Page 7 of Dark Daze

He chuckled softly. "The door was open. If you needed help, all you needed to do was shout for it. You didn't even try to tell me no."

Fucker, he was right. About all of it. Ididlike powerful men, I always had. That was exactly why I ran. I was drawn to it like a moth to flame. Not just that, but violence and death.

I saw my father kill a man with his bare hands. Watching the light fade from his eyes was the hottest thing I ever saw.

That was the night Nova was conceived. The night I knew I would be completely fucked up if I didn't leave. I would be as bad as the rest of them.

I left, but the cravings never left me.

3

My head pounded from the night before, and a glass or four too many.

I managed to avoid Gunnar and Ric after dinner. Or they avoided me.

Most of the women had gathered in one room and the men in another. Thank fuck Ric's sister Hayley made herself scarce after glaring at me all through dinner. I ignored her apart from giving her an occasional death stare. What the fuck was her problem anyway?

The guests who stayed over at Bella's house had barely begun to stir, except the kids. They gathered in the playroom and were now discussing the rules of whatever game they were about to play.

I watched them for a while, then went to grab coffee and toast from the buffet table. Everything was fresh like it was just brought in from the kitchen. It probably was. The staff would likely spend half the day replacing cold food and refilling the coffee pot.

Rich people problems—they hated cold toast.

I poured myself a cup and tried to decide what to put on my toast when heavy footsteps approached slowly.

Mindful it might be Ric, I scooped up a butter knife and set two pieces of toast on a plate. I reached for the butter as they stopped behind me.

I whirled around, knife in hand and jabbed it toward the guy's throat.

He stood perfectly still. He didn't even flinch.

I couldn’t say the same about myself. My eyes widened and my hand dropped.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry. I thought you were…"

Hilton Blake looked down his hawk-like nose at me. "Someone else?"

"Yeah, I'm, a little twitchy I guess." I turned around and placed the knife on the side of my plate. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Obviously." He moved around me to pour himself a cup of coffee.

"I'm sorry I should have—"

"Should have what? We're not at work. You're not my assistant here. Are you?" He spooned two sugars into his coffee before putting the jar aside.

"No, si— Um." My face heated. Trust me to look like a fucking idiot.

"Hilton is fine, Daisy," he said. "I'm not your boss here. I'm only another guest come for the festivities and the wedding. Caleb thought it best to send someone."

"To make sure people don't plot behind his back," I said without thinking. Hilton was the man for it. The only person he answered to was Caleb. And I answered to Hilton.

A decade older than me, he always listened attentively when I spoke. Like I was the only person in the room. It was impossible not to be drawn into the moment. I had to be careful not to bear my soul, just so he’d look at me for a few minutes longer.

Okay, I had a little crush.

I'd also heard him order someone be killed, without blinking an eye. It was easy to underestimate a man like him. That made him more dangerous than someone like Ric.

"Exactly," he agreed. "Where better than a gathering like this? All those heads together, alcohol pouring. People get bored, or they get bold." His eyes lingered on me like I might be one or the other of those.

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