But he isn’t, and I am alone, but for the one advantage Paul doesn’t know I have.
I make it to my bedside table and jerk it open, quickly finding the stun gun Liam gave me. I don’t know what I’m doing, haven’t had a chance to think through the ramifications. All I know is that motherfucker isn’t going to win tonight.
He bounds down the hallway like a bat out of hell and throws open the bedroom door. A sick, smug smile plays on his thin little lips.
I’m doubting myself and my ability to even use this damn stun gun. Paul isn’t the strongest of men, certainly no match for Liam, but he is stronger than me. He hasn’t seen it yet, but what if he’s able to disarm me?
“You’re pathetic,” he says, shaking his head as he steps inside.
This is funny, coming from him.
“It must have been so easy for him to prey on you. The boss’ sad, lonely stepdaughter. You must’ve been so fucking desperate for the attention, the connection. He saw a means to an end and bonus sex; you saw a motherfucking soulmate.”
It feels like an ice cube slides through my body but I don’t show a reaction.
“So fucking unloved. You must’ve been so fucking easy. All he had to do was be nice to you.”
I wish I could kill him. I can’t even stop my lip from curling up, momentarily overcome with hatred for the sad, angry little man before me. I want to scream at him, claw his face off, remind him that he’s the one who made me like this.
But I’ll be damned if I ever give him the satisfaction of thinking he has that kind of power over me.
Or any of them. I hate all of them in that moment, more intensely than I have in a long time.
Because he’s right.
Maybe not in actuality, maybe he’s not right about whatever Liam’s doing, but he’s right about that.
I was easy. I was lonely. If Liam did want to seduce me to get to my family, they sure as hell groomed me for it.
They stole my life.
They carved out the person I once was and left me a goddamn shell.
I want to say something awful to him, something truly scathing, but I’m too overcome by resentment and a massive headache to come up with anything.
My fingers flex on the stun gun he still hasn’t seen, hidden behind my leg. I’ll die before I let him put his hands on me tonight, and I don’t know where I’ll go or what I’ll do or how far from the house I’ll even make it afterward, but by God, tonight I will fight to the death.
I’m ready.
Maybe that’s why he fades. Maybe he can sense it. Maybe his balls just hurt because of my attack, I don’t know. But he doesn’t come any closer. He shakes his head, giving me a mean look that might hurt if I gave even half a damn.
“Fuck you,” he says, still shaking his head. Then he spits on the ground, meeting my gaze. “I don’t even fucking want you anymore.”
And with that, he turns and leaves.
Liam
As I bite into my cold chicken sandwich, an envelope drops onto the cheap folding table in front of me.
I pause mid-chew and put the sandwich down, grabbing the envelope, thick with cash, and thumbing through it.
Upon verification that it’s the sum I expected, I put it back down and resume eating my sandwich.
“Your bonus,” Raj says, in case I hadn’t pieced that shit together.
“Half my bonus,” I correct him.
Chuckling lightly, he says, “Of course. I would never dream of cheating you.”