I stared at the phone in the middle of the table, unable to look way ever since they’d dragged us into the room and forced me to sit.
My dad was due to call. The Principal scoffed when he called him that. He scoffed and laughed, those sick, fucking, gleaming eyes fixed on my every move. He wanted to see my pain. He craved it.
But I refused to give in. He didn’t deserve to see the real me. None of them did. Caleb was a dark blur at the edge of my vision. He saw me. He comforted me. He took me away from this Hell…even if it was only in fleeting moments of pleasure.
Still, my cheeks burned, remembering the lies The Principal had told me. Lies that my father wasn’t my blood and that Tobias…Tobias was dead…
“Remember, say nothing about where you are in the building.” That icy tone came at my back. “If I even suspect you’re scheming, the call will be terminated immediately.”
I didn’t meet that sick fucking glint in his stare. I didn’t dare…but I felt his gaze burn on the back of my neck. The Principal. The Teacher…The Priest. The three pieces of shit who ran this place. I hated them…almost as much as I hated the man they worked for, Haelstrom Hale.
Caleb glanced my way and reached for my hand. But this time, his touch wasn’t comforting. No…nothing could prepare me for this. I inhaled deep, fighting the tension…until the phone gave a sharp, loud chime and vibrated against the surface.
I jumped and reached.
“Wait.” The command came.
My knuckles ached. My breath caught until it burned
Still the phone rang…and rang…and rang…
“Now.”
I snatched the phone from the table, stabbed the icon with a shaking finger, and answered. “Hello?”
There was silence. Silence while my chest ached, then came my father’s warm voice. “Ryth, honey?”
My shoulders sagged. “Dad.” I couldn’t stop the hitch in my breath. “Dad, is that you?”
“It’s me, my little lioness.” His voice grew louder. “Are you okay?”
Am I okay? I didn’t dare look over my shoulder. “For now,” I answered carefully.
“I’m getting you out of there, okay, sweetheart? Just hold on.”
I pressed the phone hard against my ear. “Okay.”
“Riven,” he started, then corrected himself. “I mean, The Principal, is he watching you?”
That chill prickled at the back of my neck. “Yes.”
“Okay, so this is what’s going to happen. In a minute, I want you to pass him the phone. I’m going to talk to him, then we’re going to get you and Caleb out of that fucking place.”
My fingers twitched as I fought the need to rock with relief. “How?”
“Don’t you worry about that,” he answered, but still the heaviness in my stomach said otherwise. “Whatever happens, you need to leave. Nothing good will come if you stay in that fucking place a second longer.”
I glanced at Caleb.
“Promise me.” My father drew my focus back. “Promise me you’ll leave with Caleb.”
My stepbrother just held my stare, those dark hazel eyes consuming as I answered. “I promise.”
There was a hard exhale before his voice turned cold, colder than I’d ever heard it before. “Good, now put me on to the sonofabitch, and sweetheart…”
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
I closed my eyes, letting his strength wash over me. “I love you, too, Dad.”
Even though tears welled in my eyes and my damn hands shook, I still turned in my seat and held out the phone.
There was a second where the bastard refused to move, the corner of his mouth twisting with displeasure. I only wished it was his fucking heart—but then I doubted he had one. “He’s waiting,” I snapped.
That stony stare glinted before he stepped forward and took the phone from my hand and lifted it to his ear. “Yes.”
Words were exchanged, ones I wasn’t privy to. But I could see it play out on the bastard’s face. This time there was no savage bark from The Principal, just a venomous, “I agree to the terms. It’s not like I have a choice, now do I?” No. He didn’t. And he knew it. “Then I’ll look forward to meeting you face-to-face, Jack.”
He looked at me when he said those words and I just wanted to scream. This place wasn’t safe for dad. I knew that. These men were dangerous, maybe more dangerous than he knew…but then again, the way he spoke, and the things he did—like going into hiding—made me think that maybe he knew exactly what he was getting into.
The Principal ended the call, then turned to the men standing beside him and said the words I’d been desperate to hear. “Get them ready for removal.”
Neither of them liked this.
