Page 4 of Crave

I lowered my gaze to my cell. I had to make a plan, gather what money I had in my account. It wasn’t much. Fifty thousand maybe. It’d get me a plane ticket to the middle of nowhere, that’s all I cared about. If I laid low, changed my hair…and my name it might stop them.

Jesus, please let it stop them.

Beep.

I looked down, through the washed out blur and found my boyfriend’s message.

Penn: Tell me what you need and it’s yours.

A sob tore free. Penn was the only one I could trust. The only one who knew how cruel these men had been to me and the only one who knew how dangerous they were. His father was a lawyer, maybe he could help me get a new ID and smuggle me out of the country somehow?

I didn’t know.

But at least I had a plan.

I gripped my cell, staring at the beautiful, pink room built for a daughter my mother wanted…and one the rest of my family tolerated. A daughter who was ready to leave this house and the Ares name behind.

A daughter who was desperate to survive.

Chapter Two

SILAS

Two weeks later.

The club was fucking packed.Women jostled for prime spots on the dance floor while the guys crowded darkened corners where they drank and had lap dances in front of us. As entertaining as it was watching some asshole finger a bitch for the third time, I’d had enough. I rose from my seat, earning a glance from one of my boys, Jamison. “You out of here?”

“Nah,” I shook my head. “Just to the bar.”

I didn’t want to go home to the hollow fucking rooms of our home. I sure as Hell didn’t want to go home to her—Mom’s fucking angel.

I leaned both elbows on the bar and pushed the empty glass forward. Heads turned my way, eyes widened a second later when they recognised who I was. It didn’t take long with our faces plastered all over the goddamn media. Who else’s father murdered their mother, then blew out his fucking brains dressed in Armani?

My father, that’swho.

“This doesn’t look like your scene either.”

I turned my head finding a blonde next to me. “Oh yeah?” I muttered. “And what exactly do you think is my scene?”

She gave a soft shrug, those brown eyes roaming my body. “Oh, I dunno. An illegal street race perhaps?”

The corners of my mouth tugged a little. I scanned the crowd, hating this goddamn place. I’d give anything to be outside, to feel the cold air biting my face and the searing scent of gasoline in my lungs. But I wasn’t out there with the guys pushing my bike as fast as it’d go, because right now I didn’t belong there either.

The weight of my own goddamn legacy weighed me down.

The glass slid toward me. I grabbed it, downing the contents until that burn moved through me. Laughter pushed in and whispers followed as the blonde moved closer. I could see her friends urging her on, daring her to approach the hard Ares bastard who was looking desperate as fuck.

That’s because I was.

I nodded to the bartender. “Leave the bottle.”

He knew better than to argue. I downed the next glass and poured as the blonde moved closer. Was she still here?

“You’re beautiful, you know that?” She shifted while her girlfriends jabbed her in the side. “Yeah,” she added. “I’m pretty sure you know that.”

I turned, giving her my full attention. “Beautiful, huh?” My words slurred as I grabbed her, sliding my hand around to the back of her neck.

Long waves of her hair slipped over my fingers. She reminded me of someone. Someone who nagged at the back of my mind, along with the empty fucking tomb we called home. My focus shifted to the crowd, gravitating to a group of suited up coke-sniffing chumps and found my brother smack bang in the middle. He laughed and drank, one arm wrapped around some random bitch. His attention shifted, finding me instantly before he drunkenly lifted a glass in fucking salute. Even from here I could see he was fucking wasted.