Cruel Control by Candace Wondrak

Chapter Five – Juliet

I thought about running that night. As I lay there, wide awake in my bed—a bed that was not my bed, in a room that was not my room—I wondered whether someone was always watching the security cameras, or if they were there more for protection against people trying to sneak into the property.

This place… it was unlike any other place I’d been. I didn’t know what to do with myself.

Because I couldn’t just lay there and wonder, I found myself getting up and sneaking over to the door, silently opening it and peeking out into the hall to see if someone was standing nearby on watch. Jaxon wasn’t around, thankfully, and neither was anyone else.

Now might be my only chance.

With my breath caught in my throat, I stepped out. I was barefoot, and I’d changed back into my own pajamas—I felt too uncomfortable wearing clothes that weren’t mine. Fuzzy unicorn pajamas for the win.

I ran a hand through my hair, its blonde length untamed due to a lack of brushing. I didn’t even shower, even though Jaxon had brought me to a bathroom near my room and told me to go ahead. Like heck was I going to strip and shower in this house. No way, just like there was no way I was actually going to stay here.

Markus might scare me, every single man in this house might give me the heebie-jeebies and be simultaneously cuter than anyone I’d ever seen on TV, but that didn’t mean I would become a deer in headlights and freeze up. No, I would try my best to get out of here, and then, when I got out, when I managed to get home, I’d demand answers from Daddy.

The only problem was I had no idea where I was going. None at all. This house… I was not used to walking around in a place this big. I didn’t know where the halls led, what all the rooms I passed were. I didn’t even know how many people lived in this house. A lot, I guessed.

The world was one of night, and through the windows I passed, I saw a full moon hanging low in the sky. I didn’t know what time it was, but it didn’t matter. I was on no one’s schedule but my own. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe someone would find me and drag me back to my room, but I didn’t care.

Call me stupid. Say I have a death wish. Whatever. I could not sit and wait for Markus to decide what to do with me.

I found a stairwell and I headed down it, trying to take two steps at a time but failing miserably since my legs weren’t long enough. I was rather short, and I felt even tinier surrounded by all these terrifyingly tall men who could snap me in half with a single look.

Was that normal for guys? Or did I feel like that only because Daddy had kept me so sheltered? Would I ever find my Prince Charming, or did a man like that just not exist in this world?

A fairy tale. They probably only existed in fairy tales, and this life wasn’t it.

I made it to the first floor, and now that I was here, I knew where to go to get to the front door. Could it really be this easy? Could I make it out on my first attempt? My heart nearly skipped a beat at the possibility of getting out of here, at besting Markus Scott at his own game and never once looking back.

Because I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t look back. I might want to, I might strangely want to glance back and see Markus again, but I wouldn’t let myself. He was inherently intimidating, but I’d be lying if I said he wasn’t also the most handsome man I’d ever seen. Not cute, but hot. He wore his suit well, so well I almost caught myself wondering what he looked like underneath it—but that thought was not a thought I should have, especially with how mean and cruel he was.

Plus, the whole kidnapping thing.

All the more reason for me to leave this house and never come back.

I was seconds from passing the door that led to Markus’s office, and I found myself stopping in front of it, wondering if he had something in there about Daddy. Could I snoop and find out why I was here? I hated the thought that I’d run home and Daddy might still refuse to tell me the truth.

I hated it. It was like Daddy thought I was too fragile, too breakable, but I liked to think I was stronger than he gave me credit for. I just wanted the truth. That wasn’t too much to ask, especially of the only family I had left, after Mom died.

It might be a mistake, but I decided to go for it anyway. This might be my only chance to discover the truth on my own, besides begging for it from other people. Those other people seemed content to keep me in the dark, and I was not okay with it. Tell me the truth, open up my eyes, let me see it all for myself and judge the situation for what it was.

My kidnapping. Daddy must’ve done something terrible for this family to kidnap me, to steal me away from him, but what?

Markus’s office looked different in the darkness. The room had no windows, so there was not an ounce of silver light anywhere. I had to fumble my way to his desk, where I knew a small table lamp was, and I knocked myself into every piece of furniture on the way. Once I found it, I flicked it on, knowing I should get in and out of here as quickly as I could.

The man himself would be pissed to find out I’d snooped.

I had to squint for a few moments, once light illuminated the room, and I moved around his desk, yanking out the top drawer. It was full of papers, and I tried to go through them, tried to see if I could recognize anything on them, but I didn’t get very far.