The Teacher jerked his gaze my way. For a second, I thought he was going to disobey the command, that he was going to give one of his own…one where he took me back to that classroom and forced me to my knees.
What a shame you’re not to be trained, Ryth. His words resounded in my head. You are a goddamn natural if I’ve ever seen one.
He wanted to train me.
He wanted to do a whole lot more.
But he didn’t disobey, he just nodded, his voice so fucking calm. “Peter, see to Ms. Castlemaine and Mr. Banks.”
The guard stepped forward, as well as another, who stood at his back. The guard grabbed me by the arm, his fingers cruel as he hauled me out of the chair. “Move.”
Caleb pushed out of his seat. “Get your fucking hands off her.
But The Priest blocked his way. “You want to change how this goes, Banks? Because we can just as easily take you out in a goddamn body bag.”
“Caleb.” I stumbled as the guard yanked me toward the door. “No, it’s okay. Look, I’m okay.”
But rage glinted in his eyes.
“Say another fucking word, Banks,” The Priest warned. “And I’ll make good on my promise.”
They walked us out of the interrogation room and into the hall, past the room they’d kept us in, and through the automatic doors.
Ghosts stared at us as we passed. Ghosts of the women confined in this place.
“Please.” One of them pressed her hand to the glass.
But we were gone before I could even answer. The guard’s long steps forced me to take twice as many to match.
“Keep walking.” He shoved me forward.
Behind us, Caleb unleashed a snarl. I looked over my shoulder, seeing him and the three men who’d kept us in this place following.
We were close now, so close.
Please. I prayed Caleb saw my plea as I was jerked toward the scanner for another set of automatic doors. A beep came before we pushed through. My bare feet were a blur as I hurried. They moved on their own now, quickening as I lifted my gaze to the massive front door and those two terrifying words carved into the black steel, The Order.
We slowed, leaving The Principal to step close to the door and press his card against the scanner to open it. With a jerk of his head, he glared at me and commanded. “Out.”
I would’ve walked barefoot across broken glass if it meant freedom for the both of us. It was my turn to all but drag the guard out as I hurried through that oppressive door.
Cold night air rushed around me as I stepped out, my bare feet stinging with the cold stone of the pavement. But I didn’t care at all.
Silence waited. Caleb stepped out, but they didn’t let him touch me, holding me too far away for the connection. I stared down that long, empty driveway to the towering, guarded gates.
My teeth chattered and my knees shook, the sound grating in the night. At least I had a sweatshirt and long fleece pants. Caleb stood there in the same white cotton shirt and black pants they’d taken us in. He had to be freezing, but he never said a word, just fixed that careful stare on me. Easy, princess, it whispered.
I gave a nod and turned my attention to that darkened road as we waited, and waited, and waited. Slowly, a seed of doubt sprouted.
Maybe he just wasn’t coming.
Maybe…maybe—
He isn’t now…or ever was, your father, Ryth. I glanced at The Principal as his words resounded in my mind. We’re not abducting you. We’re reclaiming what was already ours.
But I didn’t believe them. All they did was manipulate and tell lies. He was my father…dad was my father. He had to be.
In the distance, far back along the road, the tiny glint of headlights shone in the dark.
“Easy…” Caleb whispered, his gaze riveted on the same glimmer of lights.
As the spark grew bolder, I held my breath, watching the headlights come toward the compound. There was a second set of headlights, ones that stayed back from the first, maybe it was backup? Some kind of bodyguard from the Rossis…
The Rossis. My panicked thoughts caught on them as a squeal of metal on metal reached my ears and the gates to The Order slowly opened. The first car nosed in, leaving the second to slow, until it followed behind. But I didn’t watch that car. It was the first one…with the driver shrouded in darkness I cared about.
“Well, well, well,” The Principal muttered beside me. “So he does have balls after all.”
I clenched my jaw at the words. Fuck you! I wanted to scream in his face. Fuck you all.
He’d get us out, then we’d leave. The faint burn on my cheek lingered. It would bruise too, in the shape of Mother’s hand. Pain flared in my chest, but I shoved it down. It didn’t matter now that dad was here.
He’d fix it for me.
