Page 131 of Killer Kiss

At Riddick who was nothing more than a faceless name to me, but who had inflicted injuries on my brother that turned my stomach.

At Ophelia, because every mark on his body could have been prevented if she’d just told me who she really was.

But she hadn’t trusted me. Hadn’t loved me enough to try.

And this was the fucking outcome.

Banjo took the gauze from the cops but refused their offers of help. Lacey and Rafe tried to argue with him, but he insistently stepped away from them and made his way over to me.

He stopped in front of me, his face dirty, beaten, covered in blood.

My heart broke in two, shattering right down the middle. I shook my head. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

“You should be. What the fuck are you doing here?”

I recoiled at the anger in his words, even though I knew I deserved them. “I’ll go.” It was enough that he was alive. “After everything I did…and everything with Ophelia…”

He grabbed me by the shirt and then swore, dropping his hands and cradling his injuries to his chest. “Fuck, that hurts.” But then his gaze focused through the pain. “Ophelia was the one who found me. Augie, she promised to marry Riddick. Tomorrow.”

The words were a sucker punch. It suddenly felt like it was my face that was broken and bleeding. I swallowed hard. “She moves quick.”

Banjo eyes filled with anger. “Don’t be a dick. You always fucking do this. Something gets hard and you just walk the fuck away. You love her.”

I couldn’t deny it. I did. “What does that matter? When has loving someone ever been enough to make them stay? I loved our parents. They left. I loved you, and you fucking left as well.” I grimaced and shook my head. “I didn’t mean that. I know you had a reason to walk away and that it was my fault—”

“She loves you too.”

I sighed. “She lied. I don’t even know who she is.”

That only seemed to piss Banjo off more. “Then fucking learn, Augie! That woman just found me in the middle of nowhere and agreed to marry a complete psychopath in order to save me. Why the hell would she do that if she doesn’t love you? You think she loves me? I’ve met her all of two or three times!”

“You’re worth saving. No matter the cost.”

“Not to her I’m not! I’m fucking nothing to her, other than what I mean to you.” He got right up in my face, his blue eyes blazing. “That guy, Riddick? If you let her marry him, Augie, she’s as good as dead. Even if he lets her live, a life with him wouldn’t be one worth surviving. I know that just from spending a few hours with him.”

I hated everything he was saying.

But I also couldn’t stand the injuries on his face. His hands. The torture he’d suffered.

That was what Ophelia did for a living.

She was a stone-cold killer. One who didn’t understand remorse.

“Look down at your hands, Banjo. What Riddick did to you? That could have just as easily been Ophelia. You want that sort of person in your life? In Luna’s?”

He went silent. But it was only for a second before he shook his head. “I don’t know what she’s done in the past, Aug. But you’ve done some pretty messed-up shit too.”

His eyes were so fucking earnest. When I stared into them, there was no doubt as to who Banjo was at his very core.

“I’ve forgiven you. Maybe you could show her the same kindness.”

We stared at each other, him holding my gaze until I eventually turned away.

He could forgive.

But he and I weren’t the same.

We never had been.

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