Faithless (Mistress & Master of Restraint) (3 page)

“Will,” the boy softly says.

“Well, William, it’s a pleasure to meet ya,” I cordially say, extending my hand for a shake. The rule here and where I was raised is the same. It’s rudeness to shake a lady’s hand if she doesn’t do the offering first.

It’s even ruder when they don’t shake your hand. I let my
empty hand fall to my side. I try to keep the rejection off my face. My lip quivers a little bit, but we ain’t making friends out here, now are we? After all, he said he’d hurt my family.

“My name isn’t William. It’
s Wil with one L,” he stresses.

“Well, don’t get all pissy on me, mister. How was I supposed to know that?
Mr. Wil with one L,” I drawl. “Ain’t my problem that you hate your own name. What’s that short for, anyway?”

“It’s short for none
of your business,” Wil barks out, showing the first signs that I’m getting to him. He calms himself down before he speaks again. Deep breaths saw in and out between his clenched lips, moving his well-formed manly chest. “This is not going to go well, is it?”

“Depends on what the
it
is? How ‘bout you start by telling me what you’re doing here?”

“Are you really Fate?” He walks a few feet towards me
, all suspicious like. If Wil thinks he’s gonna intimidate me, he’s got another thing coming. I walk towards the boy and his feet freeze in surprise. I smirk up at him. He don’t know me from Adam. I ain’t my sister, my daddy raised me different. I walk right up to him and get into his personal space.

“Didn’t we already prove that? Pretty sure we did.” I cop an attitude that seems to confuse him more.

“Fine,” Wil dramatically sighs, fighting his urge to strangle me. “Your
daddy
was in business with my father. I’m not at liberty to discuss what this entails, but you’re going to do as you’re told,” he threatens me.

“Or what?” I get on my tippy-toes and say it in his face. “Whatcha gonna do to me that ain’t already been done before?”

“Not you, pixy. Your
momma
and that sister of yours will be the ones to pay, if you don’t do as you’re told. If you’re this tiny, it wouldn’t take anything to hurt your baby sister. What’s her name?” He puts a slender finger to his temple and taps. A malicious smirk twists his lips. “Does Faith have faith in her big sister to keep her safe? Your
daddy
can’t protect his darling daughters from a jail cell, now can he?”

I snort.
No, Faith does not have faith that her big sister will keep her safe, or else she wouldn’t be out her protecting all of us.

“What’d we do to you?” A whine
battles with the attitude in my voice.

“Nothing. You don’t have to do anything. Your
daddy
did this to you, little girl. You better be telling the truth that you’re Fate. I’m not paying for your lies.” A coldness enters his voice that spreads a chill down my spine. I fight the need to shudder and fail.

“Why pay at all?”
My attitude deflates, making my shoulders slump.

“I’m sure this is a difficult concept
for the spoiled, entitled little bitch of a scamming, con-artist embezzler,” pure hatred spews from his perfect lips. Wil sneers at me like I’m dog shit on the bottom of his shoe. Ain’t nothing I haven’t seen before, so it don’t hurt my feelings none. “You can hide in that huge house, but I’ll come in looking for you. You better hope Lara and Faith Simpson don’t cross my path before you do. You following me, here?”

A light brown eyebrow pops in question. The movement captures my interests, stalling my response. Wil’s snide sigh snaps me out of it.

“I ain’t slow,” I grumble, cheeks pinking from embarrassment- and if that doesn’t just piss me off. “You’re coercing me. What am I supposed to do?” I whine. “You’re threating to hurt my family, but you won’t say why or how. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Go ask your
daddy
,” he snidely says.

“Quit being an assmunch and twisting his name like I’m a moron for my diction. You can’t have me an entitled princess and then make fun of the way I talk. And… and I will be ask
ing my daddy about you,” I threaten without heat.

“You’ve been notified. I will be contacting you shortly with your first assignment. Fail me and I’ll flail you, understood?”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Wil with on L, sir,” I salute. “I won’t be waiting on ya, though. You best tell me when you’ll be coming around. And you ain’t coming in my house.”

“I think I’d prefer if she
just killed me.” He dramatically sighs. His feet turn towards the sidewalk like they have a mind of their own to walk away from me. His face stays rooted in my direction. His icy cold stare bores into my eyes. He don’t like me much.

“You sound like a moron. Learn to speak proper English or don’t speak
at all.” I wince, tears stinging my eyes. “It’s the first thing I’m asking of you. Don’t speak unless I speak to you and give concise answers. I doubt your intelligence at this point.”

“You’re mean,” I cry, bottom lip trembling
, my teeth snare it before it goes all out quiver.

“Second lesson: no shit. I
ain’t
your
daddy
or your buddy. I’m your enforcer, and you’re going to behave or I’m going to cut your tongue out to save my hearing and sanity. Save the tears for someone who gives a shit, sweetheart. You better toughen up or I’ll do it for you.”

I stare up at him, holding my eyes wide so the tears won’t fall.
He just took me by surprise, is all. I saw a kid about my age and saw him as a kid, not this machine-like Wil that demands I obey him. I just want to tell him that I ain’t dumb or ignorant or a moron. I want to tell him that I’m silent all the time, but for some reason I thought I could talk to him. He ain’t telling me nothing I don’t already know.

I am tough.
I am strong.
I am smart.
I can take direction.

Wil
ain’t worth my tears.

“Good, I see you’
re a fast learner,” Wil doesn’t sound pleased, just relieved. “I wasn’t kidding about hurting Lara and Faith, and your father is easy to get to, so behave and do as you’re told. Repeat after me: Notice received.”

