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14

SHILOH

“ M r. Ronan Talbot’s office, how may I help you?”

Confusion hits hard. I’m quiet, needing a second to regroup. Just one so I can come to my senses and snap my mouth shut.

When I manage, I put my coffee mug on the kitchen counter, the second one for today. I really needed that one. Kaleb wore me out last night. Physically and emotionally. I’m still sore between my legs. Still unsure of what happened.

Many things did. If I had to sum them up in one word, it’d be afirework.

Thing is, one word isn’t enough.

Sadness, there’s also that.

The reason I’m on my second coffee before school is that I woke up extra early today. As early as possible, so I could head over to the nearest pharmacy and get Plan B.

It hurt my soul to swallow it .

If we survive the games he has planned for us, we’ll have a million babies together. I want them. Want his babies.

If we survive the games he has planned for us, we’ll have them.

This isn’t the right time. I have frozen fingers hidden in my freezer. I’m aiding a fugitive who happens to be my stepbrother.

I’m working my fucking hardest to convince him to stay safe.

I thought I owed Kaleb my life. I was wrong. I owe him everything. And it starts with this sacrifice.

Me getting pregnant would only distract him. He’d fret over me, then he’d make mistakes.

He’d get caught.

As much as my heart shriveled when I swallowed that pill, I knew I had to.

I refused to be the reason they’d send him back to Berkshire.

Sigh.

Wherever he is, I hope for his sake that he’s keeping a low profile.

I’ll kill him if he isn’t.

I need him alive. Here. With me.

I wouldn’t have called my monster of a father otherwise.

If anyone could call off the cops or even theFBI, it’s Dad. I’ll convince him. Sell him on the idea that it’ll work for his benefit as well .

Get the authorities off Kaleb’s back and let me go with him somewhere. Anywhere where we won’t be an embarrassment .

Hidden. Anonymous.

My murderous stepbrother and I.

I’ll continue my education and Kaleb will do…

Anything he likes. He’ll have his freedom.

We’ll figure it out.

Focus.

Right. This phone call. That was what I was pissed about before my head started going in a million directions.

The reminder has my nails digging into my palm. It has me seeing red.

I didn’t call his office. I called him.

Meaning he changed his personal number and forwarded these calls to his office.

Without telling me. I bet he laughed when he came up with the idea. Another way of making me feel small and inconsequential.

It won’t work.

Bastard.

“Hello?” a woman whose voice I don’t recognize, no doubt his newest assistant, says. “Anyone there?”

My lips twist. I barely contain a rude answer she doesn’t deserve.

Dad’s the problem, not her.

Yet here I am, on the verge of snapping at her.

After last night, who could blame me ?

Kaleb ruined me in a good way. In the best one. He made me cry. He brought on pain. He took without permission or care.

Kaleb’s marks on my breasts are the most beautiful things I’ve seen. This gift he’s given me, on top of the severed fingers.

His methods of healing and claiming me are intense. But he didn’t leave before he built me back up.

Unlike some other people who never gave a fuck about me.

An undercurrent of violence runs beneath my skin. It grows as I imagine impaling my dad’s head on a stick.

Wow.

“I’m ending the call now,” the woman warns.

I take a deep breath as I tell the woman, “You’re sure Mr. Talbot would approve of you hanging up on his daughter?”

“His daughter?” Fingers click on thekeyboard. A triumphant humph follows. “That means you’re Shiloh. Yes.”

Her condescending tone gets to me.

Instead of telling her where she can stick it, I count to ten while looking down at my outfit for the day.

A black wool dress that falls just over my ankles. Fishnet tights. Black leather combat boots. A dark-gray peacoat. There’s no one to impress today but myself, and yeah, I’m fucking impressed.

My father, on the other hand, would’ve had a coronary.

When I wore something similar to my BA graduation ceremony, he said, “What the hell is this? Extremely unprofessional, Shiloh. Go back and change. ”

I didn’t. Kaleb’s mom always puts on the outfits he chooses for her, though. I haven’t seen her wearing anything comfortable, like sweats or pajama pants, in my life.

