My mother didn’t want him here on my birthday. Not once was I allowed to invite him inside. So I didn’t. I distanced myself from him. I wanted to protect him from her wrath. She’d kill him if she found out how I felt about him. She promised me that I could go out and spend some time with him later. I guess it was all a lie to make me do what she wanted. They all lie … and my mother is the worst of them all.

“C’mon, Vanessa,” my mother suddenly says, and she grabs my hand and pulls me up from the couch.

“Where are we going? I thought we had guests,” I say as she pulls me to another room.

“Yes, but we have to discuss something.”

“Now?”

“Now.” Her command brings chills to my bones. She’s so angry sometimes that it scares me. I can never please her, but now it seems as if she wants to skin me alive.

As she stops near a window, she taps her foot and looks at me as if I’m supposed to say something. I don’t know what she wants, so I continue staring out the window instead. Miles is there, and I love looking at him from afar. Sometimes I wish I could just leave my body where it was and fly out into the world without her ever noticing.

“What are you looking at?” my mother says. “That boy again?”

I nod, still a little absent in my mind.

“Stop. This is the last time you’ll ever speak or even think about him again.” Her pointy nail tilts my head, forcing me to look at her. “You will focus all your attention on Phillip and his parents. They deserve it. That boy out there? He doesn’t …” She leans in. “And if I find out that you’re hanging out with him, I’ll come and get rid of him myself. Is that understood?”

The implications in her statement make me shiver.

“Yes, Mother,” I say, tears welling up in my eyes.

Her nail scratches me as she lets go of my chin. “Good girl. I promise you that it’ll all be worth it.” She smiles, a light, high-noted chuckle coming from her mouth. “Soon, you’ll forget all about that filth. Phillip and his family have so much more to offer. Did you know that his father owns a directing company? And he’s going to give it all to Phillip when the boy is twenty. Can you imagine the kind of wealth he’ll have?”

She bends over and places a hand on my shoulder. “It could all be yours. So behave like a real lady and make that boy feel like he needs you more than anything else in this world. Make him believe you’re God’s gift to man … just like I did when I met your father.”

She licks her lips. “You’ll see … eventually, all your dreams will come true. All good things come to those who wait.”

I nod, believing what she says to be true. I know my mother, and I don’t want to see Miles get hurt. I guess it’s for my own good … as well as his. Any price is worth it when it comes to dreams.

But she’s not talking about my dreams. They are hers.

***

Present

I should’ve known Miles … Phoenix would come to hate me for pulling away. It was in both our interests, but it broke my heart. I reckon it destroyed his confidence. I never told him why I did what I did. Why he wasn’t allowed at the party. Why my parents hated him. Why I couldn’t be with him, despite what my heart was telling me.

It was for the best, even though listening to my mother turned me into a conniving bitch. I did what I had to do to survive. To save him and myself.

Too bad he didn’t see it that way.

And now I must pay the price.

CHAPTER 13

PHOENIX

With eyes filled with tears, she gazes up at me from her prison, the agonizing look on her face a delicious treat.

“Tell me that she’s okay,” she says. “You have what you want now.”

I don’t believe her fakery. Her interest in her assistant is so unbelievable that it makes me want to laugh out loud. She doesn’t care whether the girl lives. She never cares for anyone but herself.

At least, that’s what I remember. Vanessa Starr always chooses what’s right for her instead of anyone else, even if it means hurting others. She and her whole family … they only cared about money, about power.

Except that none of them knows what real power is. Not if you have to acquire it by lying and manipulating. That’s not power. That’s a sneaky, snake-like way to worm your way into wealth. It won’t provide you with real power once the hunters come to catch you and put you in a cage, so you can never hurt anyone again. You know who has the real power? The hunter.

Me.

“You want me to tell you? Guess what? No,” I say, rubbing the gauge in my ear.

She frowns. “I hate you.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way,” I say, smiling.

“You know; I never wanted to hate you, but you’ve actually accomplished that now. Good job,” she sneers.

“I’m better when I’m bad, sweet cheeks. It’s what makes me me.” I grab a cigarette from my pocket and light it up. “You don’t mind if I smoke in here, do you?”

She makes a face but doesn’t respond. Bitch.

It didn’t always used to be this way. There was once a time when I believed that she liked me. Hell, I even thought she was into me, in more ways than one. Fuck, what an idiot I was, believing a woman like her.

“You’ll never get away with this,” Vanessa says, still jerking on the bars as if they will loosen. They won’t budge; I’ve tested them myself quite thoroughly.

“Just you watch.” I take a much-needed drag.

“Once they realize that Paige has gone missing, her family will come looking for her,” she says. “And they’ll direct the police to my house first.”

I chuckle and walk toward her cage while taking a drag. She doesn’t back away this time, holding onto the bars as if she thinks she can win this. She doesn’t seem to realize that she already lost the moment she betrayed me.

“Do you honestly think she has family? Have you ever even asked?”

“Well …” she swallows. “Who doesn’t?”

I smile. “She doesn’t have anyone but herself. And now she has no one.”

I love the look on her face, those big eyes, the utter shock. I blow the smoke out in Vanessa’s face, causing her to cough.

Vanessa doesn’t need to know the girl is still alive, albeit stuffed into a closet like a wrapped-up doll. The only reason I didn’t kill the girl was because Vanessa promised to do everything I wanted without protest. It makes it that much easier to exact my revenge. That and maybe I took a pity on the girl. Or not. I’m just a man of my word. Honor means a lot to me, which is also the reason I could fuck Vanessa into oblivion because she has none.

Honor means shit to her, so she means shit to me.

Just like everyone else in this world.

Nothing gets to me. Nothing.

I don’t allow anyone to come close, and I don’t allow myself to feel whatever it is she’s trying to make me feel with those crocodile tears. I’m emotionless. A killer with no remorse.

And it’s all because of her.

Women … they’re only good for breaking.

I throw the cigarette on the floor and stomp it out.

“So … are you comfy in there?” I ask to tease her.

“Fine,” she replies. Short and snappy, just the way I like it.

“You don’t seem fine.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when a stalker locks you up and kills your lovers.”

“Who said anything about killing both of them? I don’t know what happened to Arthur.”

“And you don’t give two shits to go find out,” she adds.

“Indeed.” I wink. “I have my hands full right now, sorry.”

“With teasing and using me. Wow, so busy.” She does a fake yawn and continues to stare at me. “Tell me … do you enjoy killing people?”

“Actually, yes, I do.” I smile.

“Funny, because I don’t remember you that way.”

“Then you remember wrong,” I say, tapping on the cage to annoy her. “I’ve always been a violent fuck.”

“That I do remember.”

I look down into her cage. “That’s what you get for hanging out with people like you.”