Return of the Bad Girl (2 page)

Edward Willis never liked to be wrong, especially when there was proof.

Of course, if he’d known anything about those first two rough years after being kicked out, he probably would have glowed with satisfaction. Within just the first few weeks, Caroline had had less than fifty bucks to her name and had been sleeping in her car outside of Las Vegas, eating a lot of dollar tacos.

And then she’d run out of money.

But when she went around to local businesses, none of them would hire a high school dropout who was living in her car. None except Diamond of the Desert Gentleman’s Club.

Caroline had hated stripping more than she could express, but she couldn’t deny that it paid well. Within a year, she’d saved enough to move on, and when one of her favorite patrons, a kind, lonely man named Carl Jackson who owned a bar nearby, asked if she’d be interested in a bartending position, she’d agreed—with the stipulation that there’d be no dancing, stripping, or teasing involved.

Caroline ended up working for Carl longer than she’d thought she would. Along with getting her GED and taking college classes online, she found her calling in drawing people to Carl’s bar, the Whiskey and Wine Saloon, using fun theme nights. Soon she was managing the bar and eventually, two years and one bachelor’s degree in business later, Carl offered to sell it to her. Three days after her twenty-sixth birthday, she was able to sell the bar for a profit and leave Nevada in her rearview mirror.

After that, she’d taken on five more failing bars around the country, leaving every one of them in a better place than when she started and making enough for the next project in the process. But the work was exhausting and after a while, it started being more labor than love.

When her father had his heart attack, she’d already planned to stop flipping. But once she decided to move back to Rock Canyon, it had been Carl who’d suggested she start a consulting business for bars that were struggling. Now, she already had a few consultation jobs lined up in Chicago and New York, but she wanted to get settled before she did any traveling. All in all, she had high hopes for her future and her business. With little thanks to Edward Willis.

So no, Caroline hadn’t been putting on a brave face when she’d thrown her success in her father’s face. She
had
survived without his help. Without his money. She had worked hard, done whatever it took, and even graduated from college. His lack of approval or forgiveness hadn’t broken her, and no way would the opinions of a few idiots tear her down now.

Pulled back to the task at hand, Caroline walked up to the checkout stand and saw that the three biddies were still there, standing at the front of Hall’s, watching her.

“Good morning, ladies,” Caroline said, oozing sweetness. “So lovely to see you again.” Mrs. Andrews sniffed and headed toward the exit with her cart, the other two hurrying after. Innocently, Caroline handed the blonde clerk her candy and debit card. “Was it something I said?”

Chapter Two

“The past will always catch up to you, no matter how fast you run.”

—Miss Know It All

C
AROLINE STOOD AT
the end of the walkway leading to her childhood home. The April breeze blew her hair into her eyes, obstructing her vision as she stared up at the two-story ranch house. It hadn’t changed much besides a fresh coat of paint, but the perfectly landscaped fortress still seemed like a strange place instead of the warm, welcoming hearth that coming home was supposed to be.

Reaching up to tie her hair back in a loose ponytail, she rotated her shoulders and cracked her neck, trying to ease the tension.

You can do this. You just have to face him, to show him that you’re here and you aren’t going anywhere, no matter what a bastard he may be.

Caroline headed up the path and the steps, the hard candy in one sweaty hand. She shouldn’t be this nervous, especially since she’d already faced his anger in the hospital.

But there, they’d been in a less personal setting, neutral turf. Now, she was stepping into the lion’s den, where a thousand memories, both good and bad, would be waiting to add to her already emotional state.

It was funny. She’d spent three years hating him before she left and another two blaming him for everything that went wrong once he was out of her life. Yet he was still her dad. Though the times he’d been there for her were few and far between, those were the memories that stuck out to her. Like the time he’d coached her for the state spelling bee, which she had lost. But for a week there, having his complete attention had been all she cared about.

Yeah, he definitely hadn’t been the dad of her dreams, but she was almost thirty-one. She didn’t need him to be a dad now. But she would at least like to have some kind of relationship with him. If only so she didn’t add any more regrets to her list.