Why, you ask?

Oh, because the door creaked open and someone stood hugging the shadows on the wall, giving me a hollow smile.

I froze—talk about a deer in headlights, stupid me—and I met the eyes of the man who’d just walked in. It was a man I’d met earlier, a man who was cute but thoroughly creeped me out, probably because he had an almost unhinged glint in his hazel eyes.

Although, right now, his hazel eyes appeared nearly black.

Will.

“I thought I heard someone sneaking around,” he said, slow to meander to the desk, where I was. “Imagine my surprise when I stumble across you in Markus’s office.” He grinned, and I had to look away. He was beside me then, glancing down into the drawer I’d been searching through. His body was tall, and it leaned into mine. “What are you looking for, little rabbit? Whatever it is, I can tell you that Markus doesn’t keep anything important in here, where anyone might snoop and find it… like you.”

As he whispered those words to me, his hand went to shut the desk drawer. He was anything but quiet about it, and I nearly jumped out of my skin when he made so much noise. I… I only ended up bumping my back into his chest. That’s how close he stood to me.

I said nothing, and when I said nothing, he moved to stand directly behind me, his arms circling me and pinning my front to the desk. “I said,” he murmured, voice so low it caused a shiver to rise up my spine, “what are you looking for, Juliet?”

“Please,” I whispered back, closing my eyes, “I just want to know the truth.”

His chest chuckled. “The truth about what? About why you’re here? That’s something only Markus knows, and if I were you, I’d give up the chase. If he wanted you to know, he would’ve told you already.” I felt him lean closer, one of his hands moving to sweep my hair to a single shoulder, his lips lightly brushing against the crook of my neck. “I admit, I am curious about you.”

If my eyes were not already closed, they would’ve snapped shut right then, at the feeling of his lips on my neck. Such a tender, sensitive spot on my body… I had no idea. I also didn’t know why I found the low timbre of Will’s voice so entrancing. It was almost like he was a spider and I was the foolish insect, caught on his web, unable to pull myself free.

Or maybe it was just because I’d never felt a guy’s touch, not like this.

“He’s kept you so close to his chest, hardly telling us anything,” Will went on. The hand that had swept aside my hair now moved to my hip, holding onto me gently, his warmth immediately flooding every single part of me. “He doesn’t want me to be alone with you, can you imagine that? Doesn’t trust me, I guess.”

At this point, I didn’t trust him either, and I also kind of didn’t trust myself. I was pretty sure my body shouldn’t feel like this.

The hand on my side slipped beneath my pajama top, fingers grazing the bare skin on my hip. Anywhere those fingers touched, a fire lit just beneath the surface. I should push him off, should tell him off, should do anything but nothing—which was what I was doing. A whole lot of nothing, standing there and taking it.

He was almost impossible to resist, really, and I didn’t know why, because he still creeped me out. The way he looked at me, how he acted, how he spoke… the things he’d told me earlier. Will wasn’t sane, I didn’t think—but then, with how my body reacted to him, could I say the same about myself?

“Although, I can’t blame him for that,” Will went on, and I felt his body press harder upon my backside, pinning my lower half upon the desk more firmly. “I mean, I can’t be the only one in this house that’s curious about you. The wide-eyed Juliet, so lost, so innocent… so pretty.” Those lips still danced along my neck, and I could not move. I was frozen in place, cursing myself for not running right to the door and flinging myself out in the night when I’d had the chance.

Stupid, stupid.

“I should let you go,” he whispered. “I know that. My track record with pretty girls isn’t that good, you know. They usually try to kill me, but somehow I don’t think you have that in you, do you?” The hand on my hip moved around to caress the soft skin on my stomach, slow to inch its way up. “Do you have it in you, Juliet? Or are you as lost and as helpless as you look?”

I didn’t know how to answer that question, didn’t know what to say to him. I was at a genuine loss for words, mostly at myself and how I didn’t exactly hate his touch.

It took everything in me, but my eyes were slow to open, and I pushed myself away from the desk, turning around to face him. The hand that had traveled up my stomach and stopped just an inch or so below my bra now rested once again on my side, while the other hand of his still held onto the desk.

I met his hazel stare, unflinching, unblinking, my heart acting up in my chest, which I did my best to ignore. “Why does everyone think I’m helpless? I’m not as helpless as I look.” I spoke the words seriously, hoping they were true. So what if I’d been sheltered my whole life? That didn’t mean I wasn’t capable. I might be awkward, I might not know how to handle myself around cute, dangerous strangers, but that did not mean I was weak and helpless.

