Page 59 of Killian's Vengeance

“I can’t tell you. I have to show you.”

“Nice fucking try. You’re not going anywhere. Where is it?”

“It’s in a place in the backyard of our old house, but you can’t see it with the naked eye. I know where it is, but no one else can see it.”

This was actually a true story. There was a spot in our backyard where I used to bury things I treasured to protect them from her. It didn’t work, she figured out what I was up to. Probably because I was eight and didn’t cover my tracks that well. I’d hidden a glass figurine of a ballet dancer in that spot, but Lily had dug it up and smashed it to pieces, leaving them on my bed. I’d cried and cried about it, but my parents simply didn’t know what to do with her. They just bought me another one and pretended it hadn’t happened.

But did I think Lily went back to our hometown and our childhood home, a home now inhabited by other people, to hide some journal?

No. No, I did not.

Martin’s hands tightened on my throat to the point where grayness started to cloud my vision, then pulled away from me. “Fuck you, Willa! Goddammit! Why is this so fucking complicated?” Martin fumed.

A pounding noise had all three of us turning to stare at the large metal door at the front of the loft.

“Who the hell is at your door?” Cara asked suspiciously. All this shit going on, and she was still acting like a jealous high school girlfriend.

“How the fuck should I know? It’s eight in the fucking morning,” he griped. He frowned and swung to look at me. “Where does Killian think you are?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t tell him.” Hope started to bubble up inside me at his question. Could it be Killian? If it were, would he go to the formality of knocking?

Martin's face clouded with suspicion. “I don’t like it. We have you and there’s someone at my door.”

The pounding started up again and a voice called through the door. “Hey, Martin. It’s Logan, I have some big plans for expansion I need to talk to you about. You were asking about some type of partnership and I got the information from my accountant about it.”

Martin’s eyes flared. He wanted this. “About time that asshole took me seriously,” he grumbled.

“You have to get rid of him,” Cara whispered urgently. She started biting on her fingernail, her face looking worried.

“Fuck. Fine. I’m going to pull the partition and you stay back here with her.”

They moved the folding room partition, closing me in with Cara. Great. She hated me.

I watched Martin slip behind the partition, but he leaned back in and handed Cara the knife.

“You make sure she stays quiet.”

“With pleasure,” Cara purred as she leaned toward me, twirling the knife lazily in her hand.

Cara straddled me as Martin left. “Please make a sound. I’d love to watch you bleed some more.”

I frowned up at her. Her anger seemed so extreme for the small role I’d played in her life. “Why do you hate me so much? You barely know me.”

She pressed her lips together, sliding the knife lightly down the fabric of my t-shirt, not hard enough to cut the material, but enough to feel the sharpness of the tip. “I hate girls like you. Goody goody girls who play damsel in distress and have all the big, strong men fawning after you. I saw how Killian acted toward you. Martin told me how he played with you behind the privacy wall, how he kissed you and cuddled you afterward. He never did that with me, or any other girl. Is your snatch made out of diamonds, or something?”

I ignored her question and allowed myself a few moments to soak up her insights about Killian’s behavior. I knew about much of it, but it felt nice to hear that his behavior with me appeared out of the norm even to people who knew him. It made me feel all the more awful for how I left him.

“Why do you care about Killian? You’re with Martin.”

“Yes, I’m with Martin, but I kind of liked Killian. I know hooking up with him was kind of a job, but he was really good at?—”

“Okay, I get it,” I cut in. I did not need to hear a list of what she enjoyed about Killian’s sexual skills. Good god. “But you have Martin.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I saw how Martin looked at you, too. He wanted you. You look just like Lily. He told me he’d only been trying to get rid of you in case you accidentally revealed something about Lily to Killian, but I could see his face as he looked at you. He wanted to fuck you, too.”

“But that’s not my fault!”

“It is!” she refuted illogically.

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