Once she stood on the stoop, she knocked twice and waited, expecting their housekeeper, Teresa, to open the front door.

Only when the door opened, it wasn’t Teresa.

Caroline’s heart stopped cold before resuming at an unhealthy tempo, beating against her chest painfully. Icy blue eyes stared back at her from a too-handsome face, a cupid’s-bow mouth splitting into a leer that knocked the wind out of her.

Kyle Jenner.

Valerie had warned Caroline that he worked for their father now and was basically his right-hand man. It didn’t surprise her that Kyle and her father were attached at the hip, considering how far up Senator Jenner’s ass her dad’s head had been. But she’d never thought Kyle would be in their home, especially since her father was still recovering.

“Well, hello, beautiful.”

His tone, arrogant and too familiar, sent her stomach twisting. Bile rose up and burned the back of her throat. She was being strangled by her fear, and there was nothing she could do. Every self-defense and martial arts class she had taken hadn’t cured her of the paralyzing fear this one man could create. She’d faced down three-hundred-pound drunks and an angry husband with a two-barrel looking for his wayward wife, yet Kyle’s sly smile still made her want to piss her pants.

She resisted the urge to close her eyes in an effort to block out the memories clawing to the surface. Who knew someone so beautiful could be so rotten?

“Cat got your tongue, sweet Caroline?”

“Don’t struggle, sweet Caroline.”

Fifteen years had passed since that night, and his words, his tone, still made her skin crawl with disgust.

Her father had asked her to attend a dinner party at Senator Jenner’s home in Boise, where they were going to spend the night. It wasn’t the first time she’d met the senator’s son, Kyle, but his attention on her was definitely new. He’d spent the whole night courting her, fetching her drinks and sweets, and dancing with her out on the porch. She’d felt like a princess.

Until she’d been woozy and excused herself to go lie down upstairs. Kyle had offered to help her, but she’d said she would be fine. Before she blacked out, she remembered feeling weightless and dreamy but somehow different from the sensation of being drunk. Besides, she hadn’t been drinking alcohol that night.

Later, she woke up in pain. Kyle was on top of her. Inside her. He was
raping
her, and she was too dizzy, too weak, to do much but whimper and cry.

“Please . . . stop . . .”

He hadn’t stopped, though; he’d laughed. He’d insulted her and mocked her until he finished with her.

“A virgin is just a whore in training.”

When she’d woken up the next morning, her memories had blurred together. Her head had pounded painfully, and when she’d tried to sit up, the room still spun. As she started to climb out of the bed, she’d cried out sharply at the shock of soreness between her legs. Caroline had pulled back the blankets and realized her dress was torn, her underwear gone. When she stood up, she winced, trying to fight past the fog and the hurt to remember what had happened, and then she saw it.

Blood on the sheets.

Nausea had rolled up her throat until she was doubled over on the floor, vomiting up everything she’d eaten the night before. A flash of Kyle’s laughter intensified the pain in her head, and she’d curled up on her side, sobbing.

When her father had come knocking at her door to let her know they’d be leaving in an hour, she’d been so shaky and confused, she hadn’t been able to say more than okay. Once she heard his footsteps retreating, she’d changed out of her destroyed dress and stuffed it into her backpack. She had tried to scrub the vomit out of the carpet with one of the bathroom towels, but it only seemed to make things worse.

Once she’d dressed, she headed for the stairs, but before she could take one step, someone had grabbed her arm and pushed her up against the wall.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

Caroline closed her eyes against the evil sneer of Kyle’s voice and whispered, “Let me go.”

“Not until we have a little talk about what happened last night,” he said, pulling her into the hall closet, despite her struggles against his grip.

“What happened last night? You raped me!”

Kyle closed the door behind them with a chuckle, and Caroline backed away from him, her heart hammering as she remembered that laugh, mocking her when she was begging him to stop.

“Now, if you have any thoughts of walking downstairs and telling your father I raped you, I’m going to advise that you reconsider.”

