No Perfect Princess by Angel Payne, Victoria Blue Read Free Book Online Page B

me. “San Diego certainly suits you. Looking well, son.”
    “I’m not your son.”
    I gave myself an inward fist bump for straining the emotion from it. Probably could’ve performed brain surgery with less difficulty.
    The little clicks off his tongue presented a different challenge. My senses went Pavlovian, heartrate spiking and stomach clenching as if I were twelve again, face down on my bed after I’d threatened to call the cops on his ass if he didn’t stop backhanding Mom—and he prepared to punish me double for it. Those tongue clicks. Then his deadly pacing. Then the thwack of the belt as he pulled it from the loops—
    Breathe.
    Breathe .
    No pacing. Only crickets. The wind through the groves. A car passing up on the highway.
    “Now, now. Is that any way to say hello to your one and only uncle? I thought your mother did better than that. Maybe I should’ve come around more to help.”
    “Hmmm. Yeah. Too bad about that. Restraining orders can be such fuckers.”
    Bulls-eye . His gaze tightened enough to confirm my hit. “Your welfare was always my primary concern, my boy.”
    I’m not your goddamn boy, either. Nothing of mine is yours, you depraved bastard. “Since this conversation is already a waste of my time, let’s just cut to the chase. What the fuck do you want, Dec?”
    He spread his arms, going for the saint-on-stained-glass pose. I thought of telling him that shit didn’t work when you were Lucifer incarnate, but why spoil the laugh? “Only what’s best for you and Diana.”
    “Leave Mom out of this.” You’re in dangerous territory now, fucker.
    “Then leave your little girl emotions out, too.” He squared his shoulders and bounded forward. My grunt, shocking even me when it burst like a defensive elephant, stopped him short. “Talk some sense into her. You read the papers, listen to the news. The whole state is in a damn drought, and—”
    “I told you to leave her out of this.” The words sliced at myself as much as him. I should’ve seen through him like crystal a full minute ago.
    “So you think you’re being a ‘good son’, letting her have her way about this? Being her sweet golden boy by letting her keep the river a little secret from everyone?”
    “If it was ‘little’, I doubt you—or your oil company buddies—would still be jizzing in your rompers about it.” Calculated glare. “A river on pristine private property, fed by a boundless underground spring—the perfect source to help out with the off-shore fracking they want to start down here. How convenient.”
    A heavy breath whooshed from him. Fuck, I hoped he really hadn’t done the jizzing in his pants thing. Yech. Could’ve lived without that visual. “Instead of phrasing it like we’re about to rape puppies, why not think of it as keeping your mother financially comfortable for the rest of her life?”
    “She’s comfortable the way she is.”
    “Really, now? Hmmm. If you say so, then. Who would I be to tell a man he doesn’t know the needs of his own mother?”
    His tone, morning lake calm, was an insinuation of the opposite. I swore not to nibble his bait—but shit, I already had. The new knot in my gut said as much.
    Was that instinct wrong? Who was I to claim what Mom really wanted now? She’d married into this life. Fallen head over heels for Dad when their paths collided at the base in San Diego, he freshly returned from the Middle East, she a civilian contractor. The second he got out, they were married and moved up here. A couple of years later, I came along.
    She’d known nothing but this farm for a very long time.
    Did she want to?
    The blank space my mind gave as answer only sharpened my angry retort. “Fuck off, Declan.”
    He chuckled. Smug ass wart. “Glad we had this chat, Michael.” He stashed his phone and cocked his head. “By the way, a little birdie tells me you’re planning on staying longer than a few days this time. I’ll be around, too. Give a holler if you want