“Dad?” he repeated after me. “You don’t get to name me that anymore, Star. You’re no daughter of mine. Not after what you probably did to this household.”

“I haven’t achieved something to this family-“

“So speaking to that journalist was only a pleasant assembly, was it?” he requested, his eyes glowering with a terrifying coldness that despatched shivers down my whole physique.

“How do you know about-“

“I’ve eyes all over the place, Star,” he jogged my memory. “I do know what you mentioned to her. What you promised her. The knowledge you supplied her. Is that this the one approach it’s a must to become profitable now, promoting my enterprise to some shady journalist?”

“It’s not in regards to the cash,” I informed him, my voice trembling as I attempted to stare up at him. I felt like I might crumble and crumble at any second, like every part would possibly collapse if I allowed him to see how terrified I used to be. I couldn’t let him get to me, regardless of how a lot he clearly knew he was – regardless of how straightforward it appeared for him to only loom over me within the dim mild of this basement and remind me why I performed by his guidelines for all these years.

“So that you simply did it since you wished to,” he replied, smirking barely. “Nearly spectacular, Star. I didn’t know you had it in you. That form of betrayal.”

He reached Jaxon’s facet, and , grabbed his hair and yanked his head again.

“Don’t contact him!” I screamed, my coronary heart exploding with terror as quickly as I noticed him lay arms on the person earlier than me.

“You assume anybody would miss a bit of prison scum like this?” he demanded. Jaxon’s eyes had been locked on me, stoicism on his face – like he was telling me, quietly, that I shouldn’t give in to him, it doesn’t matter what he mentioned, it doesn’t matter what he did.

“Please, simply let him go,” I pleaded with him. “He’s acquired nothing to do with this. That is between you and me, Dad, I’m begging you-“

“Oh, I’ll let him go,” he replied, a smile spreading over his face. “Simply as quickly as you attain out to that journalist and take again every part you mentioned. And simply as quickly as you conform to marry Lombardi, such as you had been speculated to.”

I swallowed laborious. No. No, I couldn’t do this. I had come thus far, put a lot distance between myself and this life, and I knew I couldn’t flip round and begin over once more. I couldn’t return to it, regardless of how a lot I wished Jaxon protected, regardless of how a lot I wanted to see him free. I didn’t need him caught up in the midst of this. I knew how a lot he had been by means of, how a lot he had already helped me survive, and I couldn’t repay him by letting him be used as a pawn in my father’s recreation.

“Don’t take heed to him, Star,” Jaxon informed me.

“Shut the fuck up,” My father snarled, yanking his head again in opposition to, pulling on his hair. Jaxon winced, however he didn’t give my father the satisfaction of seeing how a lot it was hurting him.

“He wants you to talk to the journalist your self,” Jaxon identified. “He can’t get anybody else to speak to her for you. He received’t do something to both of us till he’s acquired you to agree.”

A flash of anger crossed my father’s face – he didn’t wish to admit it, however Jax was proper. My head started to clear as I listened to him converse, starting to make sense of every part that was happening right here – we had my father proper the place we wished him. He may need had us each right here, however he knew there was no approach I may get Abbey to drop this story until I went to her myself and informed her it had all been a lie. If he referred to as her up and tried to intimidate her into dropping it, she would probably simply get extra suspicious, and have extra cause to come back after him than she did earlier than.

My father reached for a gun, bulging at his facet, and drew it into his hand. He didn’t level it at Jaxon, however he didn’t should. The specter of it was sufficient to ship a chilly grip of horror by means of my system.

“You may make this straightforward on us, child lady,” he informed me. I hated when he referred to as me that, and he knew it – the best way it made me really feel like a toddler, like some ineffective, helpless toddler, reliant on him to get me by means of.

“I’m not supplying you with something,” I snapped again at him, feeling a sudden rush of certainty stand up and thru me. I meant it. If he thought I used to be the identical lady I had been when he had final seen me, docile and harmless and naive and keen to go together with something that he requested of me, then he had one other factor coming. He had an entire different heap of shit coming.

He pressed the gun into Jaxon’s temple, holding it there. Jaxon didn’t flinch. He stared at me, silently telling me to maintain going, silently promising me every part was going to be okay.

“Take heed to me,” my father snarled. “You give me what I would like, or I blow his brains out throughout this basement. And you may sit right here along with his physique for so long as it takes so that you can see what’s finest for you. You perceive, Star?”

“Don’t take heed to him,” Jaxon informed me. “It’s all speak. You’ve acquired this, Star. I do know you do.”

I inhaled deeply, shakily. There was part of me, after all there was, that wished to provide him every part he wished proper now – that wished to only inform him to cease, let that gun drop. Let Jaxon go so I may give him every part he was asking for. I wasn’t going to place Jaxon’s life in danger like that, I wasn’t going to place every part on the road once I knew I’d lose him.

However there was one other a part of me, a surer, stronger half, that was mustering up the braveness from someplace deep inside. Mustering up the idea that I may take my father on, regardless of how a lot he tried to throw at me. I didn’t like this, I didn’t like this one little bit, however I may deal with it, I knew I may. Jaxon was proper, we had him proper the place we wished him, and nothing was going to get me to conform to his calls for.

My father let loose an aggravated grunt and dropped the gun again down by his facet, clearly in a position to see that he wasn’t going to get what he wished from us so simply. I felt a flood of aid, and Jaxon grinned at me, satisfaction written throughout his face. He didn’t appear shaken in any respect, like he had been able to tackle no matter may need come on account of this – like he was keen to die, if it meant that he may shield me from my father proper now.

“Fuck it,” Dad muttered, stuffing the gun again into the holster. “You wish to keep down right here somewhat longer? Be my visitor. I’ll be again. And when I’m, I’ll count on you to see what’s good for you and provides me what I’m asking for, Star.”

And, with that, he pulled the sunshine change as soon as extra, plunging us into darkness. However I may nonetheless see the grin on Jaxon’s face, the reminder that I had achieved the correct factor – that he was there by my facet, it doesn’t matter what.

And I couldn’t assist however return it. My thoughts was racing as I attempted to determine what to do subsequent – and I knew I used to be going to should make an enormous swing if we had been going to get out of this alive.

Chapter Sixteen – Jaxon

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