shutting her up, and stars erupted over her vision.
There was an ominous rip of material near her ear, then the pressure of her seatbelt vanished. Dazed, her head rolled to the side where her window had been and watched the gleam of a blade flash back out of the frame. A moment later, her door was yanked open, and a big hairy hand reached in to pluck her from her seat by the front of her sweater.
“Leaving so soon, darling daughter?”
Oh fuck.
Her feet thudded over the sill of the car frame, then hit the ground as Abraham hauled her effortlessly from the vehicle. The time of Reckoning had come, but Christ, she was unprepared. A month ago, she’d have taken what was coming without complaint, but now...damn it, was it too much to ask for a simple life? To be left alone to enjoy what she’d found with Braun?
Her father was a bear of a man, more in width than height. Bodie was quickly reacquainted with his strength as he dragged her, feet skimming over the asphalt, toward her apartment. He wouldn’t be concerned with witnesses—the law held no meaning to him. Rats and do-gooders would be silenced if they dared to interfere or call the cops.
Just about everyone knew Abraham, or believed him to be a legend if nothing else. Everyone knew the consequences of getting up in his business, so Bodie was well aware there’d be no help from her neighbors, if they were even in.
Her apartment door swung open as Abraham reached it, and he tossed her into the hallway before bending to kiss his wife savagely.
Bodie bit her lip as her knees and palms burned upon meeting the carpet, then she lost her breath as her mother walked past her, the woman’s heavy black biker boot striking Bodie’s stomach as she waited where she’d landed.
Moving meant punishment.
“There's nothing here, Abe. Sneaky little cunt cleared the place out.” Diane continued into the living room, leaving her eldest daughter in the hall struggling not to throw up. “Comes swaggering home after a week of living the high life, dressed up in fancy new clothes, and shows no gratitude toward the people who raised her.”
Fancy new clothes? Bodie nearly laughed. If jeans and a sweater could be called fancy, she’d obviously gone up in the world of fashion. And as for gratitude...she was grateful for her time with Braun. It would help her survive the next hours of hell.
Abraham flicked on the hall light as Diane did the same in the living room. Their trap had paid off, Bodie realized. Lying in wait in the dark. She’d almost walked straight into it. “No gratitude at all. We give you a good life, feed you, clothe you, keep you in the family even after you damn near killed your baby sister, and you think you can just run off without so much as a word? Don’t work like that, babygirl. Everything comes with a price.”
Bodie lowered her head to the carpet, tried to ignore the throbbing pain in her cheek. Worse was heading straight for her, and if she showed any sign of aggression, it would hit her hard enough to send her into the next century.
Abraham walked over to her, stepped past her, then bent and gripped her hair in his hand. “Even smells fancy, too. Got yourself hooked up to some dumb fuck, girl? Found some clueless asshole to take you in? Bet you didn’t tell him what a worthless whore you are, how you fuck anything that gets a hard-on.”
The grip of his fist in her hair was nothing like Braun’s or Jasper’s. Cruel, menacing, designed to hurt. The Masters would never pull viciously enough to snap her head back painfully, to strain the tendons and ligaments in her neck to breaking point.
“You want to leave the family, babygirl? Take off with the sap you’ve conned into letting you warm his bed and wet his dick? That’s fine with me, but there’s some restitution to be made before you step outta that door again.”
Only the fear of consequences stopped her from clawing at his hand as he hauled her into the next room using her hair as a leash. If she so much as lifted a hand, he’d cut it off. He’d once ripped her two front teeth out with pliers when she dared to bite him as a child.
She’d acted in self-defense; his actions were his training methods.
They worked. She’d never tried to bite him again.
“She’s