Violent Ends

Even when she wasn’t supposed to. There were so many places for her to be, and because she was a woman, men seemed to assume she wasn’t listening to them. She imagined that was why Mr. Denton had put her to work in the basement at his casino.

She didn’t mind for the most part. She didn’t look like most of the women working at the casino. For one, she wasn’t slender with the perfect, tight body. Nope, since her father’s death, there hadn’t been any enforced diets or being made to look a certain way. She didn’t do the gym anymore, and she had a new love of life, which meant she was a nice, curvy size sixteen.

It was quiet, and she’d lived so long fearing for her life that when it came to the basement, she felt right at home. At least she had a job, a steady income, and she didn’t have to worry about being beaten up every single day, or fearing anything.

For the most part, she was … free.

Running her fingers through her hair, she wondered what Maddox Denton would say to her during their meeting tomorrow. She wasn’t acting rashly or anything.

In fact, she’d been thinking about it for a long time now. The chance to finally get away from everything she despised. For the first time in her life, she actually felt hopeful to the future.

This was what she wanted, what she hoped for.

Leaving her bedroom, she made her way out into the main sitting room. Her brothers, Owen and Wyatt, were playing one of their computer games. For grown men, they sure made a habit of acting like children.

She rolled her eyes as she bent down to pick up an empty beer can. “Please, can we pretend to care about the mess?”

“Sorry, sis,” Owen said.

“Yeah, sorry. We’ll get a cleaner.” This came from Wyatt.

“You don’t need a cleaner, just a trashcan.”

She didn’t even know why she bothered half the time. They wouldn’t listen. They were used to having servants wait on them all the time. To them, she was a woman, so that made her no better than a servant who was hired to clean up after them.

Walking into the kitchen, she grabbed the warm coffee and poured herself a cup, making sure to add plenty of cream and sugar. She never took her coffee without it. Otherwise it was just plain gross. Leaning against the counter, she watched them fight a monster or a zombie or whatever.

“Bring us a beer,” Owen said.

“Get your own damn beer.” If she didn’t make them do stuff, they’d hire someone. She was surprised neither of them had put an ad in the paper looking for someone to cater to their every whim. Sipping at her coffee, she knew she had to get out of this rut that she was living in. Her family was gone, or at least the bad element of her family was gone. All that remained were her brothers. Owen and Wyatt had always been trained to accept this life. Being a Denton was no different than being a Colton, at least to them it wasn’t. Her brother Gabriel, well, he was adjusting so much better to a life of a Denton, but then, he was one. She knew at times it was hard for Charlotte, Maddox’s wife. But then she’d been pregnant with Jacob not long after Maddox had gotten her own mother pregnant with Gabriel.

It was all a bit confusing but not by much.

To be plain, Maddox was a horndog before he found his match. Emma couldn’t help but smile thinking about her big brother. She wondered if Gabriel would suffer with the famous Denton curse.

“Whoa, sis, what did you do to your hair?” Owen asked, coming into the kitchen.

She picked up some strands, looking at the color. “Dyed it, why?”

“It looks … different?”

“Good different or bad different?”

“I don’t know. Good different?”

She chuckled. “Are you saying that so I don’t kick your ass?”

“Totally, you know I’m petrified of you.” He grabbed two beers out of the fridge.

“I just needed a change.”

“We all do sometimes.”

She stared down into her coffee cup.

“Is there anything you want to talk about?”

“Nah, I’m good.”

“You sure? You look like you’ve got shit you want to say.”

“It’s fine.”

“Brian giving you a hard time?”

She tilted her head to the side. “Do you really care about Brian?”

“Not really, but he’s been dating you, so now I need to know if I have to go and kick his ass.”

“You can leave his ass alone. We’re good. Honest.” She’d not seen Brian in a couple of weeks. It wasn’t a problem. Their dates were fine and a little on the fun side, but they didn’t exactly thrill her. Far from it.

She found dating Brian to be a real bore.

He wouldn’t kiss her. Holding hands seemed to be abhorrent to him. She’d started to wonder why he even wanted to go on a date with her at all. He was constantly asking her if she was having fun, if she was enjoying herself.