Page 25 of Lie in Wait

“What’s that?”

The girl really was sheltered.

“It’s basically a court order to keep him away from you.”

“But he’s my father. I’m under his authority until I marry.”

“Not according to the law,” Damon said, his voice gruff.

Bella didn’t look convinced. “I’m disobeying him by being here. He’s probably destroyed everything in my room by now.”

Damon’s nostrils flared.

“The law is on your side,” Ari said. “You’re twenty, so that means you get to make all the decisions in your life. Want to go to school? Great, it’s your choice. Don’t want to get married? You don’t have to.”

Bella squirmed in her seat.

Ariana glanced at Damon, but his eyes were glazed over.

She needed to figure out a way to distract both of them from thinking about their dads.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She pulled it out to look at the screen. Neither Bella nor Damon paid her any attention.

It was an unknown number.

Ariana rejected the call.

A few moments later, her phone vibrated again.

Voicemail.

She pressed play.

An angry male voice burst through the speaker. “Send Bella back to where she belongs. The consequences will be deadly if you don’t.”

It sent a cold chill down her spine. She stopped the message before it reached the end.

She wasn’t going to let anyone scare her.

And she would do anything to help protect the young woman in front of her.

ChapterFourteen

“Can you help me?” Someone called from the other room. It could’ve been anyone, as close to a dozen people were over to help get the party ready in time.

Ariana set down her hammer then raced to the entryway. Maya stood balancing precariously on a step stool with a string of skulls tangled in her arms. Ari grabbed the stool and steadied it.

“Phew, thanks!” Maya climbed down. She strung the decorations over the steps. “I think I need a new strategy with these babies.”

“What were you trying to do?”

“Hang them, obviously. But I was trying to get fancy. You’d think I’d learn by now. I should never try to make anything fancy. It always goes wrong.”

“I could help you.”

“Everything okay in there?” Olivia rounded the corner. She had a streak of orange paint across her forehead with confetti stuck to it.

Apparently Maya’s twin was also trying to get fancy with her project.

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