Lucas leveled a heavy stare at him but said nothing.
“Mom,” Emily said.
“What, baby?”
“I left my backpack at Jill’s house. It has my school stuff in it.”
The three men ate, watching her.
“That will be okay, baby,” Karina said. “You have to change schools anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because we live here now and you’ll go to a special school.” The words came out painfully.
“Do I have to ride the bus?”
Karina swallowed a lump that had formed in her throat. Acknowledging where they were was hard, as if she were driving nails into her own coffin. “No.”
“Why do we have to stay here?”
“This is where I work now.”
“Your mother is a slave,” Daniel said. “Lucas owns her.”
If only she could have reached across the table, she would have hit him with a closed fist so it would hurt. Karina forced neutrality into her face, pulling it on like a mask. Show nothing. Betray no weakness.
“Is a slave better than a payroll supervisor?” Emily asked.
“They’re not that different,” Karina lied. So many times before she had thought she worked like a slave, pulling in long hours, picking up project after project, perpetually behind, trying to get to the bottom of her to-do stack. She thought she had experienced the worst life could throw at her. All of it seemed so pointless now. Her memories belonged to someone else, a happier, flightier, younger person. She had a new life now and new priorities, chief of which was the welfare of her daughter. She had to keep Emily safe.
Emily poked her pancake with a fork. “What about the house? All our stuff is there . . . my Hello Kitty blanket . . .”
“We’ll get new things.” She cast a quick glance around the table but none of the three men said anything to break down her fragile promises.
“Will I get my own room?”
Karina looked to Lucas. Please. Don’t separate me from my daughter.
He wiped his mouth with a napkin, his movements unhurried. “You have to stay at the main house. You can come to visit your mother on weekends. We’ll set up a room.”
“I want to stay with Mom.” Emily’s voice was tiny.
“You can’t,” Lucas said.
Emily bit her lip.
“You’ll have a good place at the main house. A room you’ll share with a nice girl. Toys. Clothes. Everything you need. If anybody tries to be mean to you, tell them you belong to Lucas. Everyone is afraid of me. Nobody will harm you.”
“No,” Emily said.
Lucas stopped eating. Karina tensed.
“Are you telling me no?” Lucas asked. His voice was calm.
Emily raised her chin with all of the defiance a six-year-old could muster. “I’m tired and I’m scared, and I’m not going. I’m staying with my mom. Are you going to yell at me?”
“No,” Lucas said. “I don’t need to.”
“You’re not my dad. My dad left.”
Lucas glanced at Karina.
“I’m a widow,” she said quietly.
“I’m not your father, but I’m in charge,” Lucas said. “You will obey me anyway.”
“Why?” Emily asked.
Lucas leaned forward and stared at Emily. “Because I am big, strong, and scary. And you are very small.”
“You’re not nice.” Emily held his gaze, but Karina could tell it wasn’t out of courage. Emily had simply frozen like a baby rabbit looking into the eyes of a wolf.
“It’s not a nice world and I can’t always be nice,” Lucas said. “But I will try and I won’t be mean to you without a reason.”
Karina put her hand on his forearm, trying to tear his attention away from Emily. It worked; he looked at her.
“Please.” It took all of her will to keep the tremble out of her voice. “Please let her stay.”
“I want to stay,” Emily said. “I’ll be good. I’ll do all my chores.”
“I’ll think about it,” Lucas said.
Chapter 4A half hour later, breakfast was finished. The men rose one by one, rinsed their plates, and loaded the dishes and silverware into the dishwasher with surprising efficiency. Karina put the last of the food away. Henry had stepped out, but Daniel remained in the kitchen, leaning against the counter, watching her. Lucas loomed by the door, watching Daniel.
“Can I go outside?” Emily asked.
Karina paused. “I don’t think that is a good idea.”
“Why not?” Daniel arched an eyebrow.
“Because there are scary birds out there.”
“There are scary birds? What kind of scary birds?”
“It’s safe,” Lucas said. “The net keeps everything out.”
Karina remembered the bird’s body hitting the invisible fence. “What if she walks into this net?”
“She’d have to walk a mile and a half down the hill before she reached it,” Lucas said.
“I want to see the birds,” Emily said. “Please?”
