My stomach rolled, looking up at his dark eyes that stared at me like I was dirt. Like I was his mother.

I’d lost his respect. He thought I was nothing. He hated me. The last time I did something he didn’t like I was thirteen, and he wouldn’t look at me for a week. I’d treaded very carefully since then.

Until now, that is.

“Please. Damon.” I’d never seen him this angry. “I love you. You’re all I have. Please. I made a mistake.”

I wanted so many other things, but not if it meant losing him. I couldn’t lose him.

I pushed his hand away and dived in, wrapping my arms around him and burying my head in his chest. I hung on tight with every muscle I could muster.

Forgive me.

“I’ve always been good,” I pleaded. “I won’t do anything wrong again. I promise.” I squeezed him tighter. “I’m yours. I love you.”

He reached up and gripped my arms, like he was ready to push me off, but then he stilled, and I kept my eyes shut, hoping. Please, love me again.

No one else in the world loved me except him. He protected me, took me away from my mother, kept my father away from me, and if anyone ever tried to hurt me, he hurt them worse.

I still felt unsafe sometimes, but at least I never felt alone anymore.

Damon’s breathing calmed, his chest moving up and down, slower and slower. His fingers around my arms loosened.

“You can’t take him away from me,” he said in a low voice. “And he can’t take you away from me, either. You understand?”

I nodded quickly, an ounce of relief starting to settle in. “I know. I’ll be good.”

Raising my head, I looked up at him, the tears drying on my face as I kept my arms around him.

“I don’t want him. I just got bored,” I said. “When you’re not home, I don’t want to be there.”

When he’s not home, I stick to our room as much as possible, so I don’t run into our father. But the older I’ve gotten, the more restless I’ve become.

His face softened, and I see a small smile appear. “I know.” He caresses my hair. “Someday we’ll have our own house, and you can be free. I’ll surround you with a hundred fucking acres, and you can go wild. No one will ever look at you wrong or treat you badly.”

I forced a small smile at that dream of ours. The one where he’d go to college and come back for me and we’d disappear to some house, far away, in the middle of a forest or at the edge of the world, and I didn’t have to hide from anyone.

But I knew it wasn’t real. It never would be.

“What’s wrong?”

I dropped my eyes. “Someone’s going to take you away from me, though, aren’t they?” I asked. “Eventually, anyway. She won’t want me in your house.”

Forgetting the fact that the older I got the more I wanted things that Damon didn’t want me to have, but also, he was growing up, too. We weren’t thirteen and twelve anymore. We were eighteen and seventeen, and Marina was right. We couldn’t stop time. Wouldn’t he eventually want a family? I couldn’t tag along and crash the party forever.

But he just laughed at me. “You’re such a dumb shit.” He pinched my chin, nudging my head and forcing me to meet his eyes. “What’d I tell you? There’s pawns and rooks and knights and bishops, but only one queen.” He smiled playfully. “We’re a pair, Nik. Everyone else comes and goes, but you never escape blood. Blood is forever.”

The corner of my mouth lifted in a smile. And I let out a breath, feeling relief that he had forgiven me.

He dug his phone out of his jeans and started dialing. Probably for David, Lev, or Ilia to come and pick me up.

“I can walk home,” I explained, trying to stop him. “It’s okay.”

But he just raised the phone to his ear, staring at the air over my head as I heard the other line ring.

They answered after the first ring. “Damon.”

I recognized David’s voice.

“You’ll never guess who I wrangled five miles from the house, in the dark, without protection. You’re fucking fired.”

“Damon, I can’t watch her every second!” David barked. “You want me to tie her up?”

“Fuck you.” My brother’s cool voice was like the slow slice of a knife. “You and the guys get down here to the Bell Tower and get her now.”

I couldn’t help but drop my shoulders a bit. I knew I had to go home. I just still didn’t want to.

“And bring her to the cemetery,” Damon finished.

I popped my head up, my stomach somersaulting. Really?

Damon gave me a small smirk as he spoke. “She can come to the bonfire, but keep her quiet and keep guys away from her.”

“Alright. We’ll be there in fifteen.”

“Five,” my brother ordered and hung up.

I bit my bottom lip, but he still saw my smile trying to escape.

He tipped up my chin again, warning me with his glare. “They’re going to surround you like a fucking wall, you understand? Don’t piss me off, and don’t let Kai see you.”

I nodded, trying hard not to look too excited.

“That way you get to see what he doesn’t want you to see.” His smirk disappeared. “Who he really is.”

Banks

Present

“I’m not part of the deal.” I stared at Gabriel sitting on the other side of his desk. “You can send Lev or David or anyone else to work for him.”

“Yes…” My father laughed under his breath, puffs of his cigar smoke escaping before he blew the rest out. “Because that’s exactly what he wants you for, isn’t it? To clean toilets in his dojo and to chauffeur his ass around.”

I tipped my chin up at his sarcasm. “He doesn’t want me for…” I breathed out, hesitating. “For that. And if he does, he’s not getting it.”

Kai might very well want me to wait on him hand and foot, but my father had other ideas. In his head, if Kai was demanding me in particular then he wanted me for nothing less than a little fun.

And he wasn’t fucking getting it.

Gabriel didn’t know that I’d met Kai before. Gabriel didn’t know that I’d already played Kai’s version of fun. I refused to be his tool. Or his toy.

“You’ll do what you have to do,” he told me.

“I won’t—”

“You’ll do exactly as you’re told!”

Every muscle tensed, and I locked my jaw together, shutting up. A sudden light sweat covered my forehead where my hat sat.

Damon.

This was all for Damon. He was the only reason I stayed in this house. Remember the end game. Find him, get him home, and keep Kai and the rest of those pricks away from him.

My father’s dead eyes stared off, barely paying me any mind now. Kai was right about one thing. I was only as valuable as what I was good for to Gabriel Torrance. I knew it the moment I’d left Kai’s office tonight at the dojo. I knew it when I stepped into this office an hour later. I always knew my value here.

A woman wasn’t good for much in this house, so I did everything I could to make my father and brother forget that I was one.

Gabriel rose from his seat and slowly walked around his desk, the night wind howling outside his office windows. Coming to stand in front of me, he leaned back on his desk, slightly more relaxed as he offered me a patronizing look. “You’ve been useful,” he said, blowing out smoke and turning to set the cigar down in the ashtray. “You’re smart, and it took a long time for you to earn my trust, but you did. I know I can count on you. Your entire world is Damon.”

Even though it was true, it wasn’t flattering to hear. My brother was my world. But while I loved him more than I loved anything else in my entire life, I hated the way my father said it.

Like I was Damon’s pet dog.

“But now,” Gabriel continued, “you have an opportunity to prove yourself invaluable. Irreplaceable.”

Important.

Despite my hatred of my father, my loathing of Kai Mori, Michael Crist, Will Grayson, and Erika Fane, I couldn’t help the shred of pride that seeped in.