Page 80 of Reckless Dynasty (Knight's Ridge Empire 9)

“What good would it have done? He was meant to be… dealt with. He was as good as gone.”

“Well, it doesn’t seem that way right now,” she mutters.

“What happened, Mum? When did he—”

There’s a loud crash at the other side of the room, and suddenly, light floods in around us while a long, haunting shadow covers the floor.

I squint as I look up at the man responsible for all of this.

He stands there in the doorway, trying to exert as much power and control as possible, but his body is weaker and frailer than I’ve ever seen, he falls a little from the mark. Or it might just be that now I know the truth, I know he really is nothing but a monster. A monster I refuse to cower away from.

“Ah, good, my girls are awake. Are you both hungry?”

“Where are we, and what do you want with us?” I demand, trying to pull my hand from Mum’s grip so I can stand and face him, but she holds on too tight and I’m only able to get to my knees. Not the kind of height disadvantage I wanted.

“It doesn’t matter where we are,” he says softly, making me feel like a little girl again when he used to read me my favourite bedtime stories. “We’re together. That’s the only thing that’s important right now.”

“Not by choice. We don’t want to be here with you. You should be dead,” I scream, losing the thin grasp I have on my sanity.

“Come on now, sweetheart. We both know you don’t really mean that.”

Finally, I manage to slip my hand out of Mum’s grasp and I stand before him, holding my head high and throwing my shoulders back.

“Yes,” I spit. “I do. I hate you, you’re a monster.”

His lips press into a thin line and his jaw tics as he glares at me.

“What are you going to do, Dad? Are you going to hit me again? Or are you just planning on locking us in here until we start complying? If that’s the case, I can tell you that that is never going to happen. I’m never going to listen to—” His arm shoots out and he backhands me across the same cheek as before.

“Jonas,” Mum screams while I cradle my face, blood filling my mouth.

“I hope they make it hurt when they kill you,” I seethe quietly, my voice full of venom.

“I was going to take you upstairs and give you both dinner,” he snarls before plunging us into darkness and slamming and locking the door behind him.

Silence follows before the thundering of heavy feet on stairs clues me in to at least one fact about our location. The cunt really has locked us in a basement. But where?

As I navigate my way back toward where I think Mum is in the darkness, I can’t help but wonder if he’s taken us back to his house. Are we in the same basement he used to lock Toby in?

Surely not. That would be too obvious.

If my instincts are right and Toby is out there right now searching for us, then he’d think to go back to his family home. Wouldn’t he? He would find us.

“He was going to let us out,” Mum says through what I’m sure are gritted teeth.

“You wanted to go and eat dinner with him?” I ask, dabbing at my split lip.

“Jodie,” she sighs. “Sometimes you’ve just got to play the game.”

I narrow my eyes at her despite the fact that she can’t see me.

“Getting angry and pissing him off isn’t going to get us anywhere. We need to know where we are, and being locked in the dark isn’t going to give us any clues.”

I drop down on my arse with a huff. She’s got a point, but the last thing I feel like doing right now is being compliant.

Resting my head against her shoulder, I search for her hand.

“I’m sorry I never told you he was alive.”

“I’m sorry too. For everything.”

“We’re going to get out of here.”

Mum sighs, but she never agrees—and that only makes the dread sitting heavy in my stomach worse.