Page 2 of Lesson on Depravity

It’s a lie that she believes because everyone in her life has abandoned her. I know all about her failure of a family, and she doesn’t have to tell me anything. My influence reaches further than anyone knows, and I want to keep it that way.

The less they know, the better it is for them to live in ignorance.

Leaving my little Coco by herself in this dirty world would be a sin that I can’t carry on my shoulders. She will have to crawl out of my cold, dead arms. Nothing will tear us away, not even this little trial of freedom bullshit that she had asked me to grant her.

I blink, closing the screen on my phone and lift my eyes to Tito, whose grin nearly splits his face in half.

“I wonder what happened to that fucker,” he ponders out loud, casting me a knowing look.

I refuse to answer him, and I’m smarter than that. I know he’s trying to provoke some answers out of me as everyone knows Tito is either in prison somewhere far away or he’s dead in a ditch somewhere.

Tito sneers, his grin staying permanently etched on his face. “Does this have anything to do with your disgusting expression?”

I glare, and his smile falters, but the woman on his lap has a more dramatic reaction as she almost topples over him to get away.

“Just trying to keep up with current news, boss.” He waves his hands up in a mocking gesture of surrender. “You look like a damn kid in a candy store.”

“Is that so,” I say dismissively.

How could I not be thrilled knowing my sweet princess is crawling back into my arms after that stupid stunt of freedom?

Would I be a bastard for sabotaging her attempt to get on her feet to become an independent woman?

No. I don’t regret anything I have done to make her come crawling back to Daddy’s arms. It’s where she belongs, and she doesn’t need to be any the wiser to what I would be willing to do to keep her with me.

Murder is not an exception; Javier is a testament to that.

I am a ruthless tyrant when it comes to Coco; I spoil her to coerce her to understand she won’t let this treatment anywhere else, I shave off every connection she has to the outside world, so she sees that I only want to protect her, and I show her how to behave like a good little girl so Daddy can be proud of her character growth.

Naïve girl, I sigh with a heavy breath.

After all that I have done for her, she still wants to test out her courage by going out into the world.

Look where that got her. She’s running back to me, and I can already taste the desperation in her small body.

“You let Coco girl live in an expensive ass place for free, and I have to pay for beers, what the fuck kind of favoritism is that?” he grumbles. “No one’s seen her around lately—a couple of weeks maybe. Did she finally leave your sorry ass?”

“Mind your business.” I stand from the table, pocketing my phone and leaving the area with my men watching me leave the bar.

A woman follows behind me with a voice that makes me cringe. I absolutely hate when women purposely try to sound vulnerable to appeal to the primitive side of me, but I just want to bash their heads in.

“Leaving so soon, boss?”

At least she didn’t try to put my name in her filthy mouth. No one dares to call my name without a beating, only those with a real societal standing or those I have given respect to can call me by Alistair.

I don’t turn around, and I don’t need to when I already know the voice. It’s the voice that keeps following me even before little Coco had come into my life, but this woman is persistent and fucking annoying as hell.

Tito likes her, so I let him keep her around, but that’s about how far my tolerance for her goes. If Tito doesn’t put his chains on her, I’ll be forced to resort to violence to get this woman to understand that I don’t want to be in the same vicinity as her.

When words fail, action will succeed.

“Stay a bit longer; we’re having a party—”

I ignore her, walking down the dully-illuminated street when the streetlight flickers. Her heels click on the floor as she tries to catch up to me, and the moment her hand lands on my arm, I bring my hand down on her wrist and snap the bone in half.

I have a set of rules that I go by. Don’t call my name, don’t touch me, and don’t betray me. I also have rules regarding Coco, but that list is way too long, and it’s going to take at least a day to go through the details.

I’m a simple man; complications will only slow down my business. For Coco, I would be willing to take the extra step to put a mile between her and everyone else.