Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 83961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
I widen my eyes. “You mean…?”
He slowly nods. “Pull his fucking pants down.”
“No, I can’t, Ray… He doesn’t deserve that.”
“Look at his fucking spawn.” Ray slaps Hector across the face. “Don’t you want to make sure this asshole can’t produce any more shitty little brats who can beat you into a pulp every day? You can end it right the fuck now.”
“But… But…” My own eyes fill with tears.
He pouts his lips in mock sympathy. “Aww, are you a fucking pussy, is that it?” He leers at me. “Don’t you want to get with my sister? Get your dick deep inside her?”
Fine. Fucking fine.
I’m no pussy.
And I want Regina Sinclair more than I could ever say.
Without overthinking it, I grab Dimpsey’s pajama bottoms by the waist and bring them around his knees, exposing a smallish dick nestled in a forest of pubes.
I heat the poker back up and slowly bring it down over his crotch.
Ray’s laughter echoes in my ears as the poker glows red hot.
No going back from this. No going fucking back.
Dimpsey howls as I force the poker down, bringing a permanent end to his line.
A month later…
I never slept with Regina Sinclair.
After that night, after what we did… I went straight home, screamed and sobbed into a pillow for an hour.
Hector Dimpsey—neither one of them—didn’t deserve that.
Ray was relentless. I felt like I didn’t have a choice.
But deep down I did. And I chose to hurt two people. One physically, one emotionally.
Both permanently.
I knew my time with the Sinclair family would have to come to an end. Ray, Regina, the whole lot of them. They were all insane.
I saw Hector in school the next day. He acted like nothing had happened.
He left me alone. That part was nice.
But at what cost?
Hector Dimpsey, Senior never pressed charges. He would have to admit that two teenage boys castrated him. He was too embarrassed to say anything.
And his son was never the same. He always had this haunted look in his face. Became much quieter, guarded. We broke him that day, and not even his Kingsmen could put him back together.
I didn’t go back to The Club. I avoided eye contact with Ray whenever we’d pass each other in the halls at school. Same with Max and Corey.
I’m not the kind of person they thought I was.
At least… Harrison isn’t.
They called me Harry. Brother Harry.
Everyone used to call me that, but most people started calling me Harrison in middle school. It sounded a little more mature. I liked it.
Ray was the only one who called me Harry.
Harry was the one who did those horrible things to Hector Dimpsey’s father that night. Harry was the one who wanted to sleep with his friend’s sister. Harry was the one who didn’t have the balls to say no when pressured to inflict enduring damage to a man who had never done anything wrong to him.
Harry’s favorite color was green. He wore it every day to school. He saw his favorite color in the neon highlights in Ray Sinclair’s hair and liked it.
No more.
I’m shedding that moniker—and my former favorite color—forever.
I’ll never lose myself like that again.
From now on, I’ll devote my life to healing people, not hurting them.
“Harrison, did you hear me?” Bianca’s sweet voice breaks through my thoughts.
I blink a few times. “Yes. Sorry. What did you just say?”
She smiles. “We have to go back to the club.”
I nod. “Right. Yes. Agreed. But…how am I supposed to get in? There’s no way Chet will let me through tonight.”
She lays a hand on my arm. “I have an idea.”
“What?”
“We’ll dress you up as a server.”
I cock my head. “We’ll what?”
Bianca holds up a hand. “Trust me. You’ll be invisible. Rouge pays them absolutely no mind unless they’re breaking the rules or making her look bad. We’ll style your hair a little differently, maybe put some makeup on you. That way, as long as you keep your head down—which is what’s expected of the servers anyway, to show subservience—she won’t notice you.”
“But how will I even get in the club in the first place?”
“The waitstaff entrance, of course.”
“Won’t the other servers know that something’s up?”
She shrugs. “There’s staff turnover all the time at Aces. They’ll think you’re someone new.”
“But—”
Bianca places a finger over my lips. “Trust me. I’ve worked at Aces for years. I know how things work. With a little luck, we’ll get away with this.”
I sigh. “It’s better than not doing anything, I guess.”
“And tomorrow is St. Patrick’s Day. Aces will be open.”
I furrow my brow. “I thought they were only open on weekends. St. Patrick’s Day is on a Tuesday.”
“Rouge makes exceptions for special holidays, especially those where drinking is a big part of the celebrations. We’re always open on St. Paddy’s, even if it falls on a weekday. And the place will be crazy busy, which will give you a chance to snoop around, see if you can’t find that writing raven.”