Innocence (Tales of Olympus #1)(12)

“After all I do for you.” Mom shook her head. “After the years I have sacrificed for you, slaved for you, out here in the middle of nowhere. You think I like it out here with no one but you for company? But I do it. For you. To protect you. And you go and throw it back in my face like this.”

“Why?” Cora sat up, slamming her hands on the seat beside her. “Why do we have to live like this? Why can’t we live in town? Or a city? Why can’t I have friends or go to a normal school?”

But Mom shook her head like Cora was being ridiculous. “How many times do I have to tell you how dangerous it is out there?”

“It wasn’t dangerous today,” Cora disagreed. “Those kids were nice. We were having a nice time.”

Mom scoffed. “You’re so stupid you don’t even know what you don’t know. You think those boys were being nice to you because they liked you? They wanted what’s between your legs. If I hadn’t shown up you would have turned out to be a statistic in the morning paper.”

Cora shoved open her door and got out of the truck. “You’re wrong.” And she’d slammed the door behind her.

All of which was the wrong thing to do.

Because her mother got out of the truck just as quickly and before Cora could blink, she was around the truck and had Cora’s arm in her iron grip.

She dragged Cora into the house, ignoring her cries.

“No. No, Mom!” Cora screeched as soon as she realized where Mom was taking her. “Not the cellar. Please. I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry!”

But once Mom had made her mind up about something, there was no changing it. And though Cora was fifteen, she’d always been small for her age and she was no match for her mom’s wiry, compactly muscled body.

Mom had her down the stairs to the damp, chilly cellar before she could even get another plea out. She shoved Cora to the floor and jogged back up the steps.

“Mom,” Cora called, getting up and jumping to her feet. “Mama!” She ran up the stairs right as her mother slammed the cellar door on her.

And no matter how much she banged on the door or begged and pleaded and swore she’d do better, her mom wouldn’t open up.

She didn’t open the doors for three days and three nights. Not that Cora knew that until later. At the time, all Cora knew was that she was in the cold and the dark and that it was never ending. There was a gallon of water and a bucket for her to use the bathroom, and Cora finally got hungry enough that she opened some of the jam they had stored down there and ate it straight.

And when her mother finally opened the door and Cora had squinted up at the rectangle of light, things were never the same between them again.

Cora opened her eyes and looked around the subway car.

She couldn’t go home. She’d sworn once she finally escaped that farm, and her mother, that she’d never ever go back.

Which meant there was really only one option, no matter how mortifying it might be. Cora pulled the card Sharo had given her out of her skirt pocket.

The subway car was almost empty. A weary-looking woman in business attire sat in the front, the seat furthest away from the homeless man. Cora stood up, holding onto the poles as she made her way over to the woman.

“Hi, ma’am, I’m sorry to bother you, but could I borrow your phone?”





Four





“We have to stop meeting like this,” Cora joked nervously as Marcus opened the door to his penthouse hotel suite and gestured for her to come in.

The edge of his mouth quirked up in a half smile. Was he laughing at her joke or at her? Not that it mattered either way. He was doing her a huge favor.

“I really appreciate this,” she said. “It’ll just be for the night.” She cringed. “Or maybe a couple of nights? As soon as I get another nannying gig, I’ll be out of your hair, I swear.”

Marcus didn’t say anything, he just watched her with that inscrutable look on his face. He tilted his head, indicating she should come in. Well, further in than the foyer where she was babbling like an idiot.

“Sharo mentioned you hadn’t eaten yet.”

“Oh,” Cora said, surprised to see an elaborate table set up in a small dining area. The windows were still not darkened.

She took several more steps forward, awed by the glittering tableau. She’d seen it earlier, but been too distracted to take it in properly. Now, she swayed as she faced rows and rows of skyscrapers, the entire city laid at her feet.

“I’ve never been so high up,” she whispered. She wanted to go right up to the window but kept back. Looking down on the skyscrapers made her dizzy. “I mean, I knew we must be up this high from how long the elevator ride took but…” she trailed off, shaking her head.

When she looked back at Marcus, his head was tilted, his eyes narrowed at her like she was a particularly peculiar species of zoo animal.

She felt her cheeks heat and lifted her hands to them. Gods, why couldn’t she keep her mouth shut? And not let every single thing she was feeling and thinking show on her face?

She moved abruptly to go sit down at the table. “Thank you, I am famished.”

Marcus moved as she did, getting there right before her and holding her chair for her as she sat down.

His scent enveloped her, his arm brushing hers, and like earlier when he’d escorted her downstairs, the merest touch sent a jolt of electricity through her entire body.