“Notice received,” I
grumble under my breath, not wanting my voice to hurt his ears. His answering growl has me speaking up. “Notice received,” I mimic my sister’s voice, trying to sound smart and ladylike.

“Sign this,” he pulls a piece of paper out of the inner pocket of his leather jacket. “Full birth name and date it.”

I quickly sign
Fate Marjorie Simpson
without reading a single word on the contract. I’m not Fate anyway, so what do I care. I just want Wil to leave so I can put myself back together again.

“You will meet me two nights from tonight at ten p.m.” He hands me a business card
without grazing my fingers. It has an address written on the back. The front simply says Wil with a phone number listed. “It will give you enough time to speak with your father.”

“Yes, sir,” I say, properly cowed.
I’d like to keep my tongue affixed in my mouth.

“Yes, Wil, not sir. We’re the same age, pixy.
I’m younger, actually. No way will I listen to that drawl mixed with that sir shit,” he hisses. “Be there at that time. Be on time. Not early. Not late. If you don’t show up, I show up here with some perverts that like little girls- particularly blonde-haired dolls with big blue eyes that are only fifteen. Think of Faith, and behave.”

“Yes, Wil. I will be there. I’ll do anything to keep my sister safe and I mean anything,” I vow.

“That’s what they count on,” he murmurs to himself. Wil’s face twists in pain for a split-second before he masks it.

“Be a good girl, now. You speak of this with no one, except for your father and me. Understood?”

“Yes, Wil.” I promise, staring deep into his blue gaze that’s so pale it’s nearly white. Wil’s eyes remind me of a Husky pup. A Husky that’s been beaten until it turned mean.

~Chapter Two~

“Forget your key again, sis?” My sister laughs as she lets me into the house. Her tiny mouth is curved in an amused grin, blue eyes sparking with cheer.

“Something like that,” I
grumpily mumble, trying to hide my accent. It’s always exhausting to be what I’m not, so it makes me mean and nasty. “Here,” I say, while pulling the Id from my pocket. “You did well on the entrance examine. No Fundamentals of Mathematics for you. I did real good.”

“S
is, you have to try harder,” Fate chastises me. If her voice had held mocking pity I would’ve been even angrier, but she’s just trying to teach me right. “It’s ‘I did really well.’ You start Hillbrook in a few days. You can’t go another year without talking. They will eat you alive, and I won’t be able to protect you. You need to worry about appearances, especially with this scandal.” Her expression pinches when she thinks of what Daddy did to the people of this city. She isn’t sad that he’s in jail, like I am. She’s mad that he made us look bad.

“And here
, I thought I was the one always protecting my big sister,” I tease, drawing her away from Daddy’s
scandal
. Ordinarily it don’t bother me much when she picks on my diction, but Wil’s words hit deep. “You could’ve said thanks,” I grumble-
thanks for taking my test, Faith. Thanks for protecting me against the mean-looking boy, Faith. Thanks for living a different life so that momma wouldn’t be mean to me, Faith. Thanks for being the best sister in the world, Faith.
But Fate, she is blind to all things Faith-related.

“Thanks,” she bubbly squeaks
, not knowing why she’s thanking me. “Hungry?” Fate hops on her heels, her ponytail happily bobbing at the back of her head. She looks and acts my age, but deep inside, I feel older than her. It’s why I have to be the adult when she’s the big sister.

I roll my eyes at her and head towards the kitchen. “You’d die without me. I’ll work on my English if you work on your passive-aggressiveness. Just ask for something if you want it.”

“I’m hungry,” she whines. “Will you feed me, please?” She bats her long, blonde eyelashes and smiles sweetly.

“
Worst day of your life so far was when the staff was let go, wasn’t it?” I shake my head in disgust. I fix her a peanut butter and jelly while we chat. Fate isn’t even capable of that.

“It was,” she says, bashfully hiding her face
as she sits at the kitchen island.

“Sis, you have to learn how to take care of yourself. Now that you’re broke, you’re going to have to do this stuff yourself. You’re an adult now. Even the state won’t take you in.” I shudder from the thought.

Momma tried to give me to the state when Daddy brought me home. Apparently you don’t bring your dirty little secret home to your wife and expect her to keep it. No one in my parents’ social circles knows that I ain’t momma’s. They compromised. Daddy’s sister, Amelia, took me in, and I only come around when we need to keep up appearances. It would have looked strange if I didn’t go to Hillbrook. I’m starting my sophomore year in a few days. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be home until the night before school started, but Daddy’s arrest trumped everything. Dirty secret’s home and Momma’s pretending we’re a happy family.

“Couldn’t we have something better than pb&j?” Fate complains
, smushing her face up in revulsion. She pokes at the bread and peeks between the slices.

“I know your palate is diverse,” I grin at her and she giggles. “How’s that for vocabulary, sis? I ate this for months at a time
. You better get used to it. No money, no food.”

“I could go visit Regina, I suppose,” she sigh
s, a calculating light shines from her eyes- one I loathe. She takes an experimental bite of the sandwich, slowly chews, smiles to herself when she deems it tasty, and then takes a huge bite.

Sometimes I hate my sister. She is the most entitled, self-deluded person I’ve ever met. You can’t help but love her because she is blind to the fact.
She ain’t doing it to be mean, she just don’t get it. After the day I’ve had, I feel my temperature rising.

“You shouldn’
t use people like that, Fate,” I scold her, when usually I keep my trap shut. “It’s rude.”

“I’m not using her. She’s my best friend. Besides, she gets lonely in that huge house. She isn’t even allowed to eat in the big dining room, can you believe that?”

Blind. Blind. Blind
. I repeat this so my hand doesn’t fly out and smack the entitlement from her perfect face.