Escaping The Beast: A Darkhills Romance (The Darkhills Series Book 2) by Elizabeth Greene (young adult books to read TXT) 📕

had somehow burrowed his way into her heart and she didn’t know where to begin to extract him. What if she didn’t? What if she played his game for a while longer? The temptation was so strong. Even in that moment she could be lying tangled up in his bed with him, or even just sitting in the Rose Garden debating with him about whatever she chose to pick a fight with him about. If she chose to stay with him she’d have great sex, be surrounded by all of life’s fancy things, she’d eat like a queen and her days would be hers to do with as she pleased. Until she grew old and he got bored, then her heart would be well and truly broken and she would be even more of a broken shell than she already was.

She knew she was broken inside but therapy was expensive and she would rather paint over the cracks and fix things the only way she knew how. By bunkering down and putting in the work, proving that she could and would survive on her own.

It was better if she could just walk away from him now. Yes, she’d had a taste of the most blissful kind of love, but it was all she would ever have.

Her phone began ringing from the bottom of her backpack that still rested on her desk chair. The annoying ringtone told her who it was before she even saw his name lit up on the screen.

“Father,” she answered between gritted teeth.

“Kitty Kat! How’s my little doll face?”

“Peachy. What do you want? Have you come up with the money?” She asked, the tightening in her chest confusing her.

“Fuck no. I ain’t got a quarter mil, but I could do. I could have a whole lot more than that- we could have a whole lot more than that,” Kyle Daxton exclaimed eagerly.

A quarter of a million dollars?! Katherine hadn’t even bothered to ask how much money he owed, she knew it must’ve been a lot otherwise she wouldn’t be in her current predicament, but $250k was serious debt.

“Why are you ringing me then? What do you mean you could get the money- go and get it and then get back up here,” Katherine replied. She didn’t have an audience now so she would speak to her father exactly how she wanted.

“That’s the thing, baby doll, I’m going to get that money from him. What I owe him and more!”

“What the Hell are you talking about? Have you been drinking?” Katherine screwed up her face at the phone in annoyance.

“That freaky Lord of wherever the fuck, is going to give me everything and you and me are gonna walk out of there scot-free. I got a plan.”

“I will walk out of here scot-free, Dad! It’s your debt, not mine I’m just here as your safety deposit until your sorry ass is dragged back to work off what you owe. And I’m betting you’ll be here until your ninety with a quarter mil to pay off.”

“Would you just listen to me?” Kyle snapped at her, “This ain’t gonna work unless you play your part.”

“Dad, whatever it is I don’t want any part in it.”

“You wanna get out of there, right? You wanna pay off those loans you got for that fancy college degree don’t you?” Kyle cajoled.

“How do you know I took out loans?” Katherine bristled.

“Oh, sweetheart, the bank told me they wouldn’t pay out anymore to you when I tried to get a hold of some cash a while back. Anyway, it doesn’t matter,” Kyle said quickly, “you want to get away from there right? Away from that freak?”

Katherine was all kinds of angry, she didn’t know where to start. He had tried to take out money against her name? Thank god the bank had turned him down. It would explain why they wouldn’t extend her credit limit though. She probably had a black mark against her name.

“He’s not a freak,” she snapped.

Of all the things that were running through her head, that was not what she expected to come out of her mouth, but sure enough, her protective hackles had come up and it looked like she considered Lucian in her exclusive bubble of things that she would protect.

“So you like him. Even better, my plan will come off easier if you’ve already got an in with him,” Kyle mused, “so you figure out what that guy is yet?”

A cold dread filled her and everything, even the blood in her veins, seemed to slow.

“Other than a gentleman?” Katherine said carefully.

“Yeah, a gentleman of the blood-sucking variety,” Kyle snorted, “he’s a vampire, Kitty. A bonafide, real-life vampire. I didn’t want to believe it at first but there was just too much going on with the guy for me to not see it.”

“Are you crazy? You have been drinking, haven’t you?” Katherine scoffed, trying hard to hide her internal panic.

“I ain’t crazy- tell me, why are the curtains always pulled during the day? Why don’t he ever walk about in the day? How come all his business deals are done at night?”

“What? Are you serious, Dad?” Katherine continued with the charade, “he might be a bit of a night owl and he might like his privacy but I don’t see how that makes him a vampire.”

“There’s more to it than that, he can do things. Mind things. I felt him do stuff in my head, it was like I was doing things and saying things that I had no control over. And he would just suddenly appear in places, like in a blink of an eye kinda fast,” her father persisted.

“I really don’t think Lucian is responsible for your irrational and impulsive behaviour,” she snorted.

“Lucian?” Kyle asked quickly, “Baby doll, you have gotten to know him, haven’t you?”

“There are only two of us here, of course I’ve gotten to know him,” she snapped back, her palms beginning to sweat.

“I was there for three long months and we were never