The Price of Love

◆ 12 ◆

Caius drove with a shrug, a twitch, with his fingertips resting on the steering wheel in a fluid motion. We were speeding down an open road, hitting the 50 mile mark, yet we were not on a highway. I had a feeling Caius would not care about breaking any traffic laws if he could so effortlessly commit first degree murder. Sitting in the back of the car, the silence was thick enough to cut with a knife. I idly wondered if I was desperate enough to crash the car somehow to escape. Was it worth the risk?

No. If I returned home with so much as a broken finger, my mother would disown me.

What was in Portland?

That was one of many questions I had yet to answer, but I felt as though I should have known what it was. Portland sounded familair, as if I had heard the name in recent conversation before. Portland, Oregon. Portland, Oregon. Portland. Oregon.

There was something there for me, but I didn't know what it was.

But that was one question I would get my answer to in only a moment's time because Caius pulled up to an elaborate black metal gate with a crest embellished in stone beneath two marble gargoyles that guarded either side of the gate. As it opened to allow the car to pass onto a private property, a curving driveway lined with neat green hedges, I recognized the crest and the insignia adjourning the letter H all in one terrifying breath.

The Harrington family crest.

And then, suddenly, I remembered.

"Oh, yes. The Harringtons have just brought another estate in Portland. I don't know why Portland of all places. There's nothing in Oregon but trees. What profit is there to make?" I remembered my father say to my mother. I also remembered ignoring them, turning my attention back to mutilating my peppermint angelfish. $30,000 dinner courses and million dollar homes, it was beyond infuriating. Beau already had three estates under his name, was it really necessary to buy a fourth? What was he going to put in it? All of his extra cash? The panties of all the girls he slept with? His overwhelming sexism and masculinity? 

I crashed back to reality with a little more than panic.

"Caius..." His name left my lips in an utter. Caius was cruelty in the purest form, but he was familiarity. A thousand times over I would have chosen him over Beau. Caius was horrible, but he didn't try to hide it. It was no false danger because I knew he was bad. But Beau...Beau was hidden. His cruelty was under a mask, and that made him so much more dangerous. "Caius, please...."

He didn't answer me. Instead, he pulled up in front of a white mansion, manicured and primed to perfection. It made me sick.

A tentative hand touched my shoulder softly. I turned to look at Tommy and with just a little more heartbreak, saw the pain fill his eyes as tears did mine. "It's an empty house, Daphne."

"For how long?" My voice broke. "Beau will come. Caius, I'm begging you. I...I will do anything you want. Anything."

"It's an empty house, Daphne." Caius repeated emotionlessly. 

"Please. Please please please please please-"

"Shut her up." Caius took the keys out of the ignition and got out without a second look behind him.

I sat in the car and bawled my eyes out for a second, but it accomplished nothing but pitying glances from Tommy, Lee, and Phoenix. Especially Tommy. He seemed the most heartbroken over what was happening, and I could understand his situation. It was hard to watch stuff happen when you were helpless to stop it. I had enough of that feeling to last me a lifetime. And even though I was furious at Tommy for lying, a little piece of me still liked him. Just like a cubic centimeter of my liver or something.