I was strong, and before I got out of here, I’d make sure these guys knew it.

The corners of Will’s mouth wore a smirk, and his face inched closer to mine. He was taller than me by just less than a foot, but that didn’t seem to hinder him at all. “You have no idea you’ve been taken to the monster’s den. Out there, in the world, maybe you’re not helpless—maybe—but here? Here it’s a different story. The only way you’re not helpless here is if you’re willing to spill some blood.” There was a pause as his smirk grew into a full-blown smile. “Tell me, Juliet, are you willing to stain those hands in red?”

Was he talking about killing? I didn’t know how to answer him or what to say, nor did I know what he currently thought as he stared down at me, his face so close to mine I could almost feel his lips on me.

One thing was for sure: Will was no Prince Charming, either.

When I didn’t answer him, he chuckled, and since his body was pressed hard against mine, I felt the movement in my very soul. “That’s all right, that’s probably why you’re here, anyway,” he whispered. “Sometimes the only things that can protect you are the monsters underneath your bed.”

“Is that what you are?” I asked, my voice barely able to come out at all. “A monster?”

Will chuckled again, this time moving the hand that held onto the desk, bringing it to my neck. He did not hold onto me tightly, but I knew I could not get out of his grip even if I wanted to.

And… and I didn’t, which was very odd.

“We’re all monsters here, Juliet. Every single one of us. Remember that.” The hand on my neck moved up, cupping my jaw, forcing my lips to part. I could hardly breathe, feeling his callous, warm hand on me, so possessive and overwhelming. “Such a pretty mouth,” he murmured. “I hope I’ll get to put it to good use.” As he said that, I felt him press harder upon my midsection, and I could feel something there that wasn’t there before.

Heat crept up me, and as I fought to respond, tried to figure out something to say to him that would simultaneously get me out of this situation and tell him to screw off, he pulled himself off me, letting me go. I panted like I’d been drowning.

“Come on,” Will said. “Let’s get you back to bed before my imagination goes wild.”

I wanted to argue with him, wanted to refute the fact that he would never get to put my mouth to good use, but no words formed. I could say nothing, it seemed, because this man had rendered me speechless in the worst way.

And, what was even worse about the whole thing was, I was pretty sure I’d become even more attracted to him after that whole encounter. How messed up was that?

I should’ve said something. I should’ve argued with him, told him off, but instead I ducked my head and followed him out of the office like a good girl, like someone who naturally took the submissive role. I supposed I was used to it, after everything with Daddy, but this was different. So different. I couldn’t even explain it.

Will brought me back to my room, but before I could walk inside, he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me against him. “I hope,” he told me, “this will be our little secret.” He stared down at me, and I swallowed.

He wasn’t going to tell Markus I was snooping in his office? Right, probably because Markus didn’t want Will alone with me or something like that. I didn’t know how I should respond, which was the right thing to do, if I should tell Markus about it or not, but I found myself nodding.

Nodding and repeating, “Our little secret.”

I didn’t do secrets. I didn’t like them, nor did I want them, but, for some reason, when I stared up at Will, I felt a pull, an invisible string between us. Maybe secrets didn’t have to be bad. Maybe secrets could be a good thing.

That’s what I kept telling myself, even when Will released me, even when I crawled back into bed and closed my eyes. That’s what I told myself when sleep finally came to me, even in my dreams.

Our little secret.

Morning came, and I was awoken by a giggle. A giggle, yes, like something was funny. Also a feminine giggle, a giggle that did not sound as if it came from one of the many men I’d met so far in this house.

Of course there had to be girls here. I couldn’t be the only one.

I moaned, feeling tired, and as I sat up and rubbed my face, I heard a girl’s voice say, “You sleep funny.”

“What?” My voice came out groggy. I sounded like I wanted to go back to bed, which I kind of did. After my late-night rendezvous with Will, I actually got some sleep. Not enough, from what it felt like.

“I kept calling your name, but you wouldn’t wake up. It was kind of like you were dead,” the girl’s voice carried on. “But you weren’t. I checked your breathing.”

And then I realized someone was in my room, talking to me, and I nearly fell out of the bed when I saw the wide-eyed look of a girl grinning ear to ear beside me. She couldn’t have been more than ten years old, her hair a sleek black color and her eyes a vibrant blue. A pretty girl, a child, someone who I immediately had a hard time believing lived in this house.

