Page 54 of Liars and Liaisons

“Flowers are a seasonal beauty,” he says. “I prefer those with permanence.”

Unlike me, his nonpermanentguest.

A hollow chasm spreads wide in my chest, but I ignore it. “There are flowers that bloom year-round—”

“And yet they do nothing for me. I am not moved by flowers, Violet.”

“What does move you then?”

He doesn’t respond at first, and something in the silence makes me turn my head. When I do, he’s standing above me, shadows glinting in his emerald irises. A hand extends toward me, and he cocks a brow in silent request.

Sighing, I brush my hands on my jeans and get to my feet without taking his hand. He rolls his eyes but turns on his heel anyway, stalking off toward the barn. I think he’s going to turn into it, but instead, he just peeks in at a few of the goats and veers off toward the lake.

I haven’t ventured this far on the property yet, and doing so now feels sort of like getting a guided tour, though my guide doesn’t speak. He just leads without turning his head to make sure I’m following.

I’m not entirely sure why I am. The closer we get to the lake, the heavier the dread becomes. It weighs on my shoulders like armor made of concrete, and I don’t know how to take it off.

Not even the resurgence of music has wiped it away, as if my body is keenly aware of the unnatural presence living in the James estate. Something angry, seeking vengeance, has made its home in the foundation. Something watching, even now.

My gaze cuts to Grayson to see if he feels it. If the monster in him is at all affected by the evil in the world or if they’re simply two sides of the same dangerous coin.

Maybe it isn’t fair to think of the man that way, especially considering the amount of money he paid me just to sit around his estate and keep him company. It’s just that the manipulation is difficult to look past.

Up close, the lake is much larger than it seems from inside the estate windows. It stretches up like a mouth on the opposite end, the edges disappearing beyond the horizon, among the trees and endless mountaintops. The shore at our feet starts shallow and gradually gets deeper, darker—the way people often reveal themselves in waves. So, you step in and think you’re safe, but the farther you go, the worse it becomes.

“Isthiswhere you’re planning to murder me?”

A muscle in his sharp jaw jumps, and he pauses just before the toes of his shoes touch the water. “Keep asking me that, and I’ll start to think you have a death wish.”

Micah’s words about him being a danger to himself echo in my mind, like the lost syllables of a hymn drifting up to the heavens.

“I don’t think I’m the one we should be concerned with in that department.”

“Take off your clothes.”

He says it so abruptly that I’m certain I didn’t hear him correctly.

“Pardon?”

His green eyes point straight ahead, shimmering like the algae-laden surface of a lake in the sunlight. “I said, take off your clothes.”

My gaze shoots to the estate, a small speck against the Berkshire canvas, through a plethora of trees. A cool breeze carries through the branches, sending a spray of goose bumps over my arms, down my back. It brings a sudden chill with it, and I take a step away from Grayson, if only to see if distance will bring back any warmth.

I could run, I suppose. There’s a fifty-fifty chance I’d make it—his legs are long, but so are mine, and it’s clear from his posture that he isn’t expecting a struggle.

“Don’t,” he says, and I frown, my brows knitting together at how easily he seems to read me.

“Don’t disrobe? Okay, I won’t.”

“No,” he says, slowly turning like a predator zeroing in on its next kill. “Don’t take off, thinking you can outrun me. You can’t. I know these grounds like the back of my hand, and I am bigger, stronger, faster. If you make me chase you, I will catch you.”

There’s a dark threat in that promise. It makes the hairs on my neck stand up straight, alarm coursing through me.

“And if I catch you,” he says, stepping closer, gaze burning hot, “Ikeepyou. Forever. Think very carefully about what you want your future to look like, Little Echo, because I’m the one with the power to make it so. Either take off your clothes and earn your next paycheck or don’t. Run. You’ll find very quickly how dangerous I can actually be.”

17

I’m not movedby flowers. Or nature in general. I meant what I said to Violet.

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