Willow Charmont sat across the table from her father and pushed the potatoes around on her plate. She hadn’t had much of an appetite in the last fourteen years, and it seemed that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.

It was hard to have an appetite when you were twenty-two and trapped under the same roof as a murderer.

“Is the food not to your liking, my willow tree?”

“The food is fine,” she responded curtly. It was looking at his face that caused her appetite to subside.

“Then why aren’t you eating?”

“I don’t have an appetite.”

“Are you feeling ill?”

“No.”

“That’s good to hear. We have an incredibly important dinner tomorrow night.”

“Yes, dinner.” The dinner where she would be promised to the only other man who disgusted her in the same way her father did. Another murderer she would be expected to share a home with.

“You don’t seem excited. Do I need to remind you how important this is?”

“No, of course not. Why wouldn’t I be excited to marry a man responsible for killing innocent people?”

She jerked when her father’s hand hit the table. “You will watch that tongue of yours, Willow. You will be grateful for the opportunity to marry such a wealthy and powerful man.”

“May I be excused?” Willow asked as she tried to keep her calm. Losing her emotions here would only prove humiliating.

He waved her away, and Willow walked up the stairs and into her bedroom. It had been the same since she was a baby. The pink and purple flowers painted on pale pink walls and white frilly curtains her mother had made when she had been born were the only part of the room that didn’t make her want to scream.

The photo of her father smiling next to her just days after her mother had been killed was the worst of it all. She couldn’t even count the times she had thrown the photo away, or hidden it. But like a bad penny, it turned back up anytime she did.

She walked to her window and stared out at the night sky. How much longer was she going to be forced to live this life? How many more times was she going to try and escape only to have her father drag her back into this hell?

She turned when there was a knock on her door. “Who is it?” she asked.

“Housekeeping.” The gruff voice had a smile coming to her face. Alejandro was here. The only light in all this darkness, and the person who would take her away from this nightmare one day.

“Alejandro, what are you--?” She stopped when she pulled the door open and it wasn’t who she expected on the other side. “What are you doing here?” She tried to keep her voice steady, but it broke.

“Lover boy can’t come tonight.”

She tried to ignore the blood on the front of Cooper Sandoval’s shirt. Surely he hadn’t killed Alejandro! “What did you do?” She stepped back as he pushed his way into the room.

“What needed to be done. Boss man can’t have his only daughter being soiled by trash before her wedding night.” He took another step toward her, and Willow backed into her dresser. She opened the drawer slightly and gripped the handle of a blade Alejandro had snuck her last week. “Needless to say, lover boy won’t be soiling anyone, ever.” He let out a booming laugh that struck Willow in the heart.

“You killed him?” she screamed and pulled the blade in front of her. Her hands were shaking with rage and grief, but she didn’t care. She hadn’t loved Alejandro, but she had enjoyed his company, and he was the one who was going to free her from her cage.

“Oh yeah, he’s definitely dead. At least I hope so; otherwise, ouch.” He laughed again. “Tell me, little sapling, what are you going to do with that?”

She winced at the nickname. Her mother had given it to her, and she’d been the only one allowed to use it. Ever.

“Get out of my room.”

“Not until I see what it was Alejandro was so obsessed with. Surely it’s not those bug bites you call tits. There’s barely anything there!”

She could smell the alcohol on his breath. If it were any of her father’s other men, she would have screamed, but her father just loved Cooper. He wouldn’t have any issue with whatever the asshole wanted to do.

“Stop looking so skittish. I have no intention of putting my hands on you, at least not in that way. I'm only here to teach you a lesson about disrespecting my boss in his home.”

“Get. Out,” she warned him again.

“Not until you’ve learned.” He reached out to grab her, and she blocked it. Luckily, Alejandro had also been an excellent fighter; something he had taught her early on.

Cooper may have been larger, but she was faster. Still, speed doesn’t mean much when two-hundred pounds of pissed of muscle corners you. Willow charged and tried to take out his legs with a kick, but was blocked and knocked to the ground with a crack of Cooper’s hand.

“Now we’re talking,” he sneered.

She fell near the knife and palmed it before he lifted her off the ground. Once she was in the air, she brought the knife down swiftly into his right eye.

He screamed and dropped her. Willow didn’t waste a single second. Tears streaming down her face, she jumped out of her window and into the bushes below, fleeing.

She hid around the corner and waited until the other guards were distracted by Cooper in the house. Once clear, she slipped through the slats in the gate and ran down the street as fast as she could.

Willow Charmont would have to die tonight, she realized as she ran. She pushed on even when her breathing was ragged, even when her lungs burned, and even when she reached the city. She continued running into alleys, down back streets, and in and out of buildings.

She would not look back.

She would not look back.

She did not look back.