Page 106 of Killing Me Softly

Aaron fought his restraints, wrists sore from the rough bite of the rope as he wrenched them, desperate, wild. His muscles burned, his pulse hammered in his throat—do something, do something, do something—but just as he arched forward, ready to snap his own bones if it meant breaking free — BANG.

The door slammed against its hinges, rattling the walls.

Everything stopped.

Even Mel, mid-sob, froze. The air went razor thin, a crackling silence stretching through the room. Mable stiffened, knife still dripping blood from Mel’s cheek, before slinking away from herlike a shadow retreating into the dark. She crept behind Aaron, curling herself into his space.

Then—a secondbang.

The door flew open.

For the briefest moment, relief crashed through Aaron like a breaking wave. But it was short-lived. Because, stood in the doorway, chest heaving, hair damp over his forehead as if he’d run here at full speed, was Kenny.

Alone.

Mable moved like liquid shadow, wrapping herself around Aaron’s back, curling an arm over his chest as she pressed the cold steel of the blade flush to his throat.

“Well,lookwho it is.”

Kenny met Aaron’s gaze and his body sank. But before he could fall apart, he threw his hands up in surrender. “You don’t have to do this, Mable.”

Mable tightened her grip on the hilt of the knife, and she dipped lower, closer to Aaron, voice a sickly-sweet whisper in his ear. “One more step,Doctor, and I’ll slice him open.”

“Okay, okay.” Kenny remained controlled, but Aaron could see the pulse in his throat, the barely concealed panic ready to overwhelm him. “I’m not moving. I’m doing exactly as you’ve asked. And I’m listening. Whatever you want. Whatever you need.I’llgive it to you. Just, please, don’t hurt him.”

Mable trailed the flat of the blade along Aaron’s throat, just enough for him to feel the promise of it. “See, baby brother? Another demonstration of why attachments are dangerous. Because now hereheis, the man you love, hands up, heart pounding, trying to calculate what he’s willing to risk. Hecouldrun in here. Grab a knife. Fight me off. I mean, I am just agirl. He knows your weight, right? Knows your body. Inside, fucking out. So he can work out that he could take me in a fight. Then he’d be able to save Mel. But he knows if he does that…”She ghosted her lips to Aaron’s ear.“I’ll have already cut your throat.”

Aaron swallowed hard, the pressure of the blade pressing deeper.

“And poor Mel over there—poor, trembling, terrified Mel—sheknows it too. Knows she’s the expendable one. Because if you had to pick between them, Dr Lyons, which one would it be? Your student. Or the student you’ve been fucking for the past year?”

The silence that followed was suffocating.

Mel whimpered and Kenny’s hands trembledjust slightly, barely perceptible. But Aaron saw it.Feltit. Every second stretching between them. And the worst part? Mable wasn’t wrong.

Theyallknew it.

“You’re trying to prove a point.” Kenny kept his tone light, casual. Designed to keep her talking. Aaron knew the strategy. Kenny had used on him often enough. “That attachments make us weak. Vulnerability makes us easy to hurt.” He tilted his head, studying her.Not reacting. “And I see is how much effort you’re putting into making sure we know that.”

Mable stilled, the knife tight against Aaron’s throat, but there was a flicker in her eyes.

Kenny pressed. “You don’t have to do this. I know how exhausting it is to hold onto that kind of anger. The need to control. To win. Show everyone what they never saw before. But the problem is… the moment you have toforcesomeone to see your power, you’ve already lost it.”

Mable’s jaw tensed. “Oh,fuckoff, doctor.”

Kenny held his hands up, body language open, but his gaze locked onto hers. Not as prey. Not as fear. Assomeone who saw her. “What do youreallywant here, Mable? You’ve already won,haven’t you? We’re here. You’re in control. Aaron’s not fighting. Neither am I. So what now? What’s the next move?”

Mable’s fingers twitched around the knife. A small shift. Uncertainty creeping in.

“That’s the problem with control, isn’t it?” Kenny kept his voice gentle. Non-threatening. “Once you have it, you have todecidewhat to do with it. And that’s the part no one teaches you.”

Mable laughed. “Fucking hell, is he ever off duty?” Keeping the blade at Aaron’s throat, she pressed her lips to his ear. “Does he psychoanalyse you when he’s pounding his dick into you? Ask you how that makes you feel when he’s shoving his cock down your throat? Diagnose your sex kinks?”

“If you