Dragon: A Bad Boy Romance by Danielle Slater, Lena Blackstone Page A

half a second, I think he's talking about my father, and then I remember where he grabbed me – outside Dragon's apartment.
    “Don't try and deny it, you fucking whore. You went running to that thug as soon as I left you, even after you saw what he did to me!”
    He points to his face. He's a mess, bruised and swollen. I think he may even have some teeth missing.
    “It's all your fault! You did this!”
    As he yells, I can see spit forming on his lips. He's losing control of himself. I've seen him angry before, but I've never seen him this unraveled.
    “All you had to do, all you had to do, was buy a stupid fucking wedding dress, so that we could get married. After everything I went through, everything I put up with!”
    He's advancing towards me slowly, as he speaks. His clenched fist is bouncing against his thigh, in rhythm with his words. I start to back away, deeper into the corner of the cellar.
    “I worked for that money,” he's saying now. “Do you hear me? I earned it. I let my reputation - my good name – be dragged through the dirt. Not just associating with a common criminal, oh no! Actually agreeing to marry into the family!”
    He leans against the wall casually, smiling.
    “Have I hurt your feelings? So sorry,” he says, clearly anything but sorry.
    “You can't possibly have thought that someone like me would marry someone like you, though, surely? At least, not for love. The truth is, sweetheart, I'm a little short on cash. Well, quite a bit short, actually. Marrying you would have been a good deal for both of us – you'd have got a better match than you ever could have hoped for, and one way or another, I'd have got hold of the funds I need to cover my ass. Everyone knows that criminals deal in large sums. I've been drip-feeding the idea of a money-laundering scheme to your moron father for quite a while, now – but he made it clear that he wanted to keep the business strictly in the family.”
    I'm not even shocked. The way he kisses my father's ass, the way he seems to have little to no interest in me – I always figured he wanted something from my dad. The only real surprise is that he's broke. The way he enjoyed looking down on everyone else, you'd think he was rolling in it.
    “Now that you've fucked it all up, though, I've had to move to Plan B. Do you think it will work?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, he was quick enough to get rid of you, when he thought that you were going to get... hurt.”
    His eyes darken at this, and I feel a chill of dread.
    “He'd have married you off to the garbage man, if he'd asked. Anything to get you out of the house and away from danger. So, now that you're well and truly in danger, do you think he'll pay to get you back?”
    “You know he will, Carl,” I say dully. “That's been the whole idea, hasn't it?”
    He beams at me, as if I am a slow student who's finally grasped a simple concept.
    “Yeah, I guess it has,” he says. “I mean, I was happy enough to go the wedding route, but then of course I'd have been stuck with you. This way is more of a pain in the ass, but it's quicker.”
    He moves towards me once more.
    “That doesn't mean we can't have some fun, though,” he says softly.
    I sink to my knees in terror, trying to curl up into a little ball until it is over, what ever IT may be.
    He's standing over me, his breath becoming quicker and louder as he enjoys the moment, and the power he has over me.
    I look up at him. When Dragon found out what Carl had done to me, he had beaten the crap out of him – I can still see the evidence in the bruises and the welts on Carl's face. When Carl knew that my father would learn what he had been up to, he ran, rather than face my dad's vengeance.
    But me? I'm nothing to him. Barely even a person. I'm cowering on the floor, next to a bucket of my own piss. Waiting for it to happen. Waiting for it to be over. Waiting for my father to pay up and get me out of here. All I've ever done is wait, while