Page 45 of Pay the Price

I didn’t want to hurt Daisy, but Daisy had already been hurt by the secrets and lies in her family. And the truth was, Charles Hammond had always been a smug bastard, looking down at Wolf and me, and even Otis, who had the matching set of parents that assholes like Charles Hammond seemed to think was necessary for people to be normal.

I’d acted like I didn’t care, but deep down, it had fucked me up. First, because Blake had been one of my best friends, and later, because when Charles caught me looking at Daisy, his gaze had gone cold.

And it hadn’t been the garden-variety parental protectiveness either. It had been something else: the man of the house eyeing the housekeeper around the family silver, a rich asshole parking his expensive car and looking nervously at the street kids standing nearby.

It was true that we’d always been troublemakers, but Blake had been right there with us. Daisy’s dad had been blind to the fucked-upness of his own son because Blake had been able to hide behind the smoke and mirrors of the Hammond money, and Charles Hammond had been too fucking shallow to see it.

So he’d blamed us. Had looked at us like we were dirt on his expensive Italian shoes. He’d urged Blake to “seek friends who will bring out the best in you” when Blake had been the fucking psychopath all along.

Charles Hammond looked down on me because I was raised by Mac and the club. I didn’t even have a kick-ass mom like Wolf.

I had nobody except the two guys sitting next to me at the edge of the cliff. Them, and the girl sleeping inside the house at our backs.

She hated me, but she was still mine.

Ours.

We’d made Blake pay when he’d tried to take her from us.

Now it was Charles Hammond’s turn.

Chapter 27

Daisy

Isat in the window seat and rested my chin on my knees, watching the shadowed figures sitting at the edge of the cliff. The moon was half-full, casting just enough light for me to make out their backs and their occasional movement when they shifted.

Only the Beasts would sit in the dark at the edge of the sheer cliff that dropped into the pool of water far below. They were unpredictable, reckless, dangerous.

And I wanted them all.

Denying that would have been stupid after fucking Wolf and Otis. After what had happened between Jace and me in the hall after my shower. I could still feel his fingers inside me, the stroke of his thumb on my clit, the sting of my pinched nipple in his fingers.

Then he’d spun me around and pulled down my underwear, and the truth was, I’d been so desperate for him to fuck me that I would have done or said anything to make it happen.

Even Otis standing there hadn’t been a deal-breaker. It was Jace who’d stepped away, who’d made it clear the whole thinghad been just another one of his games, one he’d been all too happy to walk away from while I still burned for him.

I don’t think you’re a good girl at all.

Clearly he was right. Other than my one rebellion of going to community college instead of an Ivy, I’d spent the last twenty years following the rules: doing my homework, eating the food my dad ordered Joan to make, wearing clothes that were appropriately modest, playing the part of Charles Hammond’s daughter.

Jace’s stupid game — and the things he did to my body — had forced me out of the box I’d been stuffed into by my dad, and now I couldn’t help wondering if my mom had felt the same way.

Had she longed to escape the confines of my dad’s life? Had she ever thought about escaping to the house at the top of the falls, starting over, being herself instead of a paper doll for my dad to dress and manipulate?

Was that why she’d left me the house? Had she known I was like her? That I would need an emergency exit from my dad’s dollhouse someday?

I looked across the back patio where Otis had marked off a place for the future pool, hot tub, and patio, past the expanse of lawn that led to the falls. The Beasts were talking about something out there, something that had to do with me, and I knew it had to do with me because they’d gone outside.

They didn’t want me to overhear their conversation, which meant they were probably talking about my dad, about what he’d done, to me and to other girls.

I felt sick thinking about it. Punishing me for not following his rules was one thing, but stealing innocent girls, selling them?

It was beyond sick.

And the worst part was, he did it for fun. He and Blake both.

They hadn’t needed money. They’d just wanted to hurt those girls.

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