Better man lesser book 2, p.1
Better Man (Lesser Book 2), page 1
BETTER MAN
LESSER
BOOK 2
PENELOPE SKY
HARTWICK PUBLISHING
Hartwick Publishing
Better Man
Copyright © 2022 by Penelope Sky
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
CONTENTS
1. Camille
2. Cauldron
3. Camille
4. Cauldron
5. Camille
6. Cauldron
7. Camille
8. Cauldron
9. Camille
10. Camille
11. Camille
12. Cauldron
13. Camille
14. Cauldron
15. Camille
16. Cauldron
17. Grave
18. Elise
19. Camille
20. Grave
21. Camille
22. Cauldron
23. Camille
24. Grave
25. Elise
26. Grave
27. Elise
28. Grave
29. Camille
30. Cauldron
31. Camille
ONE
CAMILLE
When Grave didn’t come for me, I feared he’d knocked his head against the hull of the ship and drowned. I was so happy when I escaped his grasp and found Cauldron, and I could hardly believe that I regretted that decision. Grave was a fucking walk in the park compared to this asshole.
I tried to escape a few times, creeping through the house to the front door, but now Hugo locked my bedroom at night, so I was stuck there until morning. My phone was taken away so I couldn’t call for help. Couldn’t figure out if Grave was still alive.
My only way out of there was the patio. I was three stories off the ground, and a fall would probably break a leg and an arm, might even kill me, but it was my only way out at this point. Cauldron and I hadn’t set eyes on each other since our conversation after the yacht party, and perhaps he hoped distance would make my heart grow fonder.
Not a chance.
I took all the sheets off my bed, even my pillowcases, and knotted the corners to make a rope. I tied one end to the bars that wrapped around the outside of the patio and gave it a couple tugs with my hands. When I looked over the edge, I saw a couple pots of flowers and the cobblestone path that wrapped around the property. If I jumped down and the sheets came apart…that would be a nasty fall.
Real nasty.
“Maybe I should think this through…” I stared at the ground for a while before a brilliant idea sprang into my mind. I returned to the bedroom and pulled the mattress off the top of the bed and pushed it onto the balcony. Anyone directly below me could probably hear all the ruckus I was making, but there seemed to be no one there. Otherwise, they’d have come running by now.
I tipped the mattress over the edge and tried to aim it as best as I could before it slipped and fell forty feet below. For something so soft, it made a distinct thud when it struck the ground. I sucked in a breath between my closed teeth and listened, hoping no one had heard that.
It was as silent as ever. “Phew.”
I tugged on the sheets again before I climbed over the rail and prepared to let my feet leave the edge. I looked down again before I took a deep breath. A girl like me wasn’t afraid of much, but even with a mattress below, I could break every bone in my body…and then I’d never get away.
“Are you fucking crazy?”
He appeared in the open doors of the patio, shirtless in his sweatpants, pissed off.
“Shit.” There was no time to dawdle, so I released the edge and put all my weight on the sheets.
It held, but the knot above me was already starting to loosen.
“Go, go, go,” I said under my breath, trying to move as quickly as possible without causing my body to swing forward and backward.
I felt the rope give as the sheets started to come undone.
“Stop moving!” Cauldron’s head appeared between the bars, and his strong hands grabbed the sheets below the loosening knot. He grabbed it just in time, holding my weight with his arms because the sheets’ attachment to the patio bars was gone. “Get your ass back up here.”
I continued my descent to the bottom. “Thanks for the hand.”
“Camille!”
I quickly climbed down to the very bottom then let go, falling ten feet onto the mattress below. It cushioned my landing exactly as I’d intended. I was able to get to my feet without even a sore ass. When I looked up to the balcony, Cauldron was already gone.
“Gotta hurry.” I’d already tried climbing the walls at the front gate several times, but the security was tightest at the access points. This time, I decided to go west, where there was just foliage. Maybe there was another house nearby. No idea. The limestone wall was higher here than it was at the entrance, so I had my work cut out for me as I dug my fingertips into the grooves between the rocks and hoisted my body up higher.
I couldn’t bring any of my things with me besides some money and my ID, but it was better than staying. I continued to climb, and when I was halfway up, I heard Cauldron behind me. “You could have broken your neck, you know that?”
“Well, that’s how much I hate you.” I kept my focus on the wall and continued climbing. “Take it as a compliment.”
“Get down from there.”
“Nope, I’m good.” I kept going, over halfway to the top.
“The ground on the other side is uneven. You’ll break your ankle.”
“I can hop the rest of the way.”
He really turned angry. “Get your ass down here, or I’ll break your ankle myself.”
