Page 53 of Sin Like the Devil

“Final warning.” Holly calmly places her plastic fork down. “I’m in no mood to take your shit today.”

With malice sparkling in his eyes, Lennox leans close to whisper something in her ear. The chain around his neck gapes from his collar but doesn’t quite slip out. I wonder, not for the first time, what he carries on that necklace.

Watching with bated breath as Holly’s face sinks, she quickly smooths her business mask back into place. But for that brief moment, she looked so exhausted. Enough to give in.

Holly would never be defeated by a pair of bullies, right? She’s the strongest person I know. A take-no-shit badass with a heart of gold beneath her steely exterior.

Lennox pulls back, his necklace disappearing. “Think about it.”

“Not a chance in hell,” Holly replies tersely.

“This doesn’t have to get ugly.”

“Then learn your fucking place, and back off,” she snarls.

“Well… suit yourself. What happens next is on you.”

Hands scrunching into fists, Lennox stares at her for another second, as if he can decapitate her with a mere glance. She doesn’t deign to offer him another moment of her time, her complete lack of fear seeming to only piss him off more.

“Nox,” Xander finally speaks. “We have somewhere to be.”

His voice is a whip flaying every exposed nerve-ending, the flat tenor dragging down my spine like sharpened fingernails on a chalkboard. The man terrifies me. At least with Lennox, his rage is predictable. He hates Holly, and she hates him.

But with his best friend, it’s different. Hatred would demand far too much of Xander’s precious time and attention. He stalks around the institute like we’re all beneath him, only lowering himself to our level when he needs a new specimen to toy with.

“You’ll regret this,” Lennox hisses.

Holly spares him the briefest of looks, utterly unfazed. “Threaten me again, and you’ll regret it. Priory Lane is mine.”

“For now.” He storms off before she can respond.

Head cocked, Xander studies me for a moment longer. I’m flustered and sweat-slick beneath his rapt attention for reasons I don’t want to analyse. When Holly lays a possessive hand on my arm, the corners of his mouth quirk.

“Challenge accepted,” he murmurs, barely audible.

Vanishing after his friend, we’re left in peace. The breath I didn’t realise I was holding whooshes out of me.

“What the hell was that about?” I whisper furiously.

Holly’s hand doesn’t release my arm. “They want power and control. We’re not going to give it to them.”

“We?”

She meets my eyes. “We. You’re in this with me now, kid. We’re sticking together.”

Her voice floats through my mind, accompanying the repetitive beat of my feet on the treadmill. Harrowdean’s gym is deserted around me. No one would dare interrupt my private time for fear of the consequences.

Punching the buttons on the screen in front of me, I increase the speed, my legs pumping like firing pistons. I’ve been running for nearly two hours, and despite being drenched in sweat, the swarm of angry wasps eating at my insides refuse to abate.

You’re in this with me now, kid.

“Get out of my head,” I pant.

We’re sticking together.

Head buzzing with dizziness, I urge my legs faster, determined to exhaust myself. I should be dead on my feet after two sleepless nights, but when these manic episodes hit, not even sleep-deprivation can slow me down.

On a scheduled patrol, a female guard pokes her head inside the gym to scan the equipment-laden room. When she spots me glowering at her, she nods briefly then disappears again.

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