Page 85 of Broken Daddy

Cynicism filled her as she watched him. He was such an asshole. Getting up, she picked up the bat and moved into her room. As she was stepping through, something shoved her and she sprawled on the floor.

She gaped up at her father in shock. “What are you doing?”

“Get out of my way! You’ve got to have money in here. I know you do.”

Panic threatened to engulf her and she took shallow breaths to counter it. He didn’t know where her stash of money was and as long as she didn’t give herself away he’d never find it.

She stared at the bat as he started ripping up her room, searching.

What she wouldn’t give to pick it up and start hitting him with it.

Do it, Devi.

What if he finds the money? You need that money.

It’s yours. You owe him nothing.

He whirled toward her, breathing heavily and sweating. “I know you have money. I know you’re holding out on me.”

Shit. Fuck. She should have taken the chance to run when she could. He had that mean look in his eyes.

Rohan was right.

She should have left already. But she couldn’t leave her brother.

And she’d promised her mom to take care of Derick.

But would her lovely, sweet mom have condoned the way he’d treated her? Honestly, he’d grown worse since she’d had to move back in here.

Time to do something.

She couldn’t put up with this any longer. Picking up the baseball bat, she ran at him with a scream and whacked it against his arm.

Crack!

He let out a roar of pain, falling on the floor.

Oh my God.

What had she done? She didn’t believe in violence. She wasn’t a violent person.

Was she? Maybe she was. Maybe she had more of him in her than she would like to admit.

She dropped the bat in horror.

“You stupid bitch!” he yelled. “You broke my fucking arm!”

Holy crap.

Had she?

This was bad . . . really, really bad. She could get into a lot of trouble for this.

It was self-defense.

Right. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t hurt her if he could catch her.

Turning, Devi raced out of the bedroom door. Derick let out a roar of fury behind her. But she knew she could easily out-run him.