“Yeah, I’ll get right on that.” I was almost to the top. All I had to do was pull myself to the other side and run for it. It would take him just as long to climb the wall, and by then, I’d be long gone. All I had to do was make it to a house or follow the road to town.
When I reached the top, I lowered myself to the other side and tried to climb down, but it was pitch dark and my fingers slipped. I fell until I hit the ground, and just as Cauldron warned, it was on a slope. My foot landed at an odd angle, and I clenched my teeth hard so no one would hear my scream.
Fuck, he was right. It was too dark to know if it was broken or just sprained.
Less than a minute later, he landed beside me, a flashlight between his teeth.
“What are you, a monkey?” I snapped. “You climb fast…”
He kneeled and pointed the flashlight at my foot. “What did I tell you? You’re lucky it’s not broken.”
“It’s not?” I asked, trying not to wince in pain. “It sure feels like it.”
“Here.” He handed me the flashlight.
“You’re going to throw me over your back and carry me?” I asked incredulously.
He scooped his arms underneath my body and lifted me to his chest. “Point the flashlight.”
“Where?”
“Ahead.”
I pointed the light along the wall.
In silence, he carried me, like he knew where he was going.
Defeated, I just sat there, my eyes down on my thighs in shame. This was the closest I’d come to escaping, and I screwed it up.
Moments later, he walked through an open gate onto the property.
“There’s a gate?” I climbed that wall for nothing?
The mattress was gone because his staff had already picked it up and carried it back into the house. The rope of bedsheets was crumpled on the ground from where he’d dropped it. His strong arms didn’t tremble as he carried me to the front doors. “Call for Roger. She needs a wrap for her ankle.”
“Roger?”
“He’s a doctor.”
“It doesn’t even hurt anymore. It’s probably fine.” When I tried to roll it, a burning pain shot up my leg and into my stomach, and for a brief moment, I thought I’d be sick. Okay…maybe it wasn’t fine.
When we entered my bedroom, the maids were still putting fresh sheets on the bed. Cauldron set me on the couch and lifted my injured leg to place it on the coffee table. An ice pack was handed to him, and he applied it to my leg.
I gave a visible wince.
“It’ll feel better once the swelling goes down.”
I couldn’t stop myself from breathing hard, but I hid all the other signs of pain. Refused to admit my escape plan was a big, fat mistake. If my ankle was sprained, it’d be several weeks before I could execute another plan.
Minutes later, some guy I assumed to be Roger appeared. He examined my ankle then opened his bag to pull out the materials to prepare a soft cast. “A mild sprain. Should be good as new if she stays off it for three weeks.”
“Three weeks?” I blurted. “I can’t wait three weeks. I’ve got too much shit to do.”
“Sounds like a vacation to me,” Cauldron said. “Not having to deal with you trying to escape all the time.” He said all that right in front of the doctor, basically admitted I was held there against my will, and neither one of them seemed to care.
What a fucked-up world I lived in.
Roger wrapped my foot and secured it in place. Crutches were retrieved and set against the armchair in front of the TV. Roger and the maids left, leaving Cauldron and me alone together.
I stared at my foot for a few seconds, hoping this was all just a really bad dream.
But it wasn’t.
“I’ll help you get undressed.”
“I don’t need your help, asshole.” I got to my feet. Well, I got to one of my feet. I hopped away and grabbed on to one of the wooden posts around the bed. I could get my jeans off just fine. Getting them back on would be the problem.
Cauldron walked around the living room and approached me, the scruff on his jawline thick because he’d skipped the shave for a couple of days. His sweatpants were low on his hips, the lines separating his chest and abs like they’d been carved with a knife. “Don’t blame me for this. You’re the one who decided to jump off the balcony.”
“I wouldn’t have to jump off the balcony if you’d just let me go, so I do blame you.”
With empty eyes, he regarded me with the chill of a winter storm. “I don’t want it to be this way.”
“Well, you know exactly how I wanted it to be before I found out you were a soulless psychopath.” When I remembered all the things I had said to him, practically begged him for something more, I felt such humiliation. When I imagined him reading all those thoughts I was only brave enough to admit in private, that feeling of humiliation increased tenfold. He could have chosen to preserve his relationship with me and forget about his brother if I were important enough—but I wasn’t.
He digested my words with the same stern expression. “You left him because you realized you wanted more out of life. Makes no sense to go back.”
“It makes perfect sense when you realize there’s nothing more out there,” I snapped. “It’s just more monsters. More assholes. The only good person I’ve ever known is dead. Everyone else are demons in human skin.”
His eyes hesitated by dropping for a second or two.
“You want to know the other reason I want to go back to him?”
After a pause, he looked at me again, his expression guarded as if he suspected what I would say next.
