Page 49 of Killian's Vengeance

Lily’s lips pursed. “Such a child, honestly. What are you even complaining about? You seemed to have landed on your feet.” Lily’s eyes darted to me meaningfully. “I’m the one chained to a fucking chair.”

Willa shook her head in disbelief. “You deserve to be there. You’re long overdue for facing the consequences of your actions.”

Lily gave her a cool little smile. “Don’t worry about me, sis. I always come out on top in the end.” Her smile dropped and she pinned Willa with an icy glare. “Look, if you aren’t going to get me out of this mess, you can get the fuck out of here.”

Willa crossed her arms over her chest and shot Lily a look of utter disgust. “What happened to you? Mom and Dad were great parents. How did you turn into such a fucking monster?”

“Too much praise and attention?” she replied flippantly, then stared at Willa for a moment, her cold blue eyes scanning Willa’s face, her lip curling. “God, I hated when you were born. I had everyone’s attention all the time. Adorable Lily, clever Lily, precious Lily, then along came Willa. You stole it all away from me. No one cared about me, they only wanted to see the baby. Hold the baby, play with the baby, dress the baby. I fucking hated you. You don’t know how many times I wanted to hurt you, push you down, or smother you with a pillow. Anything to get rid of you. You ruined everything.” She gave a joyless laugh. “And considering how these assholes found me, you’re still ruining everything.”

I stared at Lily, deeply disturbed by her monologue. Instinctively, I reached out to Willa and wrapped my hand around her waist. She was trembling, but the expression on her face wasn’t shock. It was confirmation. She’d known all along what Lily’s core was made of—unadulterated evil and cruel selfishness.

Lily sneered as she stared at my hand on Willa. “I knew it. You two are fucking, eh, Will? A lot better than your usual choices.” Lily raked her eyes down my form, licking her lips slightly. “I should have picked him instead of the nerd, but he would have seen right through me. Isn’t that right, Killian. We’re alike, aren’t we? Mac told me what you and Cullen used to do as mercenaries.” She gave a mock shudder. “Gory stuff. You tell Willa about that? Poor, innocent Willa probably won’t appreciate the way you murdered, fucked, and tortured your way through life as a soldier for hire.”

“Enough,” I boomed. “Willa, let’s fucking go.”

I didn’t wait for her to agree. I ripped open the door and ushered Willa through it as Lily’s harsh laughter echoed behind us. “That’s what I thought,” Lily snickered.

I knew this was a fucking mistake. Cullen was going to have his hands full interrogating her. I wasn’t going to participate because, right now, I wanted to wrap my hands around her scrawny neck and snap it.

I gripped Willa’s hand and tugged her down the hallway back to my room, eager to put separation between these two women who grew up together but couldn’t be more different.

I opened the door, uncertain how to start the conversation considering the many horrific things Lily brought up.

Willa sat on the bed and instead of the flood of tears I’d expected, she reached out and punched the pillow. “I feel like such an idiot! What was I thinking?” she asked rhetorically and punched the pillow a few more times. Was she thinking about what Lily told her about their childhood or about my past? Or both?

I sat down on the bed and pulled her into my lap, throwing the pillow aside. I needed to touch her, feel her, fix her. She was small and soft, but her body was tense, and I could smell some of my soap on her skin from when she sucked my cock earlier. Fuck, she was so sexy, why did I allow us to get out of bed? Why the fuck had I agreed to bring her to Lily? Oh, right because she sucked my cock. I needed to stop thinking with my dick.

Stroking her smooth cheek, I kissed her forehead. “What are you thinking, Willa?”

“Where do I begin?” she murmured smartly. “I think what shocks me most is how unshocked I am. I’ve known all my life that Lily was a cold, cruel, selfish bitch. I even kind of knew she’s always hated me. She didn’t have such a good poker face when we were kids. She used to push, pinch, shove, break my most treasured things—anything to cause me pain. I’d kind of forgotten how terrible she was to me because she was so much older and left home when I was ten.”

I rubbed her back and kissed her head. I had no idea what to say. Verbally consoling someone wasn’t exactly my strong suit. If she wanted me to fuck her into a better state of mind, I’d be more than willing. Thankfully, she appeared to be happy with my physical reassurance and didn’t seem to expect me to say anything.

“I can’t say I anticipated that she’d turn out this bad, though. I will admit, a little tiny part of me wanted to believe she would show me something worth saving, worth believing in. She’s the only family I have left, and I didn’t want to believe she is an irredeemable psychopath.”

“You’re too nice, Willa.”

She sighed loudly then popped her head up to look me in the eye. “What about the stuff she said about you?”

I tensed. “What about it?”

“Was what she said true?”

I shrugged my shoulders a couple times, distinctly uncomfortable. I wasn’t ashamed of my past. I did what I was good at and I made a lot of fucking money doing it. But as I stared into her sweet face, I couldn’t imagine sharing the details of my previous life. The torture, the murder, the chaos, the deception. Lily hadn’t done me any fucking favors by comparing us, even though I’d done something similar earlier in the evening. However, stating that Lily and I were both not as full of compassion as Willa was a far cry from Lily’s insinuation that we were both candidates for an antisocial personality disorder diagnosis.

“I guess it depends on your perspective. Did I do shit on my missions that you probably wouldn’t have done? Definitely. Did I do things you wouldn’t approve of? Probably. Did I only do what was necessary to complete the job and get myself out alive? Absolutely.”

“Would you go back to that work?”

“Fuck no. I didn’t particularly like school, but I was a good athlete. Using my body, my strength and agility was the only way I knew how to succeed in the world, first as a soldier for the government and then as a soldier for anyone who could pay our fees. I thought it was the only way to carve a path in this world, putting my body in jeopardy, using its coordination and natural athleticism to make a living. Mac is the one who convinced me and Cullen to give that shit up and make our way in the security business. He said we weren’t giving ourselves enough credit, that we knew more than we realized. And he was fucking right. We took the risk and we’ve been doing it ever since. Very successfully. But when I was younger, I thought being a soldier, being a mercenary was the only way to escape my life.”

Had I ever spoken so many words in my fucking life? I didn’t think so.

“What were you escaping?”

Fuck, I’d opened a can of worms with my out-of-character babbling. “My childhood wasn’t great. I needed to get the fuck out of there.”

She opened her mouth, but I put my finger over her lips, gently silencing her next question.

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