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He wipes a little bit of blood off his hand and smirks. “Just leaving daddy dearest a gift. He hurt something of ours, so I hurt something of his.”

What I really want to do is run upstairs and look at the damage, but the look on his face tells me that would be a bad idea. Besides, what's my father going to do, kick me out?

Ivan walks down to me on the stairs, chucking me lightly under the chin. “Don't worry hotness, it'll only knock off a few thousand in potential profit when he does sell it. I wouldn’t expect to get a birthday card from them, though.”

And as easy as that, he pulls me, stunned, out of my childhood home and into his car, and I don't even have it in me to look back in the mirror after we get all my stuff in his trunk.

This part of my life is over now, there's no going back.

Chapter Three

Trevor, Before

I’m pacing up and down the front entryway waiting for them to get back, freaking out because I have no idea how she’s going to react to what we do. It’s not like we’ve kept it a secret from her really, but we haven’t exactly been plain and upfront about it, either.

This whole thing is just a mess. I’ve been a little bit pissed since we met her that she’s so godsdamned young, because she won’t do half the shit my wolf and I need, even if her body is what dreams are made of. It’d be impossible to ignore the way she’s been changing for us, but a lot of good it does us when she’s so against doing anything remotely physical.

Good thing we manage a strip club for our uncle then, huh? All the godsdamned women we could want as long as we keep them separate from Lark.

“There you are, I was wondering where you went to. Ivan left me the second I got him off and I need you badly. Let’s go to the lounge room and break in that new couch that just got delivered.”

I’m so fucking tempted. Unfortunately, I have to unwind Denise’s arms from my waist and push her leather bikini-clad body away from me, and she nearly undoes me with that botoxed pout.

“Don’t give me that. I have something important to do.”

“More important than fucking me? Come on, we both know I’m the best on offer tonight. You really want to pass this up? Might not bother asking you next time I’m in need.”

I growl at her and wrap my hand around her neck, pushing her into the shadows and against the wall. “You don’t get to manipulate me. I’m your fucking boss and I said I got shit to do. We clear? If you want to pop an attitude and act like you have some sort of fucking claim on me, I can replace you in a heartbeat. Hot girls that want to get paid for dancing naked are a fucking dime a dozen. There ain’t nothing special about you, sweetheart.”

I watch her face turn red and then redder still, only letting go of her when I’m sure my message has fully sunk in. “Now get the fuck out of here. I need you long gone by the time my brother gets back.”

She scampers off, nearly bowling over Lark in the process.

Fuck.

“Hey, baby.” I paste a grin on and pretend like nothing at all just happened, hoping she’ll believe it if I do.

“Um, hi, Trevor.”

Her eyes are wide as she looks around, taking in all the topless women serving drinks and the one on stage upside down on a pole with her legs split wide open. Damn.

Ivan punches me on the arm to get my attention back to who actually matters, and I get angry again that she has to see this shit. “Why the fuck did you bring her here? I thought we agreed she wasn’t cut out for this place? She’s going to freak out and run. She’s not mature enough to accept how we make the money she likes to spend.”

“When you said you guys ran a club…” Lark trails off, stepping back into Ivan. That’s when I get a view of her godsdamned neck.

I prowl towards her and tilt her chin up, looking at it up close so I can take a good measure of it. “Why’d you let him bite you, Lark? That wasn’t the plan. You kind of fucked everything up.”

She swallows hard and tips her head back to make eye contact with Ivan, likely looking for a bailout, but he’s busy scanning the room, ensuring everything is running smoothly.

“It wasn’t exactly planned. I got in a fight with mama and daddy, and he was trying to make me feel better.”

Ivan finally looks back down at her and winks, shoving her towards me with his hands on her ass like a damn offering.

“You okay?”

“She’s moving in,” Ivan says somewhat bitterly.

“That so?”