his arms over his chest, staring at me with a heaviness that made it difficult to breathe. “And what did you do to annoy them?”

The implication that I’d done something to annoy these four didn’t go over my head.

I gulped as I took a seat on the couch, the empty spot clearly meant for me. “What didn’t I do? I mean, they were my bodyguards for a long time, so I had plenty of chances to really make them mad.” I tried again for that laugh, rewarded with the others not moving a bit.

Guess I won’t get out of this that easily.

“I remember one time my father said I couldn’t go to a friend’s house. He didn’t think the friend was a good fit for me. They were poor, someone who only got into my private school because they were brought in for a quota. The girl was nice, though, so I didn’t care. My school had security, so I didn’t have bodyguards during school hours. They dropped me off and picked me up. Well, I ended up forging my mom’s signature and using that to let me go to my friend’s house after school one day.”

The memory of that day ran through my brain, warming me. Her name had been Portia and she’d lived in this little house in the area of town my father had told me never to go into.

Which was hilarious, considering I later discovered my father controlled that area, that all those thugs and delinquents that made that area bad reported to him. The worst parts of that area were all owned by my father.

Portia had lived with only her mother, something I’d understood since my father had always been working. Her mother had made crackers with peanut butter and I’d gotten to watch TV and play with toys, acting normal in a way I rarely got to.

“I had a great time feeling like a normal kid, at least until two of my bodyguards showed up to take me home. They sat me down just like this to lecture me.”

“Your bodyguards did, not your father?”

“My father was always busy, so I rarely saw him. My bodyguards, they also worked for my mother and sister.”

Hayden broke in. “Sister? I thought you were an only child?”

Shit.

It reminded me why I hated having to lie, because it was too easy to end up saying something that couldn’t be taken back. I’d watched Dane lie enough times to give it a shot, though. “She wasn’t my real sister. She was a cousin who just lived with us sometimes, so I always thought of her as my sister.”

Char snorted, the sound implying he didn’t believe me in the least.

When no one actually called me out, I went on. “So my bodyguards lectured me about the dangers of going off without protection, that their job was to keep me safe, and that to do that, they needed to know where I was at all times.”

“Did that work? Did you behave after that?”

I rubbed my palm against the top of my thigh, trying to figure out how to voice the chaos in my head. “I didn’t like worrying them. None of my problems were their fault, after all, and they really did care about me. I agreed I wouldn’t run off anymore.”

I recalled Colton’s frown when I’d agreed, as if my bending to their will didn’t please him. I hadn’t understood the meaning behind his look at the time, but later? Later I figured out how much they fought between wanting to give in to me, wanting to make me happy, and what they owed to my parents.

I didn’t envy them for having to walk that line.

“Well, maybe you can learn to be a good girl for us, too,” Vance said, his tone thick with meaning and promise.

And I did not care one bit for the way it made my stomach flutter. How could a man get that sort of reaction with just a few words? It seemed entirely unfair.

“So, do you want to stop lying to us?” Hayden asked, steel in his voice. It was the tone of a man who was sure of himself, who already knew everything, like the bait in a trap.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said.

Tor grabbed a bag from behind the couch, one I hadn’t seen, and dumped the contents out onto the table.

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