Page 21 of Embrace the Darkness

“No, but I certainly made it appear that way,” I replied.

A proud smile slowly formed at his mouth.

“They’ll be back. When they realize they didn’t get everything they needed from you,” Jamie warned.

“Yes, but we’ll be better prepared next time,” I said, taking a seat between him and Louie. “Speaking of being prepared…” I directed my question at Stefan. “Why didn’t we go over what we were going to say to the cops?” Stefan didn’t make mistakes or have slip ups. He was too meticulous. Too controlled. Everything he did or didn’t do served a purpose.

The Stefan I knew wouldn’t have cared how upset I'd been these past couple of days. He would have torn me out of bed and made sure my alibi was so ingrained into my brain, I would’ve believed it was actually true. He hadn't, though. That told me one thing. He'd wanted to see how I would handle this on my own. He'd just tested me.Motherfucker. “We had a deal.” I glared.

Stefan’s smile fell, his face relaxing to reveal nothing, but his eyes said everything. He was debating how heshould respond. “We still do. You were upset. As any caring father would do, I gave you space. I knew the police would come, and soon. That’s why I tried calling your room. You didn’t answer. I didn’t push. So I left this moment up to fate.”

What a clever, word-twisting, manipulating bastard!

“Wow.” I sighed, utterly frustrated.Saved by a technicality. One part of our agreement conflicted with the other.

He had tested me or he was playing one of his fucked up games. I could feel it in my gut. The question was, why? What did he have planned? Whatever it was, I wasn’t going to figure it out right now. If Stefan didn’t want me to know, then only time would tell. I just hoped he understood that if he reneged on our deal, there would be repercussions. He’d lose me. When we'd made this deal, I purposely hadn't mentioned that, and I never would. He’d find out after I was long gone.

I turned to Jamie, who was sitting there quietly watching. “Are we still going shopping? Because if so, I’m changing into sweats. These pants are too tight. Someone might have to cut me out of them.”

“I can get the scissors?” Louie volunteered.

I crossed my eyes at Jamie. Louie was too much sometimes.

“Jameson informed me of your clothing situation. I’ve sent Angela out to restock your closet with proper fitting outfits. She got your sizes from the clothes she found in the laundry. I just need to inform her of your, uh… bra size.”

Really? He still gets awkward about this kind of stuff?This was why we had Brody. I could drone on about cramps and how heavy my periods were, and that man wouldn’t even bat an eye. It didn’t faze him one bit. He’d talked with me about it as if we'd been talking about the weather.

“I’m a 32C.” Then the rest of what he'd said registered. “Who is Angela?”

“She’s one of the house staff. I think you spoke to her on the phone the other day,” Stefan said while he sent a text to, I assumed, Angela.

“Oh, you mean the woman who wouldn’t put you on the phone when I needed you?” Apparently, I needed to introduce myself to her. Or introduce my fist to her face. The latter sounded more appealing. I could have been dying and that bitch still wouldn’t have connected me to Stefan.

Speaking of which, he stared at me pointedly. “I’ve already had a discussion with her about that and I believe Brody did, as well.” In other words,Leave her alone, Maura.

“She sounded young. How old is she?”

There was a rule in the house when it came to hiring staff. Never hire a woman who was young, beautiful, or both, because the majority of the people who came in and out of this house were male. It never ended well. Someone in our family always ended up screwing the woman and because most of the men in this family were whores, the girl always got hurt. There was nothing worse for afamily businessthan a woman scorned. It caused drama, put us at risk, and then the girl would have to disappear.

It had happened three times in my lifetime. Which was why Brody and I had come up with the rule. They had to be male, old or middle aged, or extremely ugly.

“She’s younger,” he replied, nonchalant.

“How young?”

Looking bored, he said simply, “Twenty-seven.”

“Oh hell, is she pretty?”

Clearly over my questioning, Stefan gave me the brush off by busying himself with his phone. I turned to Louie because he was the biggest Lothario of them all. He refused to look at me as he picked at a nonexistent piece of lint on his shirt.

“Well, Louie’s already sampled from her buffet,” I said and narrowed my eyes at Stefan. “Old or ugly, Stefan.” That earned me an eye roll.

I glanced at Jamie, who had been silent. With one leg propped up on his knee and his arm stretched along the back of the couch, he looked relaxed. Like his best friend, Jamie enjoyed the ladies. The only redeeming quality to his whorish ways was his standards. If he was interested in Angela or had already bagged her, then she had to be gorgeous. He caught me staring and smirked, looking smug as hell. He knew I was trying to get a read on him. I knew it was none of my business, but I didn’t let that squelch my curiosity or stop me from proving a point. We had another stare off as he sat there with laughter in his eyes because the jerk was giving nothing away.

Giving up, I sighed. “Shit’s going to hit the fan. I just know it.”

“She’s a sweet girl, Maura. You need to give her a chance.” Stefan made it sound like I was the problem.