He’d reward her with appreciative looks. No compliments or anything. Lingering stares and solemn nods. Which, in my dad’s case, equals the highest praise.

She’s okay with being his pretty doll on strings. He’s paying her for it.

All I’ve ever wanted from him was my freedom.

I’m so close to having it.

I smile down at my clothes. At my little rebellion.

I need to look put together enough for the practice hours today, and I’m pretty sure I’ve nailed it.

Fuck Dad and his approval.

My smile widens. Kaleb wouldn’t mind my clothes. I bet he’d enjoy tearing them off me.

He’d enjoy destroying my clothes, not me.

Dad lied when he said Kaleb would kill me for no reason whatsoever.

When Kaleb kills people, he does it for a reason. I’ve learned that over the past two days. He kills them to help me. To be with me.

I deserted Kaleb. Cursed him and told him I hated him.

He hurt me in return. He loved me, anyway.

We will be together. That’s why I’m doing this. For him. For us.

I lift my chin in my empty apartment. “Yes, this is she.”

“I’m glad.” She sounds pleased. Too pleased. “I’ve been waiting for your call. ”

My hackles rise almost immediately. “Why’s that? Dad’s been looking for me?”

I had no missed calls. Then again, Kaleb was here. He could’ve deleted them.

Hot.

“Your father is currently in a meeting.”

A loaded pause.

Again, strange. “Okay. So take a message.”

“No, I won’t. I do, however, have a message for you.” She clears her throat. “He suspected you’d call and asked that I relay it since he won’t be talking to you directly until further notice.”

That fucker. He knew I’d ask him to help Kaleb.

This is how he hurts both of us.

The nerve of him, to resent me . Despite his never-ending brainwashing, despite keeping me away from Berkshire.

Despite my endless questions when I was younger.

Is he okay?

Did he ask for visitors? They won’t let him have any? Maybe you could try?

All I ever got was no. No. No. Sometimes it was Go to your room.

Other times, he’d use the belt.

Kaleb’s mom would eat or drink and nod absently as the abuse went on.

Until I stopped asking about Kaleb. Until I started to think he was really dangerous to me.

“I’d rather he called me back.” The clock in my kitchen ticks, reminding me that I have to leave for school in thirty minutes if I don’t want to be late. That I should hurry to avoid reaching into the phone and murdering this lady. “What’s your name, anyway?”

“Eden. Listen, Miss Talbot. I won’t lose my job over this,” she snaps, talking quickly. I can’t get a word in. “Here is his exact message, in his own words: I paid off the independent reporter who had been snooping around your apartment building. He shouldn’t be an issue anymore. In case Kaleb drops by, I expect you to call me at this number immediately. I’ll handle it privately before you cause a pseudo-incestuous scandal, which I’m sure you’ve been after for years. You’ll pay for it if you don’t call when he comes. I won’t tolerate disobedience on your part. I’ll be in touch when you’re needed .”

I clutch onto the edge of the kitchen counter, my knuckles turning white.

I’m speechless after hearing the fucked-up message from his assistant.

His assistant!

An email would’ve been less insulting.

An email wouldn’t have been as cruel.

How dare he call Kaleb names when he’s the worst of them all.

When he plans on ruining my stepbrother.

He could give up Kaleb’s location to the cops if he finds him. He’d emphasize how dangerous he is. Lie by telling them he’d been threatening us. They’d kill him on sight for that.

Dad would be ruining Kaleb when he should be compensating him.

I hate myself. I was foolish to hope he’d grow a conscience. That he’d just want this to go away .

He’s past that.

The only place he’ll be sending my stepbrother off to is an early grave.

I’ll have to handle it myself, then.

It’ll be hard. Kaleb is stubborn as fuck. As ruthless as the devil.

I’ll deal with him. I’ve got this.

No one, and I mean no one, will take him from me.

My lips curl in a sneer I don’t recognize. My heart hardens against the world.

This isn’t over.

“Fine.” I end the call before she becomes imaginative and starts throwing insults of her own.

I’ll figure out on my own how I can graduate faster and how Kaleb and I can survive without Dad’s money. Both will happen.

I’ll make it happen.

For any of that to happen, I have to be smart about it.

I will.