Faithless (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (5 page)

“They treating you right around here? You look better than I thought you would.” I sit opposite of him, eager energy radiating off my being. The guard don’t leave us, just hangs out near the door looking bored out of his skull.

Daddy hesitates before he sits down. A lifetime of hugs plays out on his face. What’s so wrong with a hug, they already determined I was weapon free? What, am I gonna rip out my underwire
so he can make a shiv? He settles opposite of me, still looking like he wants to touch, like it’s aching him. I curl my fingers around my thighs to stop myself, and give him a sweet smile.

“I’m doing good, hun. Listen, I have some bad news
… I… I ain’t getting out of here. The case against me is airtight.” He hangs his head down real low, all sad-like. I want to hug him to make him feel better, but that’s against the rules. His orange jumpsuit makes him look even paler than usual. His brown curls need clipped and his blue eyes are red-rimmed from tearing up. The fine lines at the corner of his mouth and eyes have deepened over the past few months since I’ve seen him last. Stress is aging my daddy.

“Oh, Daddy,” I cry. “Why’d you do it
in the first place? You knew you was gonna get caught!”

“Sometimes we do things we don’t want to do, even though we know it’s wrong.” I shake my head, agreeing. That’s something he’s said to me time and time again.

“Can I move back to Aunt Amelia’s? I don’t need no Hillbrook. We can’t afford it, and now that this happened, we’ll be blacklisted anyway.”

“You have to stay with Lara, hun.
This year’s tuition was paid up long before I was arrested, same with Fate’s…” He pauses, fortifying himself for some reason. “I’m sorry.” He gives me puppy dog eyes. “Hon, Amelia was arrested last night as my accomplice. I didn’t want you to find out like this, darling. There’s no going back to West Virginia. You’re stuck here.”

I numbly stare at him and
all I wanna do is cry. I sniffle a little, but he gives me that
chin up, baby girl
look. “Daddy, is there any chance I can find my real momma? I still have two years until I can be on my own. Lara is worthless and Fate is… Fate is Fate. She can’t see anything but herself,” I complain.

“
That woman’s not an option,” he says coldly, the usual warmth in his voice turns icy. “Just stay out of Lara’s way. You don’t have to listen to her. Just do as you wish. You’re smart enough to survive. I don’t know what you’re going to do with our assets frozen. I’m sure Lara is scouting out her next husband already. I’m just glad Fate is old enough that this won’t affect her too much. She doesn’t have your determination or instincts.”

“What you’re really saying is that she’ll find some nice man to leech off of for the rest of her days,” I snidely say.

“I won’t be having dissention between you two. Fate is just a different kind of woman. She doesn’t know about real life, darling. She’s going to school and she will work when she’s out. Fate’s a good woman, but not strong like you.”

Daddy’s being kind. The difference between me and my sister is that she’s a kitten and I’m a feral cat- the tamed and the wild. It hurts my heart that he prefers a woman that’s soft, but he raised me to be hard.

“Baby, what are those thoughts flashing across your face? You’re thinking too hard,” he softly murmurs in his comforting voice laced with our accent. Daddy gives me a crooked smile, just a curl of his lips at the left-hand corner. A few months ago that smile would have melted my heart- today, I see the conniving edge to his lips and the cunning light shining from his eyes.

“Nothing, Daddy
,” I quickly say to remove the look of betrayal from my face. “I’ll always take care of Fate, if ya want. I know she can’t fend for herself. Lara can starve for all I care. You can go ahead and ask and I’ll just say no. She’s on her own,” I growl, attitude reaching epic heights.

“Just take care of your sister, that’s all I ask. Knowing you can take care of yourself and Fate will make my time in here easier. I’
m up for forty years. I doubt I will see the light of day again.” He folds his arms on the table and slumps down- crestfallen.

“You’ll just make a new
kind of life for yourself on the inside, is all,” I optimistically offer. “You’ll fit in anywhere. Isn’t that what you taught me, Daddy? We just have to blend into the middle.”

