Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 45194 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45194 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 226(@200wpm)___ 181(@250wpm)___ 151(@300wpm)
This gets through to them. First Kylian, then Lyle backs off. I shove Lyle toward the door. He shakes me off and stomps out. When Kylian starts to follow, I grab his arm. “Don’t do anything rash.”
He glares at me and then nods. Lyle started this fight, but with the mood Ky’s in, he could very well go nuclear and finish it.
That leaves me alone in the room with my father. His eyes glitter as he looks down at me. “You boys are sick perverts.”
“Yeah?” I face him, putting as much contempt in my tone as I can muster. “Who do you think we learned that from?”
“Beats me,” Dick-Ass says with a snort.
“Might want to think on that,” I snarl. “And also on this. You treated Honor like she was nothing. You made her feel like crap. We made her feel good.”
“By treating her like a whore?” he scoffs. “Her mother was a whore, too. What does Victoria think of all this?”
All I can do is shake my head. This man has no feelings. No soul. And he doesn’t deserve to know the truth, or any more of my time.
I turn on my heel and walk out of his office.
* * *
Kylian and Lyle are in the main hallway near the library. They haven’t come to blows yet, but their words are heated and fierce. I push between them. “Come with me,” I snap without slowing.
I stride down the hall and turn left, toward the back of the house. Two sets of footsteps follow. I don’t stop until I’m out of the back door. The night air feels refreshing as I step into the garden. Water gurgles from a nearby fountain. Victoria was so proud when she had that installed. Honor was fascinated by the birds that came there to drink.
Lyle stands beside me, his eyes on the well-maintained flowerbeds. When was the last time I was out here? Or the last time the three of us were out here together? I can’t remember.
Kylian strides past us.
“Where are you going?”
“To the garage.” His tone is curt.
“Why?”
“I’m going to Club Scarlet.”
Shit.
“Don’t even think about that,” Lyle says, his voice threatening. “We’ve already taken enough from her today.”
“She’s ours for the week.”
Lyle charges, and once again, I’m between them. This is twice in one day, but in actuality, it feels like I’ve spent most of my life in this position. “She’s not even there, Ky,” I say in a placating tone.
“Then we’ll go to her place.”
“No.” I grab his arm. “Not like this. She’s not who you’re angry at.”
“But she’s who I want to fuck.”
“Not going to happen.” Lyle appears on Kylian’s other side, but I shake my head at him. It’s better for me to handle this. “There are rules for this week.”
“There weren’t supposed to be,” Ky says sullenly. “Wasn’t that the deal? We only get her for one week instead of four, and in return, there aren’t supposed to be any fucking rules. That’s the part that gets her the hottest, isn’t it?”
“Either way, I’m not letting you take your anger out on her,” I say firmly. “Why the hell did you tell Dick-Ass it was Honor?”
Lyle stiffens as we wait for Kylian’s answer. Finally, he says, “I wanted to wipe that condescending smirk off his face.”
“It didn’t work. He doesn’t care about her.” I sigh, my breath disappearing into the warm night air.
“He’ll just use it as another thing to hold over our heads,” Lyle mutters.
“Who the fuck cares?” Ky says.
“We do,” I say, and then hold up my hand to keep my older brother from interrupting. “We don’t have to care what he thinks, but we have to put up with him. We work with him. Live with him.”
“That needs to change,” Lyle says resolutely.
It’s far more complicated than that, and Lyle knows that. Still, it’s not like he’s wrong. “Agreed, but until it does, we need to be a united front against him.”
“Why?” Kylian demands. “I told you two I’d deal with him. If you’d left it alone, then I’d be fighting him, not you guys.”
“We’re not little kids anymore. You don’t have to protect us.” Even as I say it, I wonder if Ky will ever believe that. Maybe, to him, we’ll always be the younger brothers he has to shield.
Lyle sits down on a little stone wall, his voice cutting through the dark. “Maybe it won’t matter. After all, Dick-Ass never gave a crap about Honor anyway.”
I nod. “But we did. And we still do.”
Kylian curses. “Are you two living in some kind of alternate universe?” He presses a button on his watch. “It’s two o’clock on Wednesday morning, for fuck’s sake. That means that after tomorrow, our week’s up, and we’re not going to see her again.”
“You don’t know that,” Lyle insists.
“After the way we’ve treated her?” Kylian growls. “What woman would stick around after that?”