Page 70 of Blazing Desires
We’re positioned outside the sunroom doors, and I steal a glance at Blaze. A thousand thoughts and moments flash before my eyes as to what could have been.
If we had turned around and never came here could we have lived happily looking over our shoulder for the rest of our lives? If we make it out of here alive will we survive the aftermath? If one of us doesn’t make it out… No. We can do this, we have to.
I take a steadying breath.Our focus is back on the doors, to the room behind it that has actually been a tomb for my mum all this time. My heart splinters into tiny pieces at the thought of everything she went through.Guilt floods me from all the times I was angry at her for leaving me behind. Now I know she didn’t have a choice.
I wish my father had buried me that day too.
Blaze holds up his hand and counts down on his fingers.
Three, two, one.
We burst the doors open and the room descends into chaos as the guards scramble for their weapons. They spread aroundthe room until guns point at us from every angle except behind. The cool metal of the gun presses into my temple, my hair pulled tight enough to make my eyes water from the tension of the hand that is gripping it tight to control me. I am at his mercy as Blaze walks me into the room.
“Mr. Elodie, we meet again,” he snarls.
Nobody moves or makes a sound. My father sits stock still, eyeing us with a bored expression. No, not bored. A flash of surprise that he doesn’t normally show slips onto his face and breaks up his usual mask. He moves, steepling his fingers together with elbows resting on the table he’s sitting at. The room is unchanged and still has a soft amber glow filling the space. The scent of the climbing roses permeates the air. It’s like we’re right back on the night of the disastrous dinner.
“Well, what do we have here? Pray tell, Blaze, why are you holding a gun to my daughter’s head and why she is now wearing a necklace of bruises that look suspiciously like your handprints?”
He asks it almost nonchalantly, but there’s an edge. Almost an annoyance that he hadn’t been the one to put them there.
Sick fuck.
“Da- Ow!”
My hair is yanked hard, and I don’t have to fake the pain. Blaze and I agreed this would be the only way he’d truly believe that I wasn’t doing any of this by choice. We had argued about it for an hour until he’d relented.
“I see,” my father continues, making no move to do anything to help me or order his guards to step in. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t hurt my daughter. I might have to kill you quicker than I’d like for laying a hand on what’s mine.”
I fucking hatehim, speaking as if I’m his property that he can claim when he feels like it. Keeping my face twisted in painis getting harder to do when the inferno that is my rage is simmering under the surface of my skin.
“So you can beat her and bruise her yourself? I think not. She’s mine to do what I want with now.”
I don’t need to see Blaze to confirm that there is a feral smile on his face as he says those words. My father’s eyes glitter with rage in response and sweet satisfaction rolls through me.
“I wonder,” Blaze drawls, all arrogance, cockiness dripping from his tongue, “what you would want to do to me when I tell you that I made her fall for me. That shebeggedme to fuck her until she was dripping with my cum, all so that she could forgetyouand everything you’ve done to her. How does it feel to know I took your daughter, ruined her, and then nearly took her life before I decided this was the perfect opportunity to take something away from you? The same way you took something fromme.”
My heart stops in my chest. We hadn’t agreed to share that. I can’t see his face and a seed of doubt grows in my mind that he’s used me. After all, I still can’t fathom why he would want anything to do with me. After everything my family had put him through, I wouldn’t blame him for hating me too.
The only thing I’m sure isn’t true is him trying to kill me—that, at least, had been planned. I have to trust that Blaze knows what he’s doing, and that his plan might force him to say things he doesn’t mean.
My father’s jaw ticks as he glares at me with disgust. “Interesting that you bring that up,Blaze.You see, I did a lot of digging on who you are and where you came from. Of course, I hired you without that first, but the way you reacted immediately when you got here made me think. Why would a guy like you come here of all places, with the training and history you have, to babysit a spoilt, no-good little brat such as Davina?”
His smile is all teeth, and I don’t even recognise him. Panic builds in my stomach, a million butterflies trying to escape at his words. We hadn’t foreseen this and if we don’t play it carefully, our plan is going to unravel before it’s begun.
“At least it wasn’t wasted, I guess. You got laid after all, but it’s such a shame you went to all this trouble. This whore isn’t worth anything to me, she’s anembarrassment.If she was any good, even at fucking, I would have pimped her out to my friends long ago. I had to beat her into submission, teach her a fucking lesson like I did her mother andyours. Which brings me back to why you’re here.”
He leans back in his chair as he waits for his blow to land. The problem with my dear father is that he’s always assumed I will follow his commands and obey, that he will always have this power over me and the ability to cut me down with his words.
What he doesn’t anticipate is that I already know everything he’s done. That I no longer have anything left to lose, and his mask has been stripped away to show the true monster underneath. The one he uses against the world and not just against me.
No more. This ends today.
I play along, letting tears fall as my face crumples. I see the smugness gracing his aged face through the blur of my tears and it makes me want to set fire to him as I revel in his screams of pain. Blaze chuckles at my father and the clench of Dad's fist on the chair’s armrest tells me he doesn’t like it one bit. I grin internally—watching Blaze get under his skin is delightful.
“Oops, you caught me!”
Blaze chuckles harder, the sound bordering on crazy. My dad shifts in the chair and I bite my lip to stop my smile from spilling onto my face and giving me away.
