Collateral by Roxie Rivera

Author:Roxie Rivera [Rivera, Roxie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Literature & Fiction, Romance, Contemporary, New Adult & College, Multicultural & Interracial, Mystery & Suspense, Suspense, romantic suspense, new adult
Amazon: B00KPFYZNI
Barnesnoble: B00KPFYZNI
Goodreads: 21936394
Publisher: Night Works Books
Published: 2014-04-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

My ringing cell phone dragged me out of a fitful sleep. Inhaling sharply, I scrubbed a hand down my face and reached for my phone. Without looking at the screen, I swiped my finger across it and lifted the device to my ear. "Hello?"

"Aston."

My stepbrother's deceptively warm voice jerked me fully awake. "Calvin. Where are you?"

"Well, it's an interesting thing. You see, I have Baby. In fact, I'm sitting in her right now. With a can of gasoline and a box of matches," he added with a shrill laugh. "Can you imagine the bonfire? It's going to be beautiful, probably even prettier than the time I burned all of your mother's photos."

My stomach churned painfully at the memory. He had gathered up every photo of her in the house along with her wedding dress and other mementos my father had kept for me, taken them outside and thrown them into a flaming fire pit. That had been the night Daddy finally realized I wasn't being a jealous, petty little girl who wanted to break up his new marriage. It was also the last night Calvin had lived in our home. By the next morning, he had been packed off to a military academy. Not that it had helped any…

Tired of his cruel games, I sighed with resignation. "What do you want?"

"I want what's mine."

"And what is that? You were given everything that was promised to you in the will." I had given him more than that, actually, in the hopes that he would go away and never bother me again.

"I want my father's company." His venomous voice made me shudder. "Jack stole it from me the same way he stole my mother."

He sounded like a petulant child. It occurred to me that he might be a man in age, but he was perpetually frozen as a bitter, sadistic little boy. "Is that what this is about? Is this why you've been tormenting me since we were kids?"

"I tormented you because it made me laugh to see you cry. If you weren't so fucking weak, I might have stopped after the night I gave you to Russ, after your father finally understood what it felt like to have someone take something precious from you."

The way he spoke made me wonder what Russ had told him about that night. Had Russ lied about raping me to protect me from Calvin? Had my father gone along with the lie and allowed Calvin to think he had succeeded in his vicious trick to protect me? As far as I knew, Russ and Calvin had never spoken again after that night. Was there another man I owed a favor and a debt of gratitude?

"The company is gone, Calvin. It was completely dissolved."

"Not all of it," he argued. "Jack kept everything from the research and development department of Darbin Industries inside his safe."

I tried to remember exactly what the company my father had gobbled up in one of his acquisitions actually did. It was something to do with satellites.

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