“There. All set,” I said when I finished applying makeup to Seth’s jaw and cheekbone to make sure the bruises weren’t visible. Sneaking in and out of the house late at night shouldn’t be that hard because Seth only had to keep his head down as we passed the guards and no one would notice anything. But, for some weird reason, my father was at home, and I wanted to go out. “Hey, don’t touch it!” I grabbed Seth’s hand before he could reach his face. “You’re going to wipe it off.”
“It itches.”
“So? If you can handle bruised ribs, you can handle this too.” I gave him a little pat on the shoulder. “Come on. We need to get out of here.” We hadn’t even mentioned our kiss and were mostly trying to pretend nothing had happened—or at least I was. Once we were out of my room and in the hallway, I heard the door of one of the rooms open as if someone had been waiting just for me to come out.
“Victoria,” my father said. “My office. Now.” His hard, cold eyes fell on Seth. “You too.” He turned on his heel and started down the hallway. Seth and I exchanged a look. My father clearly didn’t expect me to argue, since his strides were quick, and he didn’t even look back at us.
We followed him, but my hands were getting clammy. What if he’d heard about the fight? What if Rubio had told him the truth and broke our deal? It would make sense if he thought he couldn’t win a regular fight. Shit.
Before we entered my father’s office, Seth’s hand found mine and squeezed gently. I looked up into his warm blue eyes. I could do this. I could fight for my club, if that was what I would need to do. When Seth let go of me, I stepped inside the office, just as my father was settling in his chair. There was a yellow envelope on his desk.
“Sit,” my father said, and I took a seat in the chair across from him.
“What’s going on?” I crossed my arms, wondering what this was all about, but judging by my father’s deadly serious face and the prominent lines around his eyes, I’d done something to displease him.
My father didn’t say anything. He simply picked up the envelope and reached inside it, then pushed a few photographs across the desk toward me. I picked up the first of the photos and my heart skipped a beat, my throat constricting.
It was a photo of me kissing Seth. The quality of the image wasn’t that good, and it had been taken at an odd angle, but it was still clear what Seth and I had been doing. Someone must have planted a camera in that room during the fight, or maybe there were cameras all over the club at the moment.
The person behind it was probably Rubio. He was trying to destabilize us before the second fight. I picked up the rest of the photos, fearing the worst, but my tension eased a bit when I realized it was just more photos of Seth and me, even though one of the images looked as if we’d done more than just kissed. Someone had zoomed in and cropped the original photo.
I set the photos back on the desk and met my father’s gaze. “So? I kissed my bodyguard. What does it matter?” I needed to know if he’d found out about the club too.
“What does it matter?” My father’s lips twisted with anger. “If there are more of these,” he said as he picked up one of the photos, “and if they’re released at the wrong moment, we’ll be dealing with another scandal. And I thought I made it clear to you that I won’t tolerate things like that!”
“I can kiss whoever I want. At least now I’m not naked,” I said through my teeth.
My father slammed his fist against the desk so hard that I jumped. Seth made a step forward, and I wasn’t sure what he was going to do, but he looked at me as if asking me if I needed protection.
“You,” my father said as his gaze lifted to Seth. “You’re fired.”
“No, he’s not,” I said. “Well, you can fire him all you want, but then I am hiring him, so it doesn’t really matter, does it?”
“My daughter won’t sleep with a bodyguard!”
“I can do whatever the hell I want.” I leaned forward, glaring at him. If he knew about the club, he would’ve already told me. All he had were these stupid photos of Seth and me. Rising to my feet, I turned to leave.
“Yes, because that went really well last time,” my father said, and I froze. “What can I expect next? A video of you and him in a compromising position? Is that what you want? I was right. Wasn’t I? You’re just like your mother.”
I faced him as he got to his feet, his nostrils flaring.
“You want to ruin me,” he said.
I snorted. “Ruin you? Really? That’s the only thing you care about. Who sent you those photos? Do you even know? Do you even care that someone took photos of me without my permission?”
“Maybe it was you,” he said. “You know I never believed a word you said when those filthy...” he spat out.
“Don’t.” I couldn’t... didn’t want to be reminded of that time when compromising photos of me had appeared all over the Internet and media.
“Why not? You promised something like that would never happen again, and here we are.” He spread his hands. “I honestly don’t know what to think. I gave you everything, and you still disobey me and put me in situations like this.”
Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes, but I pushed them back. “You can’t possibly think I’d be... Hell, I don’t even know why you think I’d be doing this.”
