Page 3

Maisie faces me with an arched brow. “ Neolithic? ”

“That’s a thing, right?” I ask as I shrug a shoulder, following as she starts walking again. “Either way, that bastard is older than dirt.”

“Found one.” Maisie chirps a few minutes later. “Just in time, too. I swear I was going to pee my pants if we didn’t find a bathroom soon.”

Once my sister is safely inside with the door locked, I take a moment to do a little wandering myself, following the very empty hall a few feet before I find another elaborately carved door that’s slightly open.

I bet there’s so much money in this house, a fortune in paintings and knickknacks alone. And I doubt anyone would notice if something went missing. There’s so much shit, it might even be weeks before one of these assholes realizes anything’s gone, and by then they definitely won’t give a fuck.

Deciding that elaborately carved door is my ticket to getting my car fixed, I reach for the knob but freeze the second I hear my mother’s voice on the other side.

“I’m so glad we were able to come to an agreement.”

With a frown, I move closer, trying to peek through the crack, angling myself just enough to get a good look at…

Oh my god, she’s in her fucking underwear.

I barely fight my gag, covering my mouth to smother the sound, especially when Charles Harden comes into view, the relic tucking his Johnson back into his slacks.

I fucking called it.

I knew that bitch had snuck off to fuck the old man but almost walking in on it?—

“Now then.” Harden moves toward his desk while he buttons his shirt. “If you’ll have a look at the contract, we can get everything signed and?—“

“You’ll cut me a check.” My mother pulls her skirt up and starts fixing her hair. “I don’t really need to read all of that, do I? I think it’s all rather straightforward.”

Harden looks up from the desk, grinning at her abrasive tone. “It is, but you’re sure you don’t want to look things over? This is your daughter we’re talking about.”

“Not after today. She’s your problem as soon as I sign on the dotted line, and as long as I walk out of here a rich woman, I don’t really care what the contract says.”

Say what ?

No. No fucking way.

I know I did not hear that right.

Charles Harden chuckles and shakes his head as he goes into the desk drawer then pulls out what must be his goddamn checkbook. “I’m not sure if we have the same definition of rich, but you’ll have significantly more than what your worthless husband makes in a year, I can promise you that.”

My mother joins in the laughter as my head starts to spin.

I know this bitch is not talking about selling my sister. There’s no fucking way. Maisie has been that twat’s pride and joy ever since she was born, the perfect model child, and that only increased when we realized my sister was an omega. Why the hell would she want to…

Then it clicks.

Every fucking thing clicks into place and becomes crystal clear.

This was the plan all along.

The impromptu barbecue, keeping up appearances, the emphasis on my baby sister. All of it makes way too much sense now, and that’s all it takes for me to lose my goddamn mind.

I’m going to kill them.

“Mom?” I call out, feigning innocence as I make like I blindly stumbled across the office. “Oh, there you are. We were looking for you.”

She rolls her eyes as she quickly pulls her top closed. “Why?”

My hands ball into fists as I walk in, eyeing Charles Harden as he walks around his desk and hands my mother a check.

The two exchange a few words while I pretend to be amazed by the fancy fucking furniture, the paintings on the wall, and not the fact that it smells like sex and I’m about to vomit before hurtling into a blind rage.

Stay calm, get close.

“Dad asked where you were,” I say as I shrug a shoulder, noticing the letter opener on the desk. “Something about keeping your snatch in your pants.”

Larissa winds up and goes to swing, her open palm centimeters from my face as I snatch her wrist and look her in the eye.

I can feel her pulse quicken, thrumming faster in her wrist as I hold it in place.

We keep contact, a smirk spreading across my lips as my mother’s chest begins to heave.

She’s thinking about that teacher. You don’t have to be a genius to know that’s where her mind went, and not just because I’m most likely sporting the same crazed look I had on my face that day.

No, Larissa is realizing that the majority of my outbursts revolve around Maisie, and that means, she now knows I heard their little exchange.

“Let’s go then,” she says, her voice shaking as she swallows hard. “We can get your father, and your sister, and leave.”

“Can we?” Twisting her wrist, I glance at Harden, noting the old man is watching us closely, then stare Larissa Severe down. “We can all leave, like one big, happy family?”

My mother nods, looking to the old man for some kind of support. “Sure you don’t take alphas?”