“Uh,” I started, “who are you?”

“Tori,” she said, giggling again. I recognized the name; Jaxon had brought her up before. “I brought you some of my mom’s clothes.” She pointed to the foot of the bed, where she’d stacked some clothes with no rhyme or reason, a small mountain of them.

She’d come in and set all that down and checked on me, and I hadn’t woken up. Great. Good to know I could still zonk out from the world, with everything going on.

“Do you live here, Tori?”

She nodded, almost proud. “Yep! I go to school too, but it’s Saturday, so I’m home all day. I wanted to finally meet you. My dads told me to leave you be, but I didn’t want to.”

I blinked. Her… her dads, as in plural? “You have more than one dad?”

“Yeah. You met one, I think. He likes to cook, so he’s always in the kitchen. My other dads are usually downstairs or off doing something for Uncle Markus.” She spoke so happily, still smiling, her joy almost infectious.

Almost.

And then it hit me, what she’d said, beyond her multiple dads thing: Uncle Markus. Markus was her uncle. I found that fact so incredibly hard to believe, and it took me a long time to mentally process it. Like, a long time.

“Mom’s downstairs a lot, too,” she said, sounding almost like she was whining. “I want to go down there with her, but she says I’m not old enough yet. It’s not fair. With Uncle Vaughn gone, I’ve been so bored. But now you’re here—you can be my new friend!”

I wasn’t sure who Vaughn was or why this girl wanted me to be her friend, but I found I was speechless. Yes, a little, ten-year-old girl had rendered me speechless. Shouldn’t be surprising, since this house was big enough to hide an army.

“Um, I don’t think I’m here to be your friend,” I started, not sure how to talk to this girl. Did she know I was kidnapped to be here, that I wasn’t here of my own freewill? If her parents, however many of them she had, lived here, that meant they were probably just as crazy as Markus and Will, which meant this girl was on the fast-track to becoming another one.

“Fuck Uncle Markus,” she declared proudly—and then she giggled again when she saw my shocked face. “He’s the one who said we can’t be friends, right? Fuck him!”

“Do you even know what that word means?” It was quite shocking to hear a ten-year-old girl more comfortable swearing than I was. I tried my hardest not to swear, mostly because Daddy didn’t like it. Said it was too vulgar and uncouth, that we were above such words.

Tori shrugged her small shoulders. “My dad says it all the time. I’m allowed.”

“Okay, well—” I was about to tell her that I needed to change, apparently into her mom’s clothes again, but my bedroom door opened. My heart did something funny in my chest, and I assumed it was Will, but it wasn’t. It was Jaxon, and he shot me a dimpled grin when he saw me and Tori on the bed.

God, I’d almost forgotten how cute he was, and not in the creepy, unsettling way Will was. No, Jaxon had that boy next door thing going for him, or at least, that’s what I assumed the boy next door thing was. The dimples, the easygoing grin, the clean-shaven face and the lean body that wore any clothing well.

Yeah, okay, Jaxon was an overwhelming kind of cute.

“Tori,” he spoke, walking into the room, “you’re not supposed to be here, are you?”

“Mom said Juliet needed more clothes, so I brought her some,” Tori declared proudly, puffing up her chest as she walked to meet Jaxon. Though she was quite small compared to him, she did not act afraid in the slightest. “She’s my new friend.”

“Oh, she is?” Jaxon grinned, glancing at me. “But how? She’s supposed to be my new friend.”

Tori let out a thoughtful hum. “Well, maybe we can share. Maybe.”

Jaxon folded his arms across his chest, giving the girl a playful look. “What if I don’t want to share?” He posed the question with a twinkle in his eye, and he shot me a wink. Yes, a wink—and that darned wink made my stomach twist and my palms get a little sweaty.

He seemed so normal interacting with Tori. So normal, considering the fact he was the one who appeared in my room at home and kidnapped me, wrapped that strong arm around my neck and knocked me out. I couldn’t help but wonder what else he was capable of. That cute, boy next door thing he had going on was nothing but a mask, a mask that hid his true nature.

Because a normal person knew kidnapping was wrong.

Tori stomped her foot, refusing to back down. “Learn. Sharing isn’t that hard. My dads do it with Mom—”

When I realized what she meant by that, I instantly felt my cheeks flare up. How in the world could this girl be so at ease talking about all this stuff? I mean, really, was I that sheltered?

