ing laughed. Right in my god damned face.
“You think I don’t give a shit about you? I’m setting up a goddamn empire for you, you ungrateful little shit. You never appreciated it. You never appreciated me. And now you come walking in here like you f*ck
ing own the place. Well, let me tell you, you ignorant little ass wipe. I brought you into this world and I can sure as hell take you out.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“You want to make this a thing?” he said, his snarl very real. “I don’t think you want to get on my bad side, Janson Michael Mactavish.”
It was meant to throw weight around, but it didn’t mean a damn thing. He didn’t mean a damn thing to me.
We were just two people who shared a name.
“You got anything else for me?” I asked again. I didn’t want to continue this conversation. I would take it to a place where I couldn’t get back from. We both knew it.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Actually, I need you to pick up my dry cleaning. Bring it to my place. Lacy will be there waiting.”
Lacy was my twenty-three-year-old “stepmother”. He seemed to trade up as soon as they hit thirty, but this one was a real piece of f*ck
ing work.
He knew I hated her; this was my punishment. I would take it if it meant defusing the situation.
“Fine,” I said as I stood. f*ck
him. f*ck
everything he stood for.
“Oh, and Janson?” he called to me.
“Yeah?” I asked. I was so done with him.
“Your job is to be loyal to Greyson, but your life depends on being loyal to me. Don’t f*ck
ing forget it.” He grabbed up his cigar and took a long puff.
I fought the urge to spit the sour feeling out of my mouth right onto his face. I needed to get the hell out of there.
So I turned and stormed off.
That man had the ability to make me feel like a petulant teenager even twenty years later.
But he would get what was coming to him.
Kathryn
All I had to do was confront my father. Go back home and live with him. Convince him that I was a part of the family. Then steal right from underneath him.
I sighed and thought sarcastically: That won’t be hard at all.
Leaving Janson. That was going to be the hardest part. No one knew what we were up to, and though I’d only spend a few nights with him, I didn’t want it to end. I didn’t have the nightmares when he held me. I didn’t dream about my uncle when he was close. It was like he was a drug I’d been looking for my entire life and I’d finally found.
He was the only one who could save me. I bit my lip and looked out the windows down onto the street. I liked staying here. I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to be in the house again.
But I did miss my mom. And my sisters.
I just wanted nothing to do with him.
It was a part of the plan. It would work out. At least, that was exactly what I needed to tell myself.
I wanted him gone.
I heard a slam on the door and looked up to see Janson coming through the living room. He didn’t even look at me. And then I noticed it. He was f*ck
ing covered in blood.
“What the hell?” I asked as I walked through the kitchen towards him.
“It’s fine. None of it is mine.” He was heading towards the bathroom as he said it and that worried me more than anything else.
“Then whose is it?” I asked.
“Do you really want to know?” he said. When he looked back at me, his eyes were so angry that I thought about saying no. I thought about turning around and never looking back, but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t just walk away from this. So I swallowed hard, and I nodded. “Yes. I want to know.”
“I had a list of three men I had to f*ck
up. I made appointments. I went, I saw them. I f*ck
ed them up.”
“Are any of them-”
“Dead?” he finished the question for me. “No. I didn’t kill anyone. But at least one of them is going to need a few weeks to recuperate.”
“Orders?” I asked. I could’ve guessed as much, but he nodded at me. That told me all I needed to know.
“I’m a f*ck
ing demon.” Janson was shell-shocked. For the first time in my life, I saw the way a man felt after he’d caused an incredible amount of pain to someone else. “It’s not just that, baby girl. I craved it. I craved each blow they took to their bodies. I caused it all. And I liked it.”
He wasn’t shaking, but he was so calm. So quiet. It scared me.
“You need a shower,” I said as I pushed him into the bathroom. I made quick work of the blood-stained clothing and turned on the shower. It was easier not to think about it. Not to think about the ways he made them spill their blood.
He was a killer. The kind that did exactly what he was told and did it without mercy. I knew that.