Page 88 of Delta Force Defender

She’d known better by then. Never give her father or men like him weapons when they already had so many of their own.

“If he puts all his wives into early graves or mental institutions, how could marrying me to him possibly have benefited Dad?” she asked now.

As if they weren’t discussing, almost casually, what would have been repeated rapes, other abuses, and God knew what else. She would have been silent and enduring within six months, or dead.

This was what her father and brother had wanted for her.

In case she was tempted to forget why she was here.

“It was a win-win situation,” her older brother told her, sounding as happy as she’d ever heard him. “If he sold you off, he would get that in with Vincent’s friends and family down there. When Vincent messed you up, he’d get to be gracious when he excused it. Points all around. If Vincent killed you or incapacitated you, even better. He got to hold that in reserve, an ace to play. You’re lucky Vincent’s dead or I might consider making the same deal myself for the same reason.”

She felt torn in two then. There was the part of her that had lived in Grizzly Harbor for five years. The part that had cooked food and thrown back drinks in the Fairweather. The part of her that had breathed in that crisp, cold Alaskan air and looked forward to days filled with nothing more worrying or upsetting than the occasional moose at large in the village.

The other part was Julia Sheeran, daughter of a sociopathic, violent criminal and sister to this literal psychopath. The one who had known that her future was dark but had been convinced she could, at the very least, smuggle a night-light in. But light or no light, she would have been expected to suck it up and take what was given to her. Whether it was Vincent Campari or any of theother equally sociopathic and violent criminals her father associated with.

She tried to imagine discussing these things with her regulars at the Water’s Edge Café, and couldn’t. Even though they’d burned it down, it was still hers.Hers, not Julia’s. It was a place none of this touched.

“This all sounds insane,” Caradine pointed out, though she knew better than to antagonize Jimmy. Then again, he was going to hurt her either way, so why not? “You know that, right? You’re talking about my life, not a movie. My actual life, where I would have been the one who died. Me. Your sister.”

“This is where you always went wrong, Jules,” Jimmy said, in that soft way that made her spine want to curl up into a ball. Maybe it did. “Who cares about your life? Whatever made you think you had a say in anything? Your job was to shut your mouth and do what you were told, but you sucked at it. All that fancy education and you still don’t know how to be what you are. A frickin’ pawn.”

Caradine smirked. She couldn’t help herself. “Like you know how to play chess, Jimmy.”

She braced herself for a blow. Wanted it, even, which gave her some insight into her mother that she didn’t want.

What she didn’t expect was for him to smile at her.

It was more than just creepy. It literally made her blood run cold.

Especially because he wasn’t wearing the right face.

“I’m going to hurt you for that,” he promised her, and it took her a second to register what that odd note in his voice was.Delight. “I’m going to hurt you a lot, Julia. And I’m going to enjoy it. I never liked you. I don’t have any use for your kind of uppity.”

“It’s called intelligence, Jimmy,” she said, because she was in for a penny, a pound, and the whole rest of it,too. “Lindsay had it, too, but she was a junkie. At least she had it. I can’t say the same for you.”

“You never did know your place.” He sounded sorrowful, but she could still see that delight flickering in his gaze. “Mom and Lindsay, it caused me pain, thinking I’d killed them. Their only crime was being part of the family. But you. Patrick with the gambling and Danny high all the time. You were all useless embarrassments. Dad couldn’t control you, so I handled it.”

And the worst part was that he didn’t look or sound rabid. Or crazy. He sounded perfectly sane. Conversational, even. There was no doubt in her mind that he would kill them all again without a single qualm. He would feel badly for Donna and Lindsay—had she died when she was supposed to—and never question what he’d done.

“Some people prefer therapy,” Caradine said dryly. “But sure. Firebomb the whole house. A random restaurant on the other side of the continent. Why not?”

That one got her another slap. She needed to watch herself, because she wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t loosened a few teeth with that last one.

“A man who can’t control his house can’t control his business, either,” her brother told her, leaning in close. “I don’t have that problem.”

He grabbed her by the arm, a painful, awful grip that made her bones ache, deep and wrong. Then he started across that long lobby, his fingers digging even deeper into her arm as he dragged her with him.

“It doesn’t have to be like this,” Caradine said desperately, the way she imagined the Julia she’d been ten years ago might have.Beg, she ordered herself. “I have a temper, but it runs in the family. You don’t need to hurt me, Jimmy. I can be useful. I promise.”

Any minute now, she told herself. All she had to do now was make sure she didn’t let Jimmy take her to asecond location. She couldn’t let him put her in a car. Or knock her out and throw her in a trunk, which was his more likely move.

She dug her heels into the lobby floor, ignoring that painful grip he had on her arm. And was grateful it was a sticky linoleum, not marble, so she got a little purchase.

He turned on her again, shaking her so hard her teeth really did rattle. “So help me God, Julia, if you give me any more trouble—”

But that was when the world exploded again.

Only this time, it wasn’t the crackle of flames.

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