by R. A. Smyth
“Oh yeah, it's going to be a big payday when it all works out!” his buddy exclaims, “These pretentious fucks won’t know what hit them when The Feral Beasts come rolling in,” he continues, both of them laughing as they head outside and close the front door behind themselves.
I have no idea what they were talking about. Bossman? Is that my father? And who are The Feral Beasts?
I notice Thomas wasn't downstairs escorting the men out. I guess he's not privy to these midnight clandestine meetings either.
I'm about to stand and walk back to my room when my father’s voice reaches me from below, "What are you doing?" he bellows up at me.
I can't make out his facial expression in the dark, but I don't need to see his face to know he's pissed. I can hear it in every word he says.
"I eh... I heard a noise. Were you entertaining?” I ask, trying to divert attention away from what I was really up to.
"I had some people over, not that it is any of your business what I do in my house. You shouldn’t be spying on me or my guests, girl!”
“Right, sorry. I should be getting back to bed,” I stammer out quickly, uncomfortable alone in the dark with his sinister presence. Not even waiting for his reply, I hastily retreat back towards the perceived safety of my bedroom.
◆◆◆
Having tossed and turned for the rest of the night, going over what I saw and heard in the foyer, I am awake early the next morning. I can’t work out who these people are or how they are associated with my father. And I heard that guy say ‘bossman’. Was he talking about my father?
Getting out of bed and rushing through a shower and dressing, I hurry down to the kitchen. I’m hoping to get some information out of Thomas about my father and what he thinks is going on in this house.
I’m making myself a coffee from the super fancy Italian coffee machine, which I finally worked out how to use - and makes orgasm-worthy drinks - when just the man I’m looking for walks into the kitchen.
“Good morning Thomas, how are you today?”
“Miss Sophie, I am well. How are you? Are you settling into your routine here okay?” He asks, starting to potter about and tidy things up, even though nothing seems out of place.
“Oh yeah, I’m getting by…Thomas, can I ask you, do you know what it is that my father does?”
“Ah, you would be best to ask your father, but my understanding is that he owns many organisations. It’s none of my business what exactly he does, but it keeps him very busy.”
“Do you know what all the security and the guards at the gate are about?”
Laughing, Thomas replies “You’re father is a very private man, Sophie. I’m sure he has reason to be in his line of work.”
“How long have you known him for?” I enquire, wondering how well he really knows my father.
“Not long,” he muses, thinking over the time frame, “he moved in here and hired me about a month ago.”
“And what did he tell you about me or my mum?”
“Oh, well, he explained that she had passed away suddenly and that you were both looking for a new beginning, deciding to move to Crescentwood. I understand he came on ahead to sort everything out here, while you went back to Northern Ireland to pack up your dorm and have some time to say goodbye to your friends.” He explains, helping me piece together the lie my father has been spouting about my life before Crescentwood.
“It’s such a shame about your mum passing. It can’t have been easy, what with you being away at school. I’m sure you and your father miss her greatly.” Thomas sympathises softly, taking me in with his kind gaze.
From what I have comprehended, my father is telling people that we lived a normal family life before coming here. One where I was away at boarding school most of the year, apparently in Northern Ireland – I guess that would explain my accent to everyone – and that is where I was when my mum died. Plausible, I guess, but Thomas can’t fall for his bullshit, he just can’t. I need him to see how things really are here.
“Thomas, I didn’t know my father before I arrived here.” I try to explain, “My mum only passed away three weeks ago. I lived alone with her until she died, and he appeared out of nowhere, forcing me to come live with him.”
“Oh Sophie, dear, I know it can’t have been easy on you, spending so much time apart from your father. I’m sure it felt like he was never around before your mum passed, and I know he seems to be burying his grief in his work at the minute, but things will get easier, you both need time to work through your grief and learn to live with each other.” His eyes are full of sympathy and understanding as he repeats the same assurances he gave to Robert the other night, destroying any hope I had that he would believe what I had to say and see my father for who he really is.
“Now, I need to get started on my day, and chin up, Sophie, things will get better!” He finishes with a kind smile before walking out of the kitchen, leaving me totally stunned by our conversation.
Why did I expect him to believe me? My dad’s influential and clearly has a gift for manipulating people. The whole town will accept his story over mine. After all, I’m just some grieving teenager who, he will say, is acting out and looking for attention, if I try to dispute what he says.
A feeling of hopelessness comes over me at the situation. I have no power here and no one in my corner.
Mulling over what Thomas said, one thing from that conversation stuck in my mind; Thomas said Robert mentioned a month ago that my mother was dead, but my mother only died three weeks ago. Perhaps Thomas got his timeline wrong. Or…my father was telling people my mum was dead, before she even died. That could only mean one thing, and it’s not a thought I can even comprehend right now.
Chapter 9
PRESTON
Collapsing onto my bed, I lie back and think about those perky, luscious lips and ass that would fit perfectly in my hands.