The first car drove closer to the building, but the second car stopped further back, the engine still running, the headlights on. How could a bodyguard protect him there? I tried not to look ahead. I tried to trust that dad and the Rossis knew what they were doing, and as the engine died and the driver’s door of the first car opened, I knew without a doubt, those bastards had lied.
Because the man who stepped out was my father.
He couldn’t be anybody but.
The thud of his door closing was followed by the crunch of footsteps. My pulse was hammering, the sound deafening inside my ears. The cold night air blurred my sight. I blinked, fixed on that dark shape that headed toward us, then in a blink, his face cleared.
“Dad…Dad!” I lunged, tearing from the guard’s hold.
He let out a snarl behind me, but it was too late.
“Let her go,” The Principal ordered.
I tore across the driveway and leaped.
Strong arms caught me with a grunt. Dad was there, staggering under my weight. “Ryth,” he croaked, squeezing me until I could hardly breathe.
But I didn’t care. I didn’t care at all, just buried my head into his neck and wept. “I thought they killed you. I thought you were—”
“I’m right here.” He gripped me tighter, his big hands driving my face against his chest. “I’m right here, honey.”
The last time I’d seen him, he’d been beaten and bruised…and terrified.
Now I knew why.
“Are you okay, my little lioness?”
I just nodded, my voice breaking. “I am now.”
Behind us, the crunch of boots sounded. I stiffened, pulling away and looked into my father’s eyes. He grew colder, harder as he fixed his focus on those men. I hated them now even more than I’d hated them before.
They stole and ruined and degraded all for some sick desire of their own.
“Mr. Castlemaine,” The Principal’s blunt tone shattered the fleeting fear, joy, and worry.
I straightened and slowly pulled back. In front of me, my father became someone else, a man I’d never seen before. His lips twitched, baring his teeth as he set his sights on the monsters.
But he didn’t stop at The Principal, and scanned the others beside him. There was a look of disappointment, then that curl of his lips tightened. “Hale’s not here, I take it?”
“No,” The Principal answered.
“We had an agreement.”
Agreement?
“There seems to be a problem with his fiancee,” The Principal’s voice was filled with contempt. “Apparently she’s been kidnapped from an island off Africa.”
“Fiancee?” My father sounded surprised. “Then I pray it’s a quick and painless death for her. It’ll be better than living with a monster.”
In my head, I saw Hale as he’d sat in that restaurant, surrounded by disgusting old white men who loved nothing more than to use women like me. He was a monster…a monster with money—a monster they all feared.
“Still.” The Principal’s voice was caustic. “We had a deal.”
I turned then, meeting the bastard’s stare as he looked at me. They had a deal…what deal?
My father reached back and gently broke my hold, pulling my hands around. “You remember what we said, honey. No matter what, that’s what you promised.”
“No matter what, Dad?”
But he didn’t answer, just gave a nod. The guard at Caleb’s back shoved him forward and he stumbled toward us.
Dad’s gaze narrowed in on my stepbrother. There was a flare of anger, one he smothered. “Get her out of here, Caleb, and as far away from these goddamn people as possible. And this time, son, stay the fuck away.”
Dad stepped away, leaving C to wrap his arms around me. “Let’s go, Ryth.” He dragged me away as dad headed for them.
“What’s happening?” I turned in his arms. “Dad? Dad, what’s happening!?”
But Caleb’s hold never slipped as he pulled me away, past the first car and along the drive.
“Dad, no! DAD, NO!”
They closed in like a pack of wolves, swarming him. I tried to tear away from Caleb, to lunge toward dad, who just let them take him without a fight. What the fuck was happening…WHAT THE FUCK—
“We have to leave, princess,” Nick‘s voice filled my ears.
Tears came, blurring his face, but I blinked hard and he was there—the sight was a punch to my chest. “Nick?” I stared as he neared. Then, in the wash of headlights, a dark silhouette came. One that limped when he walked…
One that came closer…and closer.
I couldn’t look away…
I didn’t understand.
Because I was looking at a ghost.
One who looked exactly like my stepbrother.
Tobias stopped in front of me, lifted his hand to graze my cheek with a curled finger, and murmured, “There’s my little mouse.”
