“Word of advice. Treat Carla and Jarrod with respect. They’re here to make your life easier, but they won’t have a lot of incentive to do that if you make theirs hell.”

“Then I’ll fire them and hire new flunkies.”

“Christ, Rock. Turnover costs money. Carla and Jarrod are excellent employees. Why risk losing them? They’re also very nice people.”

“Why’d they work for Dad, then?”

“I told you. He treated his employees very well. Way better than he treated his family.” My brother shoved his hand through his hair.

Reid looked troubled, and for the first time, I wondered something.

My eye throbbed. I’d had black eyes courtesy of my father many times, but this one felt like it had sliced into my brain. Alexandria, our nanny, gave me a raw steak. “Hold this against your eye, sweetie. It will help. I get you some aspirins.”

Alexandria was the only person in the household who showed any of us any affection, and even that wasn’t a lot. A pet name or two, sometimes a kiss on the forehead when we went to bed. Never a hug. Never a smile.

My fourteenth birthday was only two days away. Aside from the throbbing in my eye, my back and my legs also hurt. Growing pains, Alexandria said. I’d shot up six inches over the summer. I was two inches taller than my mother now, and I was always starving.

Except for now.

Right now I felt like I was going to retch.

But I wouldn’t. I’d hold it back as I’d learned to do. Wasn’t worth it. I wouldn’t do anything to show the rat bastard who was my father that his actions bothered me.

I’d stopped crying over his beatings five years ago, and three years ago, I’d perfected holding back puke.

Four more years.

In four more years, I’d be eighteen, and I’d get out of this house for good.

Alexandria returned with the aspirin, as she called it. It was actually a large dose of ibuprofen. I guess I should have been thankful for small favors. The beating before this one had been so bad that the nanny had stolen a few pills from my mother’s stash. I didn’t know what they were, but they’d knocked me out like someone had clocked me with a hammer.

“What you do to make your daddy so mad at you?” Alexandria handed me a glass of water so I could swallow the pills.

What had I done? Nothing. I’d put myself between him and my brother Reid. Reid was only nine, but he had a big mouth. He was resting peacefully in bed, his cute face unmarred thanks to me.

I swallowed the water and pills with a gulp. “Nothing.”

“Nothing.” Alexandria shook her head. “You always say nothing. Daddies don’t beat their kids for doing nothing!”