“That’s right, baby. That’s why you’ll survive anything.” He smiles at me
, all prideful, and my heart swells.

“Two minutes,” the
guard absentmindedly warns.

“Daddy, I forgot. I came here for a reason. A boy named Wil, he came looking for Fate. I told him I was her
. He’s telling me I have to listen to him now. I don’t know what he’s talking about. He said he was JJ’s son and that his daddy is deceased. He threatened me, thinking I was Fate. He said he’d hurt me.”

Daddy’s face drains of blood in an instant. He goes from rosy health to a death-pallor. He wheezes and looks faint. He doesn’t speak for so long that I
wait for the guard to tell us our time is up. The guard doesn’t because he’s too worried about Daddy’s condition.

“Are you alright, Mr. Simpson?” The guard calls, breaking into Daddy’s inner-turmoil.

“Thank you, Ralph. I am fine,” he robotically mutters, and then turns back to me. “Wil thinks you are Fate, yes?” The look on Daddy’s face makes my blood run cold. He also says Wil’s name like Wil is the boogie man… a boogie man Daddy’s met plenty of times and knows what he’s capable of.

“Yeah
, Daddy, I had her Id on me and I showed it to him.” I wince, realizing I just admitted to a crime in front of Guard Ralph, and that I showed the same Id to get in here to see Daddy.

Well, shit!

“Good.” He breathes in real deep. “It has to stay that way. Your sister can’t handle what would be required of her. I’m sorry to put this on you. You’re a child and this is my mistake. I thought… since I’m still breathing that they’d leave you girls alone.”

“What’s going on, Daddy?
” I start to panic, picking up on his emotions. He’s freaking out, too. “Do I just do what Wil says? You know I don’t believe in blindly following anyone. Will he really hurt Fate and Lara if I don’t?”

“Remember what I said, sometimes we do things we don’t want to do, even though we know it’s wrong? Remember that as you do those things.
” He holds my gaze, lending me strength. “Yes, darling, you have to do what Wil says and he
will
hurt them if you don’t,” he stresses. “He won’t have a choice in the matter. If you disobey him, he gets punished, and then he has to punish you. Just do as he says,” he orders.

“I
’ll hurt him if I don’t do as Wil says?” I scowl, narrowing my eyes at Daddy. “That don’t make no sense.”

“Yes, the man he works for is ruthless. He will hurt Wil for failing, and Wil, in turn,
will be angry for the punishment, and then Wil will hurt you even worse.” Daddy leans forward, like he’s gonna take my hand. I reach out to him, and instantly snatch my hand back- I’m no rule breaker.

“That’s the whole point. He will keep you in line to protect himself and those he holds dear. The punishment, i
t could be something simple, like a beating, or something far worse. Trust me and obey Wil.” His eyes drill the need for my compliance into my mind. “I don’t want to know what they would do to two beautiful girls. As long as I’m breathing, I thought you’d be safe. If they are coming for Fate to take my place, then I’m not long for this earth.”

“Daddy?”
sharply shrieks from my throat, terror building and bubbling up until my ears ache from the sound. My entire body trembles with fear. “They ain’t gonna hurt you, are they? Would they really hurt Fate in that way? I ain’t worried about me, I can take it… but she can’t,” I keen.

“Miss S
impson, your visitation is over.” Ralph’s rubbing his ears thanks to my outburst. “Please rise and leave the room,” the guard commands.

I stand on shaky legs,
the room spinning around me. All I can think is
this can’t be real. This can’t be how it ends
. Wobbling on my knees, I walk towards the door. “I love you, Daddy. I promise to take care of Fate. I won’t let you down.” I hold his eyes, imparting the truth in my words- vowing to keep my sister safe. My eyes drink Daddy in as my soul weeps in agony. A part of me, intuition maybe, knows that this is the last time I will ever see my daddy.

