Games Boys Play: A Dark High School Romance (Troubled Playthings 2)

“Yeah, she couldn’t bring herself to lie about it when I directly challenged her, apparently. She just kept going on about how she had a good reason to do what she’d done, but she wouldn’t spit it out.”

“Well there you go,” said Brad. “Anyway, she can’t keep you from going to school! You’re an adult now.”

Being outraged was a totally rational reaction on his part, but something about the way he said it rubbed me up. “Well, she didn’t. I made sure of it. Why isn’t Jess in school today?”

Brad shifted in his seat a little. “Jess has been homeschooled for a few years now.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.” Callie had mentioned that Lucas’s twin sister was being homeschooled ever since she’d been sick, and that had intrigued me because I didn’t think I knew anyone else who’d had that experience. Well, you wouldn’t know them, would you. They’d have even less social connections than someone like me, and that was hard to imagine. Who would notice that I wasn’t in school today? Aileen maybe, since we had a class together in the afternoon. I’d been so distracted lately and Callie had been so distracted that Aileen was fending for herself most of the time though. Maybe she wouldn’t care any more. And if Callie didn’t have time for Aileen she definitely didn’t have time for…

Steven would notice. But Steven was every bit of the abuser I’d always thought my biological father would turn out to be. When he noticed, it would be because I’d managed to escape whatever attack he had in store for me.

The thought of how he’d played me made me burn so much I kept talking when I might have otherwise retreated into myself. “I don’t think I can stay at home any more. I guess she really did have her reasons for what she did… but I just want to get out of there. Get away from everything.”

Brad began to drum lightly on his steering wheel. “You know, obviously, I can’t invite you to stay at my home. My wife… she’s aware of your existence, of course, but she would be very awkward having to play host to you. It wouldn’t be fair to her.”

“I wouldn’t want to do anything to her,” I said. I hadn’t thought about it, actually, but it was true. She’d done something very wrong and I didn’t think I’d want to get close to her, but I did want to get close to Jess, and that meant I’d have to get along with her. “But I understand.”

He abruptly reached over to his phone in the storage alcove below the dash, checked the time on the screen, then put it back. “There are other options. I can help you get a place of your own to rent.”

I stiffened at the suggestion, shocked beyond words that he would go there before I did—and so I didn’t have any more flinching to do when Brad’s hand landed on my leg, his thick fingers sliding under the edge of my bag so he could get a grip.

So there was no way for him to guess my feelings—and the thing was, if I’d been the same person I was a few weeks ago, before Steven pushed his way into… well, a lot of places, then maybe I wouldn’t have seen it that way. Maybe I would have even been excited to finally be able to resume the father-daughter relationship that was snatched from me all those years ago.

But because I’d been with Steven, I knew there was very little that was fatherly about the way he was touching me.

Suddenly, the taste of that coffee he’d bought me on our first meeting was crawling right up my throat.

“I have a lot of money,” Brad said. “I saved a lot when I was still playing sport, invested a bit, did well on those investments. I still don’t even understand my finances, honestly, but I’m rich. That’s what matters. I wouldn’t miss the cost of a small rental around here.”

All I could think about was his fingers pushing their way under my bag, pushing my skirt sideways a little as they went, but something told me not to let him know how I was reacting to this.

Fortunately I was good at hiding my feelings. I’d had practice all my life. “That’s an incredibly generous suggestion, I don’t know that I could let you do that for me.”

Brad shrugged, the movement somehow driving his fingers a little further in. “You could pay me back if you wanted, once you got a job. I know a few places I could put in a good word for you if you’re having trouble finding something.”

I’d been such an idiot, so convinced I could work out the truth of this for myself just based on this one piece of new information. So certain that trying to cling to your secrets was a sign of guilt.

But I wasn’t completely able to just believe what I was hearing. Thanks to my mother, I was inherently pretty suspicious of anything bullshitty coming from men… at least after I got over the initial rush of stupidity.

“Well, if I had a place of my own I guess it would be easy for us to meet up whenever,” I said. His hand tightened on my leg. I felt like my skin was going to start bubbling and crawl right off.

Then Brad looked up at a bang from the toilet block. Jess was slouching back over to the car. He didn’t move away from me right away, waiting until she had climbed back in and sat down before he put his hands back on the steering wheel. He was probably counting on Jess not seeing anything because of the angle and the covering of my backpack.

Maybe he didn’t care so much if she saw, though. She was fourteen and he was her father—it wasn’t like she was going to speak up.

Had he been doing… something to Jess, to make her so shy and sulky? Was her behaviour really about him and not me?

Had he been—

I couldn’t remember exactly how we’d discussed things on our first meeting. He must have said he never hit me… but I’d been stupid enough to avoid reading between the lines, or maybe I just hadn’t been able to face the fact that there were other ways to abuse a child that didn’t involve hitting.

I had to get away from him. I could ask to go to the bathroom myself and run away, call Ryan. I would be in so much trouble, but I was pretty sure I’d get the truth if I was honest about how far I’d been willing to go. For better or worse.

No, I couldn’t get away just yet. I had to talk to Jess, find out if she was in danger.

If she had no idea what I was on about, she might get pissed off with me and cause trouble. Even if she did, there was no guarantee she’d trust me enough to tell the truth.

I peeked at her reflection in the rear-view mirror again. Her head was down, her eyes almost lost in her fringe. Had he made her this way?