Page 68 of Betraying Him
An ominous feeling bubbles to the surface as I stare at theman who raised me, the man who’s currently gazing at me with a twinkle in his eyes and an evil smirk on his lips.
Oh god, I just know that whatever he’s about to say is going to be bad.
So, so bad.
“You’ve gotten him to trust you, and now he’s invited you into his home.” The smirk turns to a wicked grin in an instant, and my gut drops.
He knows? Has he known all this time?
I thought I was careful, I thought I was being safe.
Clearly, I was wrong.
All of the times I found it so easy to sneak out, the times he told me he was going to be out, and I’d be home alone, how he hasn’t punished me for something I haven’t done lately. Realization smacks me in the face—he was testing me.
He hasn’t hit me lately because he knows I’ve been going out, and the marks and bruises would be seen, leading to questions.
Bile crawls up my throat, and tears gather in my eyes. “How?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper as I force the question past my lips.
He laughs darkly, his eyes alight with humor, and it makes me hate him even more than I already did. “Did you really think you could sneak out without me knowing exactly what you were doing and where you were going? Did you really think you could do a single thing on your phone without me seeing it?” He shakes his head and takes a menacing step toward the bed. “It turns out my useless daughter is good for something, and that something is whoring herself out in order to get me what I need.”
My brain can barely keep up with what he’s telling me, but it snags on his final words. “Get you what youneed?” I echo, and the look he gives me is so full of sick satisfaction that it makes me want to hurl.
“Yes. You’re going to go to your little boyfriend’s house tomorrow, and you’re going to take this”—he throws a small black box at me, it hits me square in the chest, then drops to the bed—“and you’re going to plug it into Corvin Thorn’s computer before downloading everything you can onto it. It should only take a few minutes, but remember not to act suspiciously because if you give yourself away, you won’t like the consequences.”
I’m already shaking my head before he finishes speaking. “I… I can’t do that. I won’t do that, it’s not right, and you can’t make me.”
“Right? I don’t give a fuck about what’s right, Savannah. You’re going to do this because you won’t have a choice. I need that information to get ahead of him in my career, and now you’ve given me the perfect opportunity to get my hands on it. If you don’t, I’ll drop you off at my friend’s house, and I know you’ve heard the stories of what my friends are like.”
He’s right, I have heard the stories. Stories he’s told me about buying and selling people, of making them do whatever they need them to, though I’m sure the stories are exactly that—nothing but fiction told to scare me into submission. I won’t do it, I can’t do that to Harley and his family.
And he wants to get further with his career? I know he’s been running for mayor, but does it really matter that much? My father has generational wealth and everything he could ever want, so why does he care so much about this? And why not just try to win the election on his own merit rather than resorting to blackmail?
But then, he wouldn’t be my father if he didn’t have a trick or twenty up his sleeve.
“I can’t do it,” I whisper again, my tears finallybeginning to fall as I think about what’s going to happen to me, because while I know my father is full of shit a lot of the time, something about this feels real.
“You can and you will, because you won’t be the only one to meet the acquaintance of my friends. How would your little boyfriend cope with that sort of life, huh? How would your little boyfriend fare if I got my hands on him?”
I can feel the bile crawling up my throat, but I swallow it down. I could refuse to do it when he was threatening me, but to use those threats against Harley?
A sob leaves my lips. No, I can’t let that happen.
I think about the years of abuse I’ve endured from the man in front of me. I think about all of the threats… all of the pain, the neglect, the fear. The never being able to leave, knowing he’d be hot on my heels and ready to hurt me even worse than he already does, just because he can.
My father is a man of his word, and if he says he’s going to hurt Harley, then that’s exactly what he’ll do. Colin Marks is powerful. He has more money than sense and more connections than anyone I know. If anyone could get to Harley, it would be him. I’ve spent years in pain because of him, and I don’t want that for Harley. Harley is like sunshine, and he doesn’t need to be tainted by the pain and suffering that my father can and will inflict on him.
No… not him. I’d rather take any and all punishments. I’d rather ruin this thing between us than let Harley get hurt by the man in front of me.
Fuck, I have to do this.
I have to betray the one person who really sees me if I’m going to keep him safe.
I guess I shouldn’t have worried about sex breaking the illusion, because it’s shattered now.
But I can do this. He’ll no doubt come to hate me for it, and that’s okay, so long as he’s safe.
Nothing else matters but his well-being, and I’ll do whatever it takes to keep him out of my father’s threats.