“Fine,” Jaxon cut in, before Tori could say anything else, “we can share her, but I need to steal her this morning. Markus wants to see her after breakfast.” At the mere sound of Markus’s name, my gaze dropped to the downy comforter on my lap.

Great. Couldn’t wait for that.

She let out a groan. “Fine, but I get her after!” It was after that particular declaration Tori rushed out of my room, not so much as telling either of us goodbye. We both watched her go, and then Jaxon brought his twinkling gaze to me.

“So, you’ve met Tori,” he said, slow to take a few steps closer to my bed.

I was even slower in getting out of it, tossing the covers off me and standing in my fuzzy pajamas. “She’s… not like any kid I’ve met, although I guess I haven’t met too many,” I hurriedly said. “Or any kid, really.”

Jaxon eyed me up, and I couldn’t tell if he thought my pajamas were ridiculous or if he was instead focusing on what I’d just said. Probably the latter, since he whispered, “You never got out much, did you?”

“No, my dad kept me close to home.” That sounded better than Daddy kept me locked up in the house, occasionally in my own room. For some reason, I didn’t want Jaxon thinking less of me. Totally stupid, I knew, since he was my kidnapper and all.

“I know things are a little crazy right now, but there’s no one saying you can’t enjoy it. I mean, you’re out of the house. You might not have freedom here to do whatever you want, but maybe if you prove to Markus you can follow directions, he’ll let me take you out to Midpark sometime.”

It struck me just then what he’d said, or, rather, what he neglected to say. “How long do you think I’ll be here?”

“My guess? A while. I’d get comfortable if I were you,” Jaxon said, a smile returning to his lips. “Now, get dressed. I wasn’t lying when I said Markus wants to see you after breakfast.” As I went to go through the clothes Tori had deposited at the foot of the bed, he added, “I’ll admit, I’m surprised you didn’t try to run. All day yesterday you looked like you wanted to bolt—not that I blame you, of course.”

I shot him a look, and I hoped it was a look that told him I wasn’t even going to bother trying to run away. “I don’t think I’d know the first thing about getting back home.” That much, at least, wasn’t a lie. It wasn’t like I had street smarts thanks to Daddy.

“This place… I know it can be frightening, but it doesn’t have to be another prison for you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, mostly because it felt exactly as he’d described: another prison. But then, if that was the case, Daddy had kept me locked up my whole life. I should be angry, I should hate him… but I didn’t. I found I only missed him, and though I was beyond curious to know what he did for this family, I was dying to see him again.

When I’d found the clothes I would wear today, I glanced back over to him. “Are you… are you going to watch me change or something?”

He laughed quietly. “As much as I’d like to, I don’t think the big man would be too happy if I did.” His head gestured to the door, and then he started walking towards it. “I’ll be in the hall, when you’re done.”

I watched him go, waited until he closed the door before I started to change. The big man… did he mean Markus? I wondered. Why the heck would Markus care if Jaxon watched me change? It didn’t make sense.

Jaxon took me to the dining hall after I was ready. He sat me down and told me he’d be back with something to eat. I glanced at my lap, and then I looked around. The big, spacious room was empty, save for me. The fancy blouse I wore on my torso made my skin itch; the fabric too soft for me or something.

As I squirmed in my seat, I heard footsteps. The footsteps headed toward the long table, and someone took a seat a ways down, practically throwing his plate down, along with a glass of orange juice. I’d never seen him before now, that I knew.

Near my age, he seemed to be lost in his own world, fuming at something I would never understand. His hair was black, his body wide, but his face did not hold the maturity Markus’s did, and I instantly wondered if he was a relative, a brother. He wore all black, which most men here liked to do. I could almost feel his unhappiness as he poked at his eggs and tore at his toast, munching away with a huge frown on his face. Since he wore a dark t-shirt, I was able to see the tattoos lining his biceps.

He seemed young to have sleeves of tattoos, but what did I know? I clearly didn’t know much about the world.

I must’ve been staring too hard, for he suddenly looked up, turning his blue-eyed gaze at me, a fire burning behind those eyes I didn’t recognize. “What?” he hissed, not even bothering to ask who I was. Maybe everyone in this house knew, while I was the only clueless one. “You got something you want to say to me?”

I shouldn’t say anything, that much I knew, but my mouth went on to ramble a bit, unfortunately, “Did those eggs do something to you?”

