Up in Smoke - Tessa Bailey Page 0,75

felt wrong, told her something inside her had changed for the better. She couldn’t identify it or name it. Right now, it was only a feeling. But she held on tight to it because it made her feel human when in reality, she was someone else’s monster hiding in the darkness.

Ice formed in her veins when her stepfather’s heavy tread moved down the hallway. She didn’t have a plan. Didn’t know what she would do when faced with the man who’d spawned so many nightmares. Her modus operandi had been to avoid him. He wouldn’t expect her to show up. The smile on his face outside the courthouse had been smug. Secure. He thought she would run.

Not this time. If she ran, he would follow. He continued to prove that over and over. Now that the money was being released to her, he’d be twice as tenacious. It would never end. She would never again sleep as soundly as she had in Connor’s bed. His specter would hang over the bed like a ghost, no matter what she did. It would smother her. Knowing him, he would find out her weakness for Connor and use him against her. My Connor.

Her blood went from cold to boiling. Maybe she could kill him.

With that possibility lingering in her head, she slowly eased off the washing machine, dropping onto the balls of her feet without a single tinkle from the bells. A light went on in the kitchen and she pressed her back against the wall beside the partially open door. Too many potential weapons in the kitchen. If she charged him, he would have time to pick one up. No, she would wait until he got close enough to the door and make her move.

What am I doing here?

Erin shook her head hard to clear the doubt. This was what she’d dreamed of. Confronting the face behind the whirlwind of fire. The man who’d made her helpless. Made her beg. She shouldn’t be considering slipping out the back door and returning to safety. To a man. That was weak. Beneath her.

The thoughts distracted her a second too long. She wasn’t prepared when the laundry room door opened and her stepfather walked inside. All she could do was act. The skillet rose on its own and uppercut Luther in the jaw. She couldn’t deny the satisfaction his shout of pain gave her as he stumbled back, hit the opposite wall, and crashed to the floor.

Her teeth bared themselves. “Ding dong, motherfucker. Someone just got their bell rung.”

He clutched his jaw, scrambling back against the wall. “You…” The pain of talking caused him to flinch. “You’re here?”

Fear. There was still fear at being this close to him, but she forced it into hiding. “Didn’t expect me, did you?” She twirled the skillet in her hand. “That’s the thing about crazy people. You can’t predict what the fuck they’re going to do.”

His head moved on a swivel, searching around him. Probably for something to use as a weapon or to block her should she swing the skillet again. Too bad towels were the only things in reaching distance. She saw the exact moment he smelled the kerosene, barely suppressed fear sparking and fading in his eyes. “What do you want, you lunatic bitch?”

Erin clucked her tongue. “That’s no way to talk to someone holding a weapon.” She ran her finger around the metal edge. “Someone with violent tendencies. Someone who you’re trying to screw out of a boatload of money.”

“She owes me that money,” her stepfather sneered. “If not for fucking around behind my back, fucking with my life, then at least for saddling me with her illegitimate brat.”

Can’t hurt me. Words can’t hurt me. “It’s too bad you see it that way. I don’t even want the money, but I’d rather send it gift-wrapped to the government than let you have it.”

“What are you going to do to stop me? Kill me?” There it was. The almost glowing evil that always transformed him. Made him appear to be a wax sculpture, frozen in hatred. Here she stood with the upper hand and his expression said, you can’t win. It was almost enough to make her believe it. Maybe he can’t be killed, she’d told Connor.

His confidence made her waver. What am I doing here? She tightened her grip around the skillet and battled back. “Yeah, maybe I am.” She took a step closer, felt her anger rising. “Don’t act so damn surprised. You don’t