Page 12 of Cinder (MC Fables #2)

E lla

There is a car waiting for me when I flee the clubhouse.

One of Viktor’s men is driving. He says nothing when I slide in and close the door.

Simply ignites the engine and we leave. His silence is welcome.

It gives me the peace I need to process what just happened.

I reach up and touch my lips and realize I’m smiling like a goofball because Lars’s kiss lingers on them like sugar.

But my smile fades as my home appears in the distance.

Not home. Prison.

Behind those walls, Luca is waiting for me, and when I tell him I don’t have the recipe he will make me pay.

I glance at my wrist to see the time and notice my mother’s watch is gone. A surge of alarm slams into me, and in a panic, I twist my body each way to see if it’s slipped off in the back seat somewhere. But I can’t see it anywhere.

Tears prick at my eyes.

I mentally retrace my steps to when I saw it last. I was in the library with Lars. I remember glancing at it to make sure I wasn’t going to miss curfew. But then Lars caught me looking through the books. And then I climbed on his lap and kissed him stupid.

I swallow thickly. Lust swirls through me, but panic and fear nip at its heels.

I must’ve dropped it somewhere between the library and the car.

Oh God. What if he figures out who I am?

Luca will lose his mind.

When he finds out I didn’t get the recipe and left evidence behind, he will probably lock me up forever.

Or kill me.

Fear snakes its way down my spine. I won’t tell him. I will figure out a way to get the watch back, so he never has to find out. Maybe sneak out via the secret passageway and return to the party.

But before that, I have to face my brother.

The car comes to a stop at the front door, and I brace myself for Luca’s reaction.

He’s waiting for me in the foyer. I see him, and the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end because just his presence is enough to evoke fear, but knowing I have failed the assignment and left proof of who I am behind me when I fled means he is going to let his viciousness run wild.

He looks at the Rolex on his wrist. It’s new. Just like his suit and expensive shoes. “Sister, it’s good to see you made it home before curfew. Where is the book with the recipe?”

Fear throbs at my temples. I swallow hard and brace myself for his reaction. “I don’t have it.”

“What do you mean you don’t have it? You mean you failed? You didn’t do what you were sent there to do?”

“I was caught by their enforcer before I could retrieve it.” I swallow thickly. “But if you let me go back?—”

He slaps me so hard my teeth rattle, and I see tiny stars dance in front of my eyes.

I didn’t even see him move.

I fall to the floor, but he pulls me by the hair and drags me to the stairs where he shoves me down and the first step slams into my hip.

He leans down, his face enraged, his eyes wild, little drops of spittle forming in the corners of his mouth. “You incompetent, useless bitch. You had one task. One fucking task."

My cheek throbs, and my heart races, and I speak in quick, hushed tones. “It wasn’t my fault. They have a lot of security, and the enforcer was suspicious the moment he laid eyes on me.”

Luca sweeps a gaze over me and lingers on my legs, and the dark delight I see in his eyes makes me feel very exposed, very vulnerable.

If my virginity wasn’t worth so much to him, I don’t doubt he’d enjoy taking it himself. Because his heart is as vile and vulgar as it is black.

“You weren’t supposed to attract any attention. With so much at stake I expect you to do better.”

I grit my teeth, thinking of Lucretia. “I know what is at stake.”

“Then start fucking acting like you do.”

He raises his hand to strike me again, but his mother’s voice stops him. “No man wants to pay for a bride with another man’s bruises all over her skin, son.”

Through the stinging pain, I see Carolina appear from the shadows.

She’s dressed in elegant evening wear and holds a long cigarette holder in her gloved hand.

She walks over to us, her heavily made-up eyes sweeping over me with cruel delight.

But she doesn’t smile. Her ruby-red lips remain thin and unmoving until she takes a deep breath of smoke and then slowly blows it in my direction, her cold eyes still very much on me.

She hates me probably more than she hated my father.

Because I am the result of his love for the woman he loved more than her.

“Let him make his own marks on her flesh. Let him bruise her with his own fists or whatever instrument he chooses.” She turns to her son. “Don’t damage the goods.”

Luca is tempted to hit me again, but he realizes Carolina is right and drops his hand .

He kneels down until he is eye level and in a very dangerous, low voice says, “You have until the morning to tell me how you are going to get that fucking recipe, do you understand me?”

I taste blood in my mouth, and it takes all I have not to spit it in his face.

But one day, I’ll make him bleed, and I won’t stop until he is dead.

I sit in my dark bedroom and stare into the shadows and wait until I know the coast is clear.

I know what I am going to do. I’m going to use the secret passageways to sneak out of the house, and once I’m clear of the property, I’m going to call a cab using the burner phone Santo gave me.

Then I’ll sneak into the clubhouse. I don’t doubt the party will still be in full swing because the Knights of St. Boniface parties are legendary and can go on for days.

It’s just before two a.m. when I leave my room via the passageway and follow it down to the ground level.

The house is quiet except when I near my father’s den, I hear muffled voices.

The door is ajar, and as I get closer, I hear my brother’s distinctive voice.

“That’s it. Suck it like you fucking mean it.

” Through the ajar door, I see a man on his knees in front of him, his head bobbing back and forward as Luca pushes a hand through his hair.

I don’t recognize him. But he’s young and in a suit .

It’s not the first time I’ve seen my brother with someone. Both men and women. The more people to dominate the better.

“I said suck it harder,” he growls, twisting the man’s hair and thrusting his cock in and out of his mouth. “Fuck my cock with your filthy fucking mouth, you cocksucker.”

Feeling the bile rise in the back of my throat, I move on quickly. It’s good he’s preoccupied. Because it will make it easier to sneak away.

Outside, it’s cooler and my skin tingles with goosebumps and anticipation.

I know where all the CCTV cameras are, and where the guards are positioned, but every step has to be precise so I don’t trigger the sensor lights because the only way I’m leaving this property tonight is if I stay in the shadows and get to the part of the fence where some of the brickwork has fallen away.

Nobody knows about it because it is hidden by creeping vines and the hedges that line the lawns.

But I know about it. Because I know every inch of these grounds.

I take the same route I plan to take with Lucretia when it is time to flee. When I’ve found the money I need for us to escape.

Pausing in the shadows, I wait for the cameras to move in the opposite direction, then I bolt across the lawn to the perimeter fence.

Once I’m outside the tall walls, I’ll run to the end of the street, then along another until I’m in the park where I’ll call a cab.

Yes, my escape from my prison is as easy as a cab ride. But it’s not really an escape at all. Because I am still tethered to my fate by invisible chains.

One day soon, I’ll get Lucretia and I away from our violent and vicious half-brother.

But until then, my hands are tied, and I am at his mercy.