“Because it would drive you crazy. It would drive you crazy to know your brother has what he wants, and it would drive you crazy to know that your whore prefers him to you. There’s no place I’d rather be than with Grave because your sorrow is far more important than my happiness.”
He took a deep breath then let it out slowly. “Don’t be like me. Look where it got me.”
“You live in a mansion, have a yacht, pay pretty girls to suck your dick. I think you’re doing just fine.” I felt no pity for him, and nothing he said could change that.
“I’m bitter. I don’t want you to be bitter.”
“Then you shouldn’t have fucked me and showed it to your brother.” I leaned against the edge of the bed and kept my foot above the ground. “You shouldn’t have used my feelings like chips in a goddamn poker game. Get out, Cauldron.”
He remained there, muscular arms by his sides, his eyes downcast for a moment. “Let me help you—”
“I’d rather sleep in my clothes than let you touch me.”
He stayed for several more seconds, either because he thought I would change my mind or he was stunned by what I’d said. Wordlessly, he walked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind him. The lock didn’t click, so I was free to come and go as I pleased, like he thought I couldn’t get far in my state.
Asshole shouldn’t underestimate me.
TWO
CAULDRON
His number had popped up on my screen several times throughout the week.
I ignored all his calls.
Guess he wasn’t dead.
Sitting at my desk, I took the call. “You’re alive.”
“I’ve got a broken arm, asshole.”
“And you still didn’t drown? Damn.”
“Fuck you.”
I grinned just as I did when I was a boy. It was always fun to antagonize him. “What do you want?”
“Camille. Give her to me, or I’ll take her.”
“With a broken arm?” I taunted. “Good luck with that.”
“How about a gun to your head?”
“I’ll believe that when I see it.”
“Then you’ll see it soon because I’ve lost all my patience.”
“Funny. So have I.”
Silence. A lot of it.
“She wants to be with me, Cauldron. Let her go.”
“That’s rich, coming from you.”
“You heard her.”
“She didn’t mean it. Just wanted to get away from me.”
“Then let her go,” he repeated. “You don’t deserve her, not after what you did.”
“And you do?” I asked incredulously. “You’re the one who kept her mother’s necklace hostage. You’re the one who tried to force her to marry you, when she explicitly said she didn’t love you. You deserve her even less.”
His anger started to bleed through. “Let. Her. Go.”
“So you can pick her up? No.”
“You really hate me this much?” he snapped. “Keep her even though you don’t want her, just so I can’t have her?”
“Who said I didn’t want her?”
“Your betrayal.”
Now it was my turn to be silent, to stew in my regret.
“I’m no Prince Charming, but at least I give a damn about her. I would never do half the shit you did—and she knows that. If she’s going to be stuck with one of us, I’m the clear winner. Now, let her go, or I’ll march in there and take her.”
“My door is always open, Grave.” I hung up.
I knew that wouldn’t be the end of him. The war had only begun.
THREE
CAMILLE
I was actually glad I sprained my ankle.
Now the bedroom door was unlocked, and my threat level was extinguished. I set my alarm to wake me up in the dead of night, and then I used my crutches to leave my bedroom and head down the hall. At the pace of a snail, I took my time, careful not to slip on the rug in the middle of the room.
When I reached the stairs, I realized this would be harder than I’d thought.
With the crutches tucked underneath my arm, I sat on the top step then scooted my bottom to the next step. I repeated that motion, moving from step to step, taking ten minutes to get all the way to the bottom.
The house was quiet, the servants were all asleep, so I was able to make it to his study without interference.
Exploring his yacht showed me that he had guns stashed everywhere, in every room and even in the hallways. The guy was always prepared for a war. My exploration of the house had come up empty, but I was certain his study had the goods. I turned the knob to step inside and realized it was locked.
“Goddammit.” I tried it again, as if there was any chance I just didn’t do it right. “Motherfucker.” I studied the door for a while before I decided to break it down. From what I gathered, there were no bedrooms downstairs. Everyone was on the second floor, so if I did this quietly, they might not hear me.
I used one of the crutches to hit the lock. Over and over, I hit it, hard but silent, trying to chip away at the metal until it started to dent. I quickly worked up a sweat, gritting my teeth because it was taking so long, and then I stopped to make sure no one had heard me. When there was no activity, I kept going, breaking the door handle twenty minutes later.
Finally, I had the door open and hopped inside.
The most obvious place to look was his desk, so I hopped around the edge and dropped into his leather chair. I started at his top drawers, pushing aside folders and paperwork until I could see the back of the drawer. My hand felt around the top, wondering if it was taped to the underside of the desk.
Nothing.
I checked the next set of drawers. More often than not, Cauldron carried a shotgun, but I wasn’t sure how that would fit in any of these drawers.
