Page 169 of Wicked Little Darling

That fucking prick.

I was going to find out once and for all if he’d really coerced Reese into monitoring me.

It would make sense why Albert kept asking about my roommate when he’d never cared before.

But I couldn’t shake this quiet voice whispering in the back of my mind that Reese was only doing all of this—was only putting up with me—so he could siphon information to hand over to Albert.

On some level, I knew that wasn’t true. I knew all Reese’s reactions and words and feelings were real. But still, what if…

What if I didn’t actually know?

What if I was wrong?

What then?

What if you bought into all the rumors from day one and had only been paying me lip service since then? What if you, like everyone else, thought I was human garbage? What then?

I wouldn’t know what to do with all these feelings he’d created in me. I wouldn’t know where to put them, what they might turn into. If they’d wilt and decay and turn to dust or if they’d go rancid and become something poisonous, something ugly and nasty and vicious.

I’d never experienced anything like this before, and I had no clue what would happen if that was the case.

I didn’t want to think about it. In the meantime, I’d ask Albert and trust Reese.

“Dakota! Hi, love, how you doin’ today?”

I glanced over at Ilsa, who was smiling brightly at me. It was really hard to smile back. I didn’t want to. Knowing what she did, knowing what she was, all I wanted to do was ignore her.

Val didn’t know yet, and I really hoped he stayed ignorant because I wasn’t sure he could handle the knowledge that Albert was having an affair with his secretary.

What a cliché.

It was fitting for him, I supposed. He was a pig in polished clothing who only talked about good morals but never lived by a single one of them.

“Oh, I’m great, Ilsa.” I flashed her a bright smile, and her own smile wavered.

“That’s—that’s good, dear. Oh, wait, you can’t go in there?—”

I waved her off as she started to stand. “Yeah, I can. Don’t worry.”

“No, Dakota?—”

Without knocking, I shoved open Albert’s door and slammed it shut behind me.

“Oh good, you’re here,” I said, looking around the room. Albert was at his desk, leaning back in his chair, wearing an expression that would’ve seared the flesh off someone who gave a shit.

“Richard, I’m sorry but I’ll have to call you back,” he said, pressing a button on some fancy-schmancy speaker thing on his desk. “Dakota. What brings you by without an appointment?”

His eyes were cold as he tried to intimidate me, but I just smiled and plopped into the chair across from him. He had a small figurine of Lady Liberty on his desk, so I picked it up and turned it over in my hands. “Oh, you know, just wanted to pay my dad a visit. I can’t do that?”

His chair creaked as he sat back, saying nothing. Waiting for me to get to the point.

So I got to the fucking point.

“I heard something really interesting the other day,” I started, setting the figurine back on his desk. “And I can’t say I’m surprised. But before I get really pissed off, I just wanted to make sure it was true. Throwing around baseless accusations is for the uneducated riff-raff, no?”

Albert blinked at me, entirely unconcerned. Bored, even. “And what did you hear?”

“That you’ve been using my roommate to keep tabs on me. But you wouldn’t do something like that, would you, Albert? That’s beneath you. Evenyouwouldn’t stoop so low.”