It would get them out of the house, away from the men and out into the open. She could get a better look around. Maybe she would see a road, or a house, some avenue of escape. Karina wiped her hands with a towel and hung it on the back of the chair. “Okay. But we’re going to stay by the house.”
“I’ll come with you,” Lucas said.
All she wanted was the illusion of being alone with her daughter. He wouldn’t let her have it. Karina clenched her teeth.
“That’s right,” Daniel said. “Bite your tongue. It will come in handy.”
Lucas gave him a flat stare. For a moment they stood still, then Daniel rolled his eyes and casually wandered out of the kitchen into the side hallway. Lucas moved in the opposite direction, through the doorway. Karina took Emily by the hand. “Come on, baby.”
The hallway cut through the house, straight to the door. They passed rooms: a library filled with books from floor to ceiling on the right, a large room with a giant flat-screen TV on the left, and then Lucas opened the door and they stepped on the porch into the sunlight. The yard was grass, small scrawny oaks and brush flanking it on both sides. A path led down the hill into the distance. To the left a huge oak out of sync with the rest of the scrub forest and probably planted, spread its branches.
A shaggy brown dog stepped out from behind the oak. As tall as a Great Dane, it trotted forward on massive legs, its long tail held straight behind it. There was something odd in the way it walked, waddling slightly, more like a bear than a dog.
Karina stepped between Emily and the beast.
The animal stopped. Large brown eyes stared at them from a massive head crowned with round ears.
“Don’t worry, he’s tame,” Lucas said behind her.
The meld of dog and bear peered at Lucas and let out a short snort.
“He doesn’t like it when I phase into my attack variant,” Lucas said. “It weirds him out for a couple of days. Cedric, don’t be a dick. Let the kid pet you.”
Another snort. She couldn’t really blame the dog. Considering how Lucas looked in his “attack variant” it was a wonder the dog stuck around at all.
Cedric pondered them for a long moment and waddled over. Emily stretched out her hand. Karina’s insides clenched into a tight knot.
Cedric nudged Emily’s hand with his nose, snorted again, and bumped the bulge in the front pocket of her hoodie.
“What do you have in your pocket?” Karina asked.
Emily dug into her pocket and pulled out a half-eaten apple.
Not again. Karina kept her voice gentle. “Emily, you know you’re not supposed to have that . . .”
Cedric sniffed at the apple. His mouth gaped open, revealing huge teeth.
“He won’t hurt her,” Lucas said with absolute certainty in his voice.
Emily held the apple out. Very carefully, almost gently, Cedric swiped it off her hand, sat on his behind, and raised the fruit to his mouth, holding it with long, dark claws. The black nose sniffed the apple, the jaws opened and closed, and the beast bit a small chunk from the fruit and chewed in obvious pleasure.
“He likes it!” Emily announced and jumped down off the steps into the yard. “Come on, Cedric!”
“Where are you going?” Karina took a step to follow.
“Just to the tree.”
The oak was barely fifty feet away. Karina bit her lip. Her instincts told her to clutch her child and not let go, but Emily needed to feel normal. She needed to play. Her daughter didn’t understand how precarious their situation was, she had no idea how vulnerable they were, and Karina had to keep it that way.
Emily was looking at her. “Can I go?”
“Yes. You can go.”
Emily headed toward the tree. Cedric finished his apple in a hurried gulp, rolled to his paws, and followed her to the tree.
Lucas leaned on a porch post next to Karina. She had expected him to somehow shrink in daylight, as if he were some sort of evil creature of the night whose power faded with the sun, but he remained just as big and menacing. If anything, the sun made it worse—she could see every detail of his severe face. Everything about him, the way he leaned against the rail, the way muscle bulged on his arms and chest, the way he surveyed the yard, inspecting his territory, communicated predator.
Lucas raised his face to the sun, closed his eyes, and smiled. The smile lasted only a moment, gone like a leaf blown by the breeze, but she had seen it. He was handsome and the danger he emanated sharpened that beauty to a lethal edge. He was beautiful in the same deadly way a tiger was beautiful, and now she was locked in a cage with him.
If he was on her side, nobody would ever bother them.
At the tree, Emily picked up a twig and tossed it. Cedric looked at the twig and back at her, slightly puzzled.
“What is he?” Karina asked.
“A bear-dog. We played with their genetics a few generations back. He’s gentle like a collie with the kids and he’s a lot smarter than an average dog. What’s the problem with her having an apple?”