Menace (Scarlet Scars #1)(108)

I take his hand, letting him yank me to my feet. I know I must look like hell, having cried my eyes out and forgone sleep, but he doesn’t seem bothered by it. “Pearl?”

“Yeah, the kid in The Scarlet Letter? Didn’t you read the book in school?”

“I dropped out at fourteen,” I remind him. “I was pregnant at fifteen. Reading the classics wasn’t really on the syllabus at the Aristov residence.”

He doesn’t say anything for a moment, his face twisting with a grimace. “I just did math in my head.”

“And that disturbs you?”

“When the math I’m doing is how old Aristov was when he knocked you up, yeah.”

I want to point out that he has no idea exactly how disturbing that time of my life was, but I let it drop. I’m tired of thinking about Kassian. I’m tired of the way he still controls my life. So I pull myself together, tuck Buster under my arm, and glance around, my eyes grazing over the colorful horizon.

The sun is up, shining brightly.

I didn’t watch it happen, but I still feel like a weight has been lifted. I almost feel hopeful again.

I glance back at Lorenzo, noticing he’s watching me. “I still think you’re a fool for helping me, but thank you. Really.”

He stares in silence for a moment, his expression passive, before he says, “Yeah, well, who’s more foolish... the fool or the fool who follows him?”

“Good question, Obi-wan.”

I start to walk away when Lorenzo grabs my arm, stopping me, pulling me toward him. “You’ve seen Star Wars?”

“Of course.”

“See, I’m sure now more than ever before that I’m going to help you.” Lorenzo’s expression cracks with a smile. “Reason number thirteen, Scarlet: I may just be your only hope.”





Chapter Twenty-Eight





The little girl didn’t like playing games anymore.

She was stuck in a stupid match of tug-of-war, digging her heels into the ground, trying to hold on, but the Tin Man was too strong for her.

Every time she pulled away, he tugged harder.

She locked herself in the bedroom, not wanting to ever see him, so he took the door off of the hinges, giving her no space. She refused to eat, not having an appetite, not even when he got her some peanut butter and jelly, so he force-fed her, shoving the food in her mouth.

He said if she starved to death, it would be because he decided it.

So she took up Hide & Seek again, but he’d proven to be persistent. The best part about living in a palace, though, was that there were so many hiding places. A new one every day. Sometimes he found her. Other times he didn’t even look. She preferred him not to bother, because whenever he sought her, he made her heart hurt. His words got all ugly. He always made her cry with his lies. ‘Your mother does not love you, kitten. If she did, she would be here with us.’

It was a cold night, snowing outside, when the little girl lay beneath a bed in a guest room on the second floor, right above the den. Noises filtered up, reaching her ears. The Tin Man hadn’t looked for her because he had visitors, his flying monkeys and some women. It was late, pitch black, when the noise below got louder, chanting, counting backward.

New Years.

The little girl had really missed Christmas. No Santa Claus had come. She thought maybe something had stopped him, like maybe the Tin Man scared him, too, or maybe she just hadn’t been good enough that year, but a mean voice in her head whispered, ‘maybe he’s just not real.’

It was a whole different year now. She tried to remember the one before it, but her memory was being fuzzy.

She didn’t like it.

She lay there with her eyes closed, trying to remember her mother, how she laughed, and loved, but the little girl could only seem to picture her sleeping on the kitchen floor.

She wanted to remember the happiness. How could she do that? Maybe she’d just have to go out and find her mother. Seek her out, instead of the other way around.

Some of the noise from downstairs came closer. Whispering, footsteps along the second floor. The little girl tensed when it moved into the guest room, feet shuffling in the darkness.

Two people.

High heels and a pair of boots.

They moaned, making kissing noises, before falling onto the bed, hitting the mattress so hard the springs almost squished the little girl’s head. She gagged as a cloud of dust surrounded her, tickling her nose. Oh no. Uh-oh. She had to sneeze.

She tried to stop herself, so they wouldn’t hear, but holding it in only made it come out louder.

The sneeze echoed through the room.

The kissing abruptly ended.

Feet hit the floor and the blanket flipped up seconds before an upside down face peeked between a set of legs. The Cowardly Lion. He scowled before dropping the blanket again and sitting back up with a groan.

“Everything okay?” the woman asked.

“Can you…?” He groaned again. “Go back downstairs. There’s something I need to take care of.”

Uh-oh, for real.

The woman didn’t argue, leaving the room. As soon as she was gone, the blanket flipped up again. “Get out here.”

The little girl crawled out from under the bed and stood up beside it, frowning. She tried to just leave, but he grabbed her arm.