Caroline would have laughed if her throat hadn’t been closing with apprehension. Being stuck in such close quarters with Kyle had scared the hell out of her, and his dark tone hadn’t helped. Had he always been so much taller than her?

“It’s the truth—”

Kyle’s forearm was suddenly there, pressing into her throat as he shoved her back against the closet wall.

“The truth? The truth is your dad has his head stuck so far up my father’s ass, if you say anything, he’ll tell you to shut the fuck up,” Kyle hissed, increasing the pressure on her throat until she couldn’t speak. “I’m going to save him the trouble.”

He brought his face close to hers, his disgusting breath hitting her nose. She’d reached up to his arm, digging her nails into the fabric of his shirt to get him away from her neck, but he just cursed at her.

“If you tell anyone about last night, it will be your word against mine,” he said, releasing her neck only to grab her hands and pin them above her head against the wall. “But on the off chance that I
am
arrested, you can bet your ass I’ll make bail. And when I do, I’ll be coming not just for you, but your little sisters too. Val’s . . . what? Thirteen?” His lips ran across her cheek until they reached her ear, and nausea roiled again in her already empty stomach. “It won’t take much effort to get them alone, and when I do, well, they won’t be as lucky as you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I won’t bother to drug them.”

Caroline shook with fear and anger, picturing Val fighting Kyle, screaming for help. And Ellie . . .

“You wouldn’t hurt Ellie,” Caroline said harshly. “She’s only six.”

“So?”

Disbelief and terror clawed their way through her until she was heaving. Kyle released her as she doubled over, but his hand fisted in her hair before he left. “Remember what I said, sweet Caroline. I mean every single word.”

Caroline had looked up into that icy blue gaze and known he wasn’t bluffing. His father would probably swing bail, and who’s to say he’d be prosecuted anyway? With the Jennerses’ connections, Caroline herself could be the one to disappear. Or he could do exactly what he threatened . . .

Only, what were the chances they would survive the encounter? Kyle would be an idiot to leave behind three witnesses.

In the end, he’d gotten exactly what he wanted; Caroline was scared out of her mind for her sisters and had kept her mouth shut for more than a decade. Even after Kyle had hurt another girl.

Right after Valerie had started at Boise State, she had told Caroline that Kyle had raped her roommate at a party. The girl hadn’t pressed charges either, and Val figured Kyle’s father had paid off the victim and her family. Caroline had been surprised the girl’s parents wouldn’t want the man who had hurt their daughter to pay. If it had been her child, she would have gutted him.

Regardless, the thought that Kyle had gone on to victimize more women made her stomach churn, even now.

But because you never told anyone what he did to you, he was free to do it again.

She had been a kid, barely fifteen, and scared shitless when it had happened. The possibility of reliving the whole thing for the world and nobody believing her had kept her silent. That Kyle might get off anyway and come after her family was enough to give her nightmares for years.

Sometimes she’d wished she was Jennifer Connelly in
Labyrinth
, able to say,
“You have no power over me.”
But life was never like the movies. The bad guy didn’t always lose, the losers didn’t always win, and the guy and girl didn’t always ride off into the sunset.

And despite all the drunkards and bullies she’d encountered over the years, Kyle’s eyes could still render her catatonic. Just as they were now.

“I’m . . . I’m here to see my dad,” she finally managed to choke out.

He leaned against the door jam and tsked. “He’s resting, actually. Just fell asleep half an hour ago.”

“Then why are you still here?” She was proud; there was hardly a tremor in her voice.

“I’m just answering his phone and helping him. We’ve become quite close, you know, with Valerie causing him so much trouble and Ellie moving out . . . well, he’s been under a tremendous amount of stress.”

The veiled attempt to place the blame on Val and Ellie for Edward’s heart attack wasn’t lost on Caroline, but she had no witty comeback, no biting retort.

Instead, she said, “Just tell him I stopped by and give him these.”

She held out the bag of candy, and Kyle took it, but before she could pull away, his fingers wrapped around her wrist and brought her close enough to whisper, “Wouldn’t you like to stay and keep me company, sweet Caroline?”