I know I told Barrett she was too skinny, and she is too skinny, the girl needs to eat a few solid meals, but I was not expecting Sophie to look so - I don't even have a word to describe her. She’s not like any of the girls here – money hungry, half-filled with silicone, and no aspirations beyond marrying the wealthiest guy they can dig their claws into, and popping out perfect little Stepford children.
No, Sophie is real. From her lack of make-up to the Converse she wears to her ‘no fucks given’ attitude, I’ve been unable to keep my eyes off her all week.
I've had Polly, or Penny or whatever her name is, sitting on my lap every day at lunch this week, trying to distract myself from thinking about Sophie's soft curves and how her hair smells of coconut and mango when she walks past or sits in front of me in homeroom. But dammit Polly-Penny just isn’t doing it for me anymore since Sophie showed up. Every time I kiss Penny-Polly I wonder what Sophie’s soft lips and hot tongue would taste like. It’s becoming an unhealthy obsession. I wonder if I could just fuck her out of my system and be done with her.
Even Barrett is affected by her. He went over to her locker on the first day, to do some initial recon, and she speaks some gibberish to him in that hot as fuck accent of hers and he comes back all but swooning like a fucking girl. I’m sure her good looks that set her apart from everyone else here help too.
No! She can't just come into our school, our town, and mess with us. She and her good for nothing father are up to something and I'm going to find out what.
I’ve had the school trying to drive her out all week. I seriously thought, between being ignored by most of the student body and having the one-percenters bully her, she would be at breaking point before long, but she’s barely phased by what we have been doing. She doesn’t seem to care that no one talks to her and that she sits alone in the lunchroom; and she brushes off every attack we have thrown at her. Don’t get me wrong, I watch her cheeks stain red with anger and her fists ball up like she’s going to throw a punch at someone, and shit does that thought not get me hard as fuck, but she just shakes it off and moves on with her day. Ma
kes me wonder what all she has been through, to not only survive what we are doing to her, but to thrive in this environment.
That’s why I knew I had to amp things up before the weekend. Locking her in the shed at school for two hours should have been enough to have her curled up in a ball, bawling her eyes out. Hell, it would have had any girl at CWP in hysterics, just sitting in the dark, surrounded by all that dust and dirt, never mind the spiders and mice.
Once again, Sophie surprised me. We hid in the surrounding forest, watching her, and, damn, she blew out of that shed like a fucking hurricane, with her fists curled and her cheeks flushed in anger, with fire burning in her eyes. I’ve never gotten hard so quickly in my life.
Unfortunately, though, my stunt didn’t have its intended purpose of getting her to leave town. If anything, she looked more determined than ever to fight back.
Trying to forget about Sophie, I climb off my bed and walk over to the desk. I rifle around in the drawer until I find the folder I received last week, re-reading through the same handful of pages I’ve read every other day this week, and can more or less recite by heart at this point.
I started digging into the Montgomerys four weeks ago when I first met Robert Montgomery coming out of my dad’s office. My dad may be wealthy, he is the Governor after all, as well as owning several multi-million-dollar international businesses, but he's a shady fuck who’s only out to line his own pockets. You can't make it to the top and expect to keep your hands clean.
My father has always been a private person, but he has been acting stranger than normal recently. Disappearing for days and weeks on end, and just when things start to settle down, Robert Montgomery shows up, already chummy with my father and with a sob story of his own. It all seems too coincidental to me. Besides if he’s friends with my father then he can’t be the good guy he pretends to be.
So of course, I do my due diligence and gain as much information as I can about the Montgomerys, just like I have with every business partner and acquaintance my father has accrued over the last couple of years. Knowing what a piece of self-serving shit my father is, I’ve had no choice but to keep an eye on what he is up to, who he associates with. He has always been an asshole, but it’s gotten worse since my mother died. Not that he gave a shit about her, but I get the impression her death has cleared his way to increase his power and control.
Growing up, my father was never around, which was how I liked it. When it was just my mother and me. I loved it when there was just the two of us, and she would laugh and play games with me. I have memories, from when I was five or six, of us playing ridiculous games of hide and seek and chasing each other around this huge mansion, our screams and cries of laughter bringing some life to the otherwise vacuous place. It was during those times that my mother was whole, complete, happy.
When my father was home she would cave in on herself, become a shell of the woman she was, bowing to his every command, afraid to piss him off. She would do everything she could to keep me out of the way, organizing playdates with kids from school or getting the nanny to take me out for the day, so I honestly don’t know what went on when I wasn’t around; but in the dead of night I would hear them, well him, yelling at her. I would hear the slap of his hand against her skin, the bang of her body hitting the wall when he pushed her, her pleading cries for him to stop; but he never did.
Shaking off those childhood memories, I focus back on the documents in my hand. I have been building my own portfolio on my father for years now, and I am accruing quite the pile of blackmail material that I fully intend to use to take my father down. What I have is at least enough to stop him getting re-elected for Governor and, if I’m lucky, possibly even some prison time. The son of a bitch has gone unchecked for far too long. I've just been biding my time, waiting in the shadows, but with the gubernatorial elections coming up in a few months, now is the time to strike.
Everyone thinks I have a perfect life, a perfect home, perfect father, but they have no idea what goes on behind closed doors in this house.
