Page 26

Twenty-five

DIMITRI

I decided to skip today and stay in Jared’s apartment as I can’t seem to get his files unlocked.

Knox didn’t even bother to ask as it looked like he was somewhere else with his thoughts. And Jaxon, well he tried to go with Hope to the stadium, but she only scolded him and drove off before he even got a chance to get in.

And all he did was fucking smile and look at me.

“That’s love,” he said.

The more she fights him, the better he thinks it is. And perhaps he’s right. What do I know?

Hope is… complex. She’s more complicated than people take her for at face value, but we know her. We know everything about her. The worst parts of her life. The best parts. What she loves. What she fears.

That scares her, but it just further proves that we’re right for her. We know how to care for her in a way that’s unique to her. To her needs and desires. They’re far different from anyone else’s, and instead of being disgusted with herself, she should be more open-minded.

She should want happiness for herself in any way that it comes.

I take another sip from my coffee and stare at the screen as it’s filled with codes and warnings.

It all takes too long for my liking and I’m not the best to hack into someone’s computer. Okay, I can, but not when it’s this sealed up. Jared knew he had incriminating things on his computer, so he made sure it was a bitch to get into.

After my coffee has turned cold, I give up on the files and try again with Jared’s email account.

He’s still in the hospital and he doesn’t have access there to a computer. We also have his phone here. He has no way of hiding anything from me, and still, he manages to do so.

The numbers and letters on the black screen slow and I try again, putting in the command and…

“Fuck yes,” I cheer and stare as his email account unlocks .

I scroll through the emails and all seem to be safe.

“What are you hiding?” I mumble.

Why would you put so much security on your laptop if you have nothing to hide?

My gaze lingers on a coded email address with an attachment from a few days ago.

Check this out. She’s your neighbor, right?

I roll my shoulders and open the attachment. Another screen opens and it appears to be a video.

I click one and within the first clip, cold sweat breaks out.

“No,” I breathe.

“Come on, little girl, show Daddy how much you like it.” Coach’s voice comes through the speakers.

My stomach rolls as I see Coach and Hope.

It’s a video Coach showed us plenty of times before, proving to us that she liked it, wanted it.

Her small body comes into frame. Her face is hidden by her black hair as she crawls on his lap.

I slam the laptop shut as bile starts to rise, my eyes squeezing shut as I try to scrub the video from my mind. Coach should’ve never showed us that video when we were stupid, impressionable young men. He should’ve never taken the video. He should’ve never touched his own daughter!

My hands shake as I grab my phone and dial Jaxon’s number. After a few beats, I hang up and try Knox. But it’s the same.

I look at the clock and curse. “They are on the field.”

So, I do the next thing. I call the police station .

After a few seconds, my call gets answered, but that doesn’t call back the tension that tightens around my throat.

“Maplewood Hollow’s Police Station.”

“Hi, Dimitri Kessler. I—” I pause, wondering for a moment what I should say without sounding too off. I don’t want to draw any attention to me or the guys. Not with what we did to Jared. “Is Mr. Miller taking visitors?”

Okay, that sounded bad. But what the hell else am I supposed to say? I have to do something.

“Ehm… let me check for you, dear.”

I hear the keypad, the noises in the background making my knee bounce in impatience.

“Mr. Kessler?”

“Yes?”

“You just missed him. He got released yesterday.”

I jump up, coffee spilling to the floor and my mug clattering by my feet. “Released? How could he be released?”

She clears her throat. “Insufficient evidence. We had nothing to hold him on.”

“Nothing? We handed him to you on a fucking platter!” I shout into the phone as fury bursts within me. I hear her take a breath to reply, but I don’t want to hear another word or excuse.

I hurl the phone through the room, panting as I feel like I’m suffocating.

He got out.

Not enough evidence.

Fuck.

Hope.

HOPE

A sense of peace, calm. All what I shouldn’t be feeling after what happened last night. But I can’t blame him. I can only blame myself as I taunted him, dared him.

But I wanted it. I wanted him to take me like he wanted. I wanted to break, to fall apart.

Even if I talked about it first or gave him permission. It wouldn’t be the same. It would be fake. I needed this type of control.

And damn, did it feel good.

Too good.

I know I’m crazy, sick. How can I not be with how my dad treated me? I should feel shame or be mad, and perhaps on some level, I am.

But the peace wins.

I made a choice for myself, and I’m… okay with that. In a world as twisted and unpredictable as this one is, I have to be grateful for the fleeting moments I have even a sliver of control. Last night was one of those fleeting moments.

Perhaps, there will be another one soon.

“Are you okay?” Ben’s voice cuts through my thoughts .

I smile at him as I sit behind my desk, straightening up with an air of motivation hovering around me. Today is a new day, and I’m going to make the most of it. That’s all I can do with every day that comes at me. It’s better than getting stuck in the past. “I’m fine, Ben. I promise.”

He leans against my desk, just enough so my vision to the training room is blocked.

“Did… something happen?” he whispers. “Between you and Jared?”

My brows nudge together as I wonder how he got that idea. The guys didn’t leave a sliver of evidence in my room to the point of my thinking that I imagined that night. “No, why?”

He shrugs. “I know he was… interested in you, and now he got into a fight at a pub he never went to. It just feels off.”

My blood runs ice cold as I hold his gaze, my thoughts ricocheting throughout my brain as I try to think of a response. No one can know what went down that night.

