Page 26 of Double Dare

“Then why should I stop crying?”

“Because he isn’t crying for you. Everything I’ve done up until now was to prepare you for this. Turn your emotions off, and don’t give him an ounce of your fucking sorrow.” And it’s true.

Dario doesn’t care about her. At least not the same way she cares for him. He’s selfish and fucked-up, so willing to give her life for hers, and because of that, she shouldn’t be sad. She should be fucking angry.

Her sobs soften as she stares at me. “Do you really believe that?”

I nod. “I do. When I asked him if he was really willing to give your life for his, he replied, ‘In a heartbeat.’ He doesn’t deserve your pain. He deserves your fucking wrath.”

She scoffs with sarcasm. “My wrath? What am I supposed to do, kill him?”

“My debt can only be paid with a life.”

She takes a deep breath, ignoring my statement. “He lied to me.”

“I know.”

“No, you don’t. You don’t have the full story.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

DANICA

His eyes burn into me. “Tell me.”

I came in here with the hopes of gaining his trust and having him open up, but I never imagined the feelings it would evoke from me. Suddenly, I’m realizing he’s not so bad—the lesser of two evils when my brother is involved. He could have killed me that night he brought me here, but he didn’t. Instead, he tried to help me in his own fucked-up way. Whereas Dario didn’t even warn me. He pushed me into the lion’s den under false pretenses and illusions.

Adrian’s been calculated and smart this whole time, building me up while breaking me down in different ways, and now it all makes sense—all the murder and torture. He was conditioning me because somehow he knew the only way I would survive the betrayal of my brother was if I was like him.

He wants me to be like him.

He knows Ineedto be like him.

Cold. Soulless. Deadly.

I flip off my emotions like he said, letting every piece of the old me trickle out of my pores and evaporate into the air, then try to figure out the best way to tell Adrian this was nothing but a game. I endured his abuse and coercing simply because I had to, at least at first, but this isn’t a game anymore. Not to me.

In the past two hours, I’ve learned two very important things. One, I don’t want to be without Adrian. His methods are perverse and twisted, but when I look at the big picture, he’s made me strong.

And two, Dario needs to pay. Getting back at me for making him leave town is one thing, but sending me to Adrian knowing my life was going to be taken is another. It’s too bad he doesn’t realize how seriously I take my dares though, because I may not have gotten Adrian to love me, but I’ve gotten him on my side.

Adrian speaks again, pulling me from my thoughts. “Danica. Answer me.”

“Double dare. It’s a game,” I start.

His eyes narrow. “I don’t have time for games.”

“Shut up and listen.”

His eyes grow wider, and a smile graces his lips. Pulling his knees up, he rests his forearms on them. “Continue.”

“Me and Dario thought we were untouchable as kids in a sense. We knew our dad had money because of the way we lived. He was pretty absent—always working and shit—and he had us homeschooled. Being home all the time, we ran out of things to do and made up our own game. Well, Dario did.”

“Double dare.”

I nod. “It started pretty innocently. We would just prank call my dad’s business partners or order an insane number of pizzas for our neighbors.” I laugh. “One time we even got our butler in on it and made him clean the house in a sexy maid’s outfit for a week. But the older we got, the more we wanted to push. Obviously, since Dad was loaded, there wouldn’t be consequences—at least that’s how we thought. I dared Dario to steal a car once, and he did. Then, in return, he dared me to set the football field on fire at the high school we never got to attend. To this day, no one knows about that. No one knew it was us, because we always had Dad’s money and people to pay to keep it quiet and away from our father.

“A year ago though, I dared him to leave town. Under normal circumstances, I’m sure he would have told me to fuck off, but once the dares got bolder, we decided to take it a step further and have Dad’s lawyer draw up a legally binding contract. If we don’t follow through with the dares, we wouldn’t receive our inheritance that’s due to hit when we turn twenty-five.”

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