So, after my run in with Robert, I got my private investigator to get me some information about him and his family. The initial report told me nothing of significance, all the typical information - age, date of birth, where he grew up, etc. I found the same in the file on Sophie Montgomery too, along with copies of birth certificates, marriage licenses, and a death certificate for Grace, her mom.
According to the information, Robert and Grace met in Northern Ireland, when he was over doing business. They had a whirlwind romance, quickly falling in love, and she moved to America soon after, where they got married and had Sophie.
Sophie has been going to a boarding school in Northern Ireland since she was ten, her mom probably wanting Sophie to learn about that side of her heritage.
I even have picture-perfect photos of them as a family, on vacation and at Christmas, when Sophie was home from school.
Interestingly though, my PI also found photos of Robert with a woman that definitely wasn’t his wife…It would appear he isn’t the doting, loving husband he is making himself out to be. If he’s a cheater, milking up the sympathy of his wife’s death, then what else is he capable of?
Knowing I was on to something, I asked my PI to do some more digging. That was when he found something unexpected. The piece of the puzzle that showed me the Montgomerys are not who they pretend to be.
When he went to the address Robert and Sophie used to live at, before moving here, my PI discovered they never lived there. No one in the neighbouring houses knew who the Montgomerys were. He found the same when he went to Sophie’s fancy, expensive boarding school – no one knew who she was or recognized her photo.
They had done a good job of hiding, of putting up a façade, but I was on to them now. I need to work out what they are doing here, what their game plan is. I don't know if they are in on some scheme with my father, or running their own scam, but I am not about to let them interfere with my own plans. Not when I am so close to destroying my father and getting out from under his thumb.
It’s possible Sophie has no idea what her father is up to, that she is just an innocent pawn in all of this, but I can’t afford to take that risk. Watching her take what we have thrown at her this week shows me she’s stronger than I initially expected, but that just means I’ll have to try harder to break her. So, it doesn't matter how enticingly sweet Sophie is. She and her father won't be staying. I'm going to make sure of that.
Before I can mull it over further, I hear my father bellowing my name, demanding my presence. Knowing it won’t do me any good to keep him waiting, I quickly stuff the folder back in my drawer and head down to see what that the asswipe wants.
“Yes, Father?” I ask once I’ve located him in his study - not that he ever leaves this room when he is home, so it wasn’t difficult to work out where I would find him.
Scowling at me, which is his usual face in my presence when no one else is around, he demands, “Where the hell were you today?”
“School. Then I had some things to take care of.”
“You were supposed to be at the family press conference with me this afternoon,” he snarls out in anger.
I knew I would be inciting his wrath when I skipped the press conference, but what I had to do at school was more important.
Quicker than I can blink he punches me in the stomach, causing me to cough out a breath and double over.
“That's for being a disrespectful piece of shit!” He shouts at me, his face so close I can feel his spittle hitting me with each of his words. “This is an election year and I won’t have you doing anything that could interfere with my campaign. Next time, do as I say, and turn up when and where you are told to,” he demands, grabbing me by the neck of my shirt and using the momentum to shove me against the wall before leaning into me again, “or your little buddy Barrett might find himself on the wrong side of a theft gone wrong,” he finishes, smirking cruelly at me before letting me go and shoving me towards the
door.
Fuck. I knew I was going to piss him off by not turning up today. After all, how can he present himself as the loving father and family man that the citizens of California think he is, without his sob story of a grieving husband with a loving son at his side?
I knew defying him would result in his violent outburst. I’ve grown so immune to it now, it doesn’t even bother me. I didn’t expect him to threaten Barrett though.
It’s not a move he has ever made before. He knows Barrett is the only person alive that I care about, even than myself. By threatening him, he is ensuring I follow his orders. I don’t have a choice, not if I want to protect Barrett. My father is a man of his word, I have no doubt he will follow through if I defy him again.
◆◆◆
My phone rings later that night while I’m lying in bed, once again mulling over the Montgomery files. I need to move them out of this house, put them in my safe place. Although my father is never home, I don’t trust him not to get someone to snoop through my room, so I never keep anything of value here. Tomorrow I will move the file somewhere safer.
Looking at the screen, I see it’s Barrett calling. Setting the file down, I answer his call before it can go to voicemail. Barrett is as good as my brother. He’s the only person in this world I trust and confide in. The only one who knows what my life is truly like, and he’s stuck by me through it all. I owe him my life.
“Hey man, what’s up?” I ask as I answer the phone.
“Hey man, I was thinking about our little problem,” he muses, referring to Sophie, “and I think I have an idea.”
“I’m all ears man, clearly what we’re doing so far isn’t working”
“Okay, so…..”
Chapter 10
SOPHIE
The bell rings, not only signifying the end of class for the day but the end of yet another week. And what a long week it has been. Thankfully, though, it has been rather uneventful, other than having the watchful eyes of Preston and Barrett following me everywhere and the one-percenters trying their best to piss me off. A situation that I am more than content with. Yet I feel like this is the calm before the storm.