“I love you, too,” he chokes on a sob.
“And you could never let me down, my Faith. I’m so very proud of you, baby girl.” His eyes are so sad, defeated, that I burst out bawling- tears running down my cheeks, snot dripping off the tip of my nose. But nothing can tear my eyes from my father. “Just promise me one thing,” he pleads, eyes tearing up.

“Anything,” I
breathe my vow. Ralph tugs on my sleeve, pulling me from the visitation room. I drag my feet trying to hear what my daddy needs from me. I grip the doorframe with my fingertips, holding tight as I’m yanked away, tearing my nails down to the quick. “Daddy,” I scream again, desperate to know what he needs from me.

“Don’t eve
r let them know you aren’t Fate. She can’t handle what’s required for the job,” he yells from the room as Ralph roughly manhandles me. “You were born for it,” are the last words I will ever hear him speak.

~Chapter Four~

“You’re
late,” is the first thing I hear as the door swings open. Wil quietly seethes as he sharply yanks me from the hallway. I struggle as his fingertips bite into my upper arm and twist. I try to walk, but he won’t allow it. He holds my arm up so high that my feet don’t touch the ground. I flail about trying to keep upright, breath gasping from my mouth- the sound filling the apartment. Wil roughly drags me into his apartment and shoves me into a kitchen chair. The hard wood bruises my backside as I bite back the pained noise that threatens to spill from my throat.

Wil sputters obscenities underneath his breath as he
stalks back to the door and gently shuts it. His quiet demeanor conflicts with his fierce anger. Wil smoothly walks back and softly sits across from me and clasps his hands on the table top. We sit opposing one another- a true face-off.

“I got lost-”

He cuts me off. “Save the excuses,” Wil hisses. “Let me guess, your hundred-thousand dollar car broke down? You want to test my patience? Oh, I know,” he gives me a nasty smile, a snarled twist of his menacing lips. “You got lost because you’ve never been to the slums? That sounds about right.”

I hate that patronizing
tone Wil gets when he thinks he knows me- like I’m a moron and he is always right. He makes it sound as if having money makes you the lowlife. He knows nothing, with his snide remarks and his nasty smirk. Money don’t mean shit- it’s who you are on the inside. Right now, I don’t like Wil anymore than he likes me- which ain’t much.

“I got lost-”

“It was rhetorical, pixy. Wrap your ignorant mind around that word, and learn it. It means-”

“I know what it means, asshole!” I shout. “AH!” My head whips back
before I feel the sting. I hadn’t even seen him move. Heat licks my cheek from the belt he inflicted with the back of his hand. I sit stunned, no doubt my eyes are huge, but I show him no other reaction. Not my first smack, but definitely the first from a grown man. I rub the pain away and it intensifies the heat. He didn’t hit me like I was a girl. He hit me like he was pissed, and it didn’t matter none that I was a girl.

“You forgot ru
le one and broke rule three,” Wil cruelly says, a humorless smirk twists his lips- like he expected me to fuck up and was waiting for the opportunity to bitchslap me. “Don’t make me do that again,” he warns. Wil sits across from me, waiting expectantly. He’s not even out of breath. It’s as if he never moved.

“I won’t, Wil,” I robotically mutter
, but the defiance is difficult to hide in my tone.

“Somehow, I doubt that
,” he maliciously replies. “You were five minutes late. I don’t need an excuse, because a woman of your age should be responsible enough to be on time. If you can’t be, leave early. If you’re not sure where you’re going, find it earlier in the day. Learn this,” Wil snaps his command.

“Yes, Wil,”
I bite out. My true nature fights the pull to agree. But I’m not stupid, that smack was the least punishment Wil will dole out. I don’t want to find out what is next in is arsenal of punishments.

“Wr
inging your arm was for being late and I struck you for talking out of turn,” he calmly recites my punishments like we’re talking over sweet tea about the neighbor’s husband running on her- just being friendly with a nasty edge. “Do you understand me?”

“Yes, Wil.”

“Good. Now, why were you late?” He stares at me, Wil’s version of a nasty smirk on his lips. His bottom lip twists into a snarl; it’s not a nice expression.