And I can’t believe it… but I feel like I have to protect the guys like they protected me.

“Maybe you shouldn’t try to put two unrelated situations together,” I say with a small laugh, trying to lighten the tension settling in the air around us.

“Unrelated?” He chuckles. “I know he went to see you that day, after work.”

Wait. What all did he tell people? “He went to see me?”

Caution, patience. With all Jared did, the cameras, I have to be careful .

“Yeah, he even asked the new guys because he thought something was going on there, and they said go for it, so he wanted to ask you out.”

Oh, his trying to grope and rape me was just trying to ask me out. How stupid of me that I didn’t read between the lines.

“He didn’t ask me out, Ben. Really, he didn’t,” I insist as my expression becomes more serious, my disappointment threatening to seep into my words and onto my face.

He pushes off the desk. “Okay, sorry for asking. It all just felt… weird.”

I muster a smile. “It’s okay.”

He lingers. “Just… be careful with those three.”

It’s already too late for that.

I nod. “I will.”

He mimics my nod and turns to leave. He rounds the corner, and my gaze catches Knox staring at me from a distance. His expression is enough warning to send goosebumps over my skin.

I can’t peel my eyes away as I can almost feel his warm breath on my skin again, can feel the bruises he left on my thighs and hips as he marked his territory.

How raw and pure every touch and thrust was.

Even when I tried to scrub his presence from my skin, I can still feel him inside me.

My skin heats and I squirm in my seat, a gentle pulsing sensation between my thighs as I imagine last night. How he spread my legs. How he bent me over. Every little detail .

A grin tugs on his features as he realizes the effect he has on me.

I thought I was screwed before, but now, seeing this, feeling all this, I know there’s truly no going back. No more hiding. No more running.

As I’m his.

I’m theirs.

They’ve made that crystal clear to me, and I’ve spent so long fighting them about that, refusing to admit out loud that we’re bound in ways that I’ll never experience with anyone else. It’s almost a relief to admit it, even if it makes my nerves heighten.

What does that mean for me? For us?

My phone buzzes on my desk and I come out of my haze.

A single message pops up.

It’s from Coach Carpenter.

Hope, can you meet me at the hospital? Jared’s getting discharged.

My breath staggers, and I swallow before I respond.

Of course, Coach. See you in a bit.

I grab my car keys and head out without a glance at my shadows. I just want to get this over with and never see Jared again.

And it’s better that he leaves, ’cause I think the guys would rather see him dead with all they found in his apartment.

I fumble with my keys and unlock my car. My hand clutches the handle, and the horror movie theme song blares from my phone .

My car keys drop to the floor, and I forget to breathe, my vision threatening to blur as I stare down at the caller ID.

How can he call me again? That’s impossible.

With an unsure breath, shaking hands, I grab my phone. But I’m frozen, staring at the screen that says Dad .

No. He’s locked up. I thought… I thought it was over with.

“Aren’t you going to pick up?”

I still can’t move as I stare at the car window, seeing him in the reflection as he slowly approaches me with a cruel grin on his face.

“You’re not here,” I whisper as tears brim my eyes.

I was free. Safe.

“Did you really think some bars could keep me?” He laughs, and I slowly turn with a glance to the ground.

My car keys lie beside my feet, but will I be quick enough?

“It’s time to go, Hope. You stayed away far too long,” he says, not a slur in his voice.

“Just let it be, Dad. Let me move on, please,” I beg him, despite knowing that my pleas fall on deaf ears. He will never leave me alone, never let me live my life in peace.

He just sees me as a doll to torture.

He scoffs. “You’re mine, and I’m not letting you be here with them. You’re coming home, where you belong.”

“Come on, Dad. Mom wouldn’t want this.” I try to get through to him, hoping there is still a grain of humanity inside him.

“Mom?” His laughter gets louder. “What does she look like? Do you even remember her? ”

I blink as hazy memories cloud my mind, but they’re so unclear that I can barely make out any details. “She has black hair, like I do. We–We…”

“So much you don’t know, Hope.” He steps closer, reaches for my face, and I can’t dare myself to move. “But I’ll teach you. Like I’ve done before.”

Tears roll down. “Please, don’t. I won’t tell anyone you’re out. I won’t tell anyone what you did.”

“No one cares, Hope. They let me out.” His touch is cold to my skin. “Grab your keys. We’re going.”

I gulp and crouch down, grabbing the keys. But as I try to move up, he presses his hand on the top of my head.

“Look at me,” he says sharply.

With a deep breath, I tilt my head up and stare up at him. His hand grazes lower, trailing over my cheek to my lips. My stomach churns, pushing bile up into my throat and making me so nauseous that it threatens to make me dizzy.

“There is where you belong.” He forces my mouth open. “On your knees.”

His hand curls lower, wrapping around my throat, and he lifts me to my feet. He tears the keys from my hand and opens the back door.

“Be good now,” he whispers and tosses me in.

With a cry, I hit the seat on my chest, knocking the breath out of my lungs. A weak gasp breaks from me as I hear the door shut behind me, trapping me inside. I can’t move to fight my way out, anyway .

My body is cold. Fear has shut me down as I want to hide deep inside my mind like I’ve done so many times before.

With every blink, there’s a difference.

The car starts.

Blink.

We’re driving.

Blink.

Night falls.

Blink.

The car stops.

My nightmare is back.

It was never Dimitri, never Knox or Jaxon.

It was always him.

The man who calls himself my dad.