“To displease me. To ruin my reputation. To get whatever it is that you want.” He glared at me. “Tell me. When am I going to get more of your photos? Will I have to explain something to the press and everyone again?”
I let out a choked laugh. “Yeah, because that’s the only reason for my existence: to destroy your whole life. Look, I don’t give a shit what you think anymore. I know you don’t care about me.”
His jaw went slack. “How can you say something like that? Of course I care about you. I always have. You’re my daughter. I bought you all the dresses and jewelry you wanted. Every whim you had, I fulfilled, and you...”
A tear slid down my cheek, and the office was suddenly too small for me. “Do you really think that after what happened to me what I needed most was a new dress? I never wanted your fucking money!”
“I don’t know what to think, Victoria,” he said. “Maybe this whole little game you’re playing is just a ploy so you’d find an excuse to get high again.”
“I didn’t...”
“That’s what your mother used to say too. But I’ll be damned if I let you do what she did.” He clenched his jaw.
“I’m not my mother, but I guess you’ll never see that. You don’t want to see it.” My lips tilted up in a fake smile. “You’re just taking your anger out on me because you can’t handle the fact that she left you and didn’t want to be with you anymore.”
“What did you take? This must be the drugs talking. Or have you spoken to that wretched whore? Does she still call you? Is she still alive? My daughter under the influence of...”
“Your daughter is leaving now.” I spun on my heel and strode for the door.
“Victoria! Get back here! Now!” my father yelled, but I was already in the hallway and unwilling to listen a word he had to say to me.
“You’re fired. Do you hear me? I don’t want to see your face here ever again,” my father shouted at Seth, who was coming after me and who slammed the door behind him. My chest was so heavy and I couldn’t breathe. I needed to get out of this house as soon as possible. But no matter how hard I tried, the images from the past wouldn’t stop playing over and over in my mind.
I could see myself, barely eighteen years old, standing in my father’s office with tears streaming down my face. He was waving a newspaper in his hand and yelling things I didn’t even hear. When he finally stopped his tirade, he threw the newspaper at me, and I caught it. Without wanting to, I looked down at it. There was an image of me lying naked in bed with two guys next to me, although parts of it were blurred out. On the nightstand next to the bed was a packet of white powder. The photos on the Internet, however, weren’t censored.
“Dad, I wasn’t... I don’t know what...”
“I let you go to a birthday party, and this is what you do? Whore around? Get high? You disgust me!” My father’s words cut me to the bone.
“I didn’t.” I sniffled. “Please. You have to believe me. I don’t remember what happened. I didn’t take anything. I swear.”
He turned toward me so fast that I backed away. Grabbing the newspaper from me, he nearly shoved it in my face. “Look! What is that on the nightstand, huh? Do you think I’m a fool who doesn’t know what that is?”
“I don’t know how it got there. I don’t... I swear I didn’t take anything!” I burst into tears again, my whole body shaking. “Someone must have...”
My father only sneered at me. “I should’ve known something would happen as soon as you put on that dress.”
I looked up at him through my tears, not understanding what my dress had to do with anything.
“It was way too revealing.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Exactly like your mother. Why did I expect my influence would change things for the better when her blood runs through your veins?” he muttered more to himself than to me. “You ruined me! Now they’ll never elect me.”
My chest constricted, and I was choking on my tears, my head swimming. Someone must’ve slipped something into my drink and then taken those photos. Someone who wanted my father out of the race for mayor.
“Dad, I...” I didn’t even know what I was going to say.
“Get out! I don’t want to see your face right now. Out!” he shouted, and I ran outside.
Someone’s hand on my arm brought me back to reality, and I realized I was crouching on the floor in the hallway. Still in this goddamn house. Still way too close to the person who’d convinced me everything was my fault.
Seth’s worried eyes met mine. “You okay? Do you want me to take you somewhere?”
I pushed myself up, pulling away from him. “I just need... I need some air.”
He followed me as I headed for the front door.
“You heard my father,” I said. “You’re not my bodyguard anymore.”
“That doesn’t change anything.”
“I want to be alone.”
“But that might be exactly what Rubio wants.” His brow furrowed. “He sent those photos, didn’t he?”
“I don’t care.” I broke into a run, hoping he wouldn’t come after me. But no matter how fast I ran, my mind didn’t clear, and the past didn’t change. And even though now I knew how wrong my father was, it didn’t make me feel any better.