His dark brows came together, and he hissed, “What?”

“Your eggs,” I clarified. “Did they hurt you? With the way you’re attacking them, that’s the only explanation I can think of.” I saw a muscle in his jaw tick, and I looked away, gazing down at my lap, mentally scolding myself for saying anything to him to begin with. Come on, Juliet. You know better than that.

“And why the fuck do you care how I eat my fucking breakfast?” He sounded absolutely ticked off, like I’d royally gotten under his skin somehow, saying so few words. That, or he was just not the kind of person you could ever get along with. Grumpy, mean, rude. “You the fucking breakfast police or something?” He rolled his eyes, which were a few shades darker than my own. A pretty color—or they would be, if they weren’t set on a face that looked murderous. “Everything’s always gotta be policed around here. Like, fuck! I just want to eat my food in peace, is that too much to ask?”

He paused his ranting and raving to glare at me, and I fidgeted in my seat. “I’m sorry,” I said. “Just forget it. I didn’t mean to…”

“Wait a fucking minute. You—” He pointed his fork at me, doing it so fast some of the egg currently on it flung in my direction. “—I don’t know you. Who the fuck are you, and why are you in my house?”

I didn’t want to talk to this guy, didn’t want to be around him. I looked around for Jaxon, wishing he would miraculously appear and save me from this horribly awkward and angry conversation. He was nowhere to be seen, sadly.

A chair scraped against the floor, and before I knew it, the blue-eyed one was beside me, one hand weaving in my hair and pulling my neck back, exposing my neck as the other brought a fork to the side of my throat, just below my ear. It all happened so fast I couldn’t even blink to register it.

“I said,” he started, “who the fuck are you?”

“Juliet,” I croaked out, wishing at least one person under this roof was normal.

He flashed me a set of perfect teeth, straight and white, the kind that would make a handsome smile, but I had the feeling this one hardly ever smiled. “Who are you here with, Juliet?” He growled out my name, and thankfully, before he could press that food-stained fork against my neck and remind me that he could kill me with it, a stern voice called out through the room.

“Bennet! Get your hands off her, and do it now.” Jaxon was twenty feet away, but it sounded like he was right next to us, ready to brawl.

“I don’t owe this bitch anything,” Bennet growled out, staring daggers at me. I didn’t move, because I knew if I did, he wouldn’t hesitate to stick me with that fork, and with the muscles I saw on his arms, I knew he was more than capable of it.

Death by fork. Who knew that could be a thing?

Jaxon came closer, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw he carried a plate of what looked like chocolate chip pancakes. If I wasn’t in such a precarious position, I’d be thankful. I hadn’t had chocolate chip pancakes in forever.

“She’s here because Markus wants her here,” Jaxon said, slow to set down the plate near me, but still Bennet did not give up.

“Markus, Markus, Markus—I’m so fucking tired of listening to him,” he said. “Why should I care if he wants her here? Why should I give a shit?”

“If you want to remain a part of this family, you will pull yourself off her, because if I have to do it, I won’t be so nice about it.” Jaxon’s voice, normally good-natured and easy-going, came off harsh and acidic, and I would’ve flinched at hearing the change in his tone, if I wasn’t already flinching due to Bennet’s strong hold on my hair. Felt like he was pulling some strands out. “Now, Bennet.”

Finally, Bennet’s fingers released their hold, and he lowered the fork, pulling himself away from me as he took up his chair a little ways down. He tossed me an irate, annoyed look, like I was the one who’d started all this, and then he went back to his eggs, stabbing away at them, as if nothing at all had happened. As if he hadn’t nearly just killed me with a freaking fork.

“Come on,” Jaxon growled out, “let’s eat somewhere else. Company’s a little lacking here.” Bennet paused as he was insulted, but he said nothing as Jaxon grabbed the plate of chocolate chip pancakes and walked away. I followed him, though I did toss a look over my shoulder at Bennet, wondering why he’d snapped at me.

Served me right for teasing him about the way he was eating, I guess. I needed to keep to myself while I was here.

Jaxon led us outside, near the pool. The stamped concrete was cool since it was so early in the day, and we sat down near the water. I smelled just the barest hint of what must be chlorine, the chemical you had to put in a pool to keep it sanitized or whatever, but it didn’t bother me. I’d never smelled it before. I… I had a lot of nevers, more than I ever wanted to admit to anyone.

