Page 52 of Ride Hard
“What aboutnow?”
I laughed and shook my head. “You sound like a clingywoman.”
He grunted. “What was it like? Growing up atFortitude?”
“You really want to know about my fucked up childhood?” I asked, raising myeyebrows.
“You wanted me to give up everything for you a couple of daysago.”
What in the world was going on here? I studied Chaser’s profile and worried my bottom lip with my teeth. So all that hostility was his shield, not his identity.Interesting.
“Was it that good?” Iasked.
“Huh?” He glanced at me before turning back to theroad.
I shook my head and played with my hair. He knew exactly what I was talking about, the craftybastard.
“I didn’t know any different,” I said, deciding to answer his question. “I thought I was like every other little girl I went to school with. I just had a big family with lots of aunts and uncles. I never went without clothes, schoolbooks, toys, and always had food in my belly. Mom was great about keeping me away from the truth. A real master at hiding the crime and violence.” I snorted and picked at the hem of my T-shirt. “Dad was hardly around. He was always ‘working.’” I air quoted the last part. “It wasn’t until I was older I realized everything wasn’t as itseemed.”
Looking back, I knew I was too young to understand all the signs. The secret meetings, Dad’s absence, Mom’s broken arm, her cuts, and bruises. The comings and goings at all hours of the night, the hushed whispers, and unintelligible screaming from somewhere deep inside the compound where little legs were forbidden to go. The ‘funny plants’ in the greenhouse. The way Dad’s touch hurt my skin. The toys he gave me after Mom turned up with anotherinjury.
“She put on a brave face,” I murmured. “And it was all for me. I was half him, but I was half her,too.”
“She protected you,” Chasersaid.
“From everything. After Mom was gone, I came to realize just how much shit she took. My childish misdemeanors caused herbruises.”
“You can’t blame yourself for her decisions…or yourfather’s.”
“We all make our choices, Chaser. Mom made hers. She stuck around despite the beatings and the Fortitude lifestyle. It wasn’t for me. I saw through it before I’d even hit puberty and got out of there the first chance I had. Dad knows how I feel about him, right down to the last wart. My opinion will never change. He’s a piece ofshit.”
“He wants to save your lifenow…”
“Don’t you dare defend that man,” I snapped. “Do you want to know the catalyst, Chaser? Do you want to know what happened to make me run when Idid?”
“Sloane, you don’t have to explain yourself tome.”
“Obviously, I do because you still don’t get it! It was time for me to start earning my dues. Time to bend over and take it up the ass.” I shook my head, bile bubbling in the back of my throat. “He was going to lock me in a room with his new buddies—some ugly fuckers with awful face tattoos—and let them have their fun. The President’s daughter was a mighty fine prize. Keep her, Daddy said. Whip her, cut her, strangle her, rape her within an inch of her life. Where I come from, that’s called sexualslavery.”
“Geezus.”
“That’s how much he loves me.” I sat back in the passenger seat and kicked my feet up onto the dash. “He wants to save my life to save his pride, and when I’m back at Fortitude, I’ll just end up in the same position. I’m a commodity. Nothing more, nothingless.”
Chaser fell silent, and I didn’t have the heart to look at him. I was stuck between my desire to escape a terrible fate and my burgeoning love. I knew what I was asking him to do was just as bad. For him, it was a choice between repaying his mysterious debt to Fortitude or betraying my father for love, which he may or may not feel forme.
We’d had one night of sex, one night of him softening toward me, but ultimately, nothing had changed. Nothing atall.
Knowing it, tore my heart intwo.
“They slit her throat, you know,” I murmured, watching the blur of cedar trees streak pastoutside.
The creak of leather signaled Chaser had tightened his grip on thewheel.
“Dad had laid her out on the pool table in the compound. Her eyes were open… It was like she was looking straight at me, but nothing was there. Her lips were already turning blue like that stupid tube of lipstick we bought as a joke at the Dollar Tree the daybefore.”
“Sloane, you don’t haveto—”
“Did he tell you how she died?” Iasked.