“If I did that, I’d be out of business.” He chuckles again, shaking his head as he straightens his clothes. “I’ll let you take care of this on your own. I got what I wanted, and this seems to be a private matter.” Charles goes to walk by, making it just past my mother, and that’s when I act.

I let go of Larissa and move as fast as I can, grabbing the letter opener shaped like a dagger then lunge, my fist digging into his hair as I yank him back so his head is on my shoulder, the tip of the blade piercing the opposite side of his neck.

With a hard shove, I bury it in his throat, his blood instantly spurting between my fingers, pushing the tool through flesh and muscle until it’s almost impossible to move, then I use the anger, the absolute hate I have for my parents to drag it through Harden’s neck, jerking and pulling until I’ve cut him open ear to ear.

I drop his body like a sack of bricks, staring down at his wide, lifeless eyes while his head tilts unnaturally.

Cockeyed, and like it’s hanging on by a thread.

Guess it’s time to make my exit.

At least, that should be the plan until I hear the bitch behind me.

“Korvin,” my mother whispers before she starts screaming. “Korvin, oh my god! Do you know what you’ve done!”

Slowly, I turn toward her, the way I despise her and everything she stands for, the pure hatred I have for this woman surging through my veins like poison. “You were going to sell Maisie?”

She blinks, and swallows, but says nothing.

“For what? What the hell were you going to sell a thirteen year old girl…” Oh, this bitch is twisted. “You’ve got to be kidding me. There’s no way, not even you would sell your own daughter as a sex slave. Right?”

Larissa starts backing away from me as I step forward, trying to move through the furniture without taking her eyes off me. “We need the money, Korvy. It’s a good opportunity for Maisie, too. She’d get?—“

“Shut up.”

“Korvy, honey, it was for the best. Think of it like… Like, boarding school. She’d still get an education, still have all the?—“

“Shut up!” I slap her with the back of my hand, a jolt of satisfaction when I see her lip start to bleed. “You’re a goddamn liar. A whore. You’re a worthless piece of shit who never should have had children!”

I hit her again, smiling as she stumbles, every ounce of alpha energy she once had depleting by the second. “You’re a selfish cunt, Larissa Severe, and I will make sure that no one remembers you after today.”

My mother takes off toward the door, running into the hall as she starts screaming again, but there’s no one around still, and I’m faster.

Bigger, faster, and I am stronger than she ever dreamed of being.

We make it just past the bathroom when I grab the back of my mother’s head, ripping out a chunk of her hair as I stop her in her tracks. I throw her against the wall, the bitch crashing into the wood panel with a hard thud before dropping to the ground.

“I told you when I killed Mr. Brighton,” I say as I crouch down, grabbing Larissa’s face and forcing her dazed stare on me.

“No one fucks with my baby sister without paying for it. No one. ” I lean in close, inhaling the scent of fear with a sick smile, then plunge the letter opener into her ribs, shoving until I can feel my fingers sink beneath her skin.

“Not even the cunt who gave birth to us.”

With one final shove, I make sure the blade tears through her lung and is close to her heart then get to my feet, frowning down at her for a moment while I digest what the hell just happened.

I murdered the patriarch of an incredibly influential family of sex traffickers, and our bitch of a mother, seemingly unprovoked at a goddamn barbecue.

A barbecue that is definitely over for us.

I bend and quickly snatch the check out of my mother’s hand, spit on the bitch, then immediately start searching for my sister.

We have to get the hell out of here and we have to do it now.

“Sorry.”

I look up at the sound of Maisie’s voice, blowing out a relieved breath when I see she was in the bathroom the entire time.

“I don’t think that burger was a good idea and… Vinny?”

“We have to go.” I grab her hand and start running back toward the front of the house.

“Korvin, is that, was that Mom ?”

I nod, practically dragging her down the hall. “She’s a bitch.”

“Did you kill her?” Maisie’s stare is fixed behind us but when I don’t say anything else, she stomps her foot and jerks her hand from mine. “Korvin.”

Scrubbing a bloody hand through my hair, I nod again and try to keep tabs on our surroundings while I try to explain.

“She sold you, Mais. The bitch sold you to that old fuck, and she was going to leave you here so they could…” I shake my head.

“Mom was giving you to that asshole for—“ I look down at the check—“five hundred thousand dollars. You were going to have to stay here and do god knows what, but I wasn’t going to let that happen and if you’ll just go with me, we can?—“

“You killed her for me?”