He only had one plate, mine, and he set it down, along with a water bottle, saying, “Sorry, I didn’t know if you liked milk.”

“I like milk,” I told him, but I took the water bottle, anyway. It wasn’t like I’d send him back inside to fetch me my morning milk or anything. Out here, alone with Jaxon, the gentle morning breeze blowing between us… it was nice.

Much better than being inside, where anyone could show up and try to kill me.

“Sorry about Bennet,” Jaxon muttered as I started to cut my pancakes with the fork. He didn’t bring me a knife, probably because he didn’t trust me. Might try to use it to threaten him or something? I didn’t know. Kind of stupid, because I didn’t think I looked like a girl who could do a lot of damage with a butter knife.

I shrugged, mostly because that was all I could do. “He seems… like a piece of work.” And that was putting it lightly. Bennet had been rude and mean and aggressive beyond all belief. He’d tried to stab me in the neck with a fork. Somehow, I didn’t think I’d be getting over that so soon.

He chuckled. “I know. He’s… not one of the saner Scotts. He’s been ticked off at Markus ever since Markus told him he needed to cool it, or else.” Jaxon sat across from me, his legs spread toward the pool, just a few feet between us and the bluish water.

I sat with my legs folded beneath my butt, the plate of pancakes on my lap. “Or else what?” Did I even care? I couldn’t say that I did, but it was nice to pretend, just for a few moments, that I was not being held against my will in a strange house with equally strange people.

“Or else he won’t get to stay.”

I brought a piece of pancake to my mouth, slow to chew it before asking, “What do you mean?” The fluffy, chocolate-filled pancake tasted like heaven—or maybe that was just because this place had been the opposite of that until now.

“Not everyone in the family stays,” Jaxon explained, tracing shapes in the concrete beneath us absentmindedly. “Some aren’t stable enough to… do what we do. Some don’t listen well enough. So, they’re cast out. Some leave because they think they found happiness with someone outside of the family, but most who leave don’t do it by choice.”

I waited, letting his words sink in. I took another bite of the pancakes and then reached for my water, sipping it. “Doesn’t sound like a nice family.” In fact, it hardly sounded like a family at all. It sounded more like a business.

“Maybe not to you, but to me…” He sighed. “I’m not a blood brother. I’m not a real Scott, but I might as well be one. They took me in when I was young, adopted me, pretty much. They fed me, clothed me, sent me to school, helped me understand that sometimes karma needs a little help.”

I set the plate down, staring squarely at him. “Karma?” I knew what it was, but I didn’t believe in it. I didn’t think people ended up getting what they deserved, didn’t believe in a sort of cosmic comeuppance list. I thought the world was random, and it was huge, and it was full of people who did bad things and good. This family… they did a lot of the bad, that much I knew.

“You need discipline to be a Scott. You need to be loyal. Bennet is… he likes to go off the hook a lot, likes to go on benders, party at Hillcrest. He’s completely psychotic, but he doesn’t want to listen to reason. He wants to do whatever the hell he wants to do whenever he wants to do it.” Jaxon quieted, meeting my eyes. “I’m sorry you had to deal with him. He’s not in the house that often—that’s the only good thing about Bennet.”

I supposed that was a good thing, but still. He lived here, technically, even if he wasn’t around all the time. For however long I was here, I had to be on the lookout and avoid being alone in any dark halls with that one.

My mind flashed back to Will and the things he’d whispered to me in Markus’s office last night. Our little secret. I knew I should probably tell, but then if I told, I’d also have to tell them why I was in Markus’s office to begin with, and I didn’t think snooping or running away would go over too well.

“Earlier, you said Markus wants to see me,” I spoke, hating that my heart sped up at the mere sound of the man’s name. All those years I’d dreamed of him… years wasted. Just a silly girl having silly dreams of a life she’d never have.

Was I bitter? Only a little, but I didn’t blame Daddy for that. I never should’ve gone to that party two years ago.

“I don’t know why,” he told me. “But to be fair, I didn’t ask.”

I nodded along with him, figuring that was the case. With how much he went on and on about loyalty and all that—and knowing he wasn’t a Scott by blood, but by circumstance—I knew he would never go against Markus, and I couldn’t blame him for it. I mean, look at this place. Psychos aside, it wasn’t a bad place to be. You had money, you clearly had power and prestige.

Who would ever trade that away?

If the tables were turned and I was the one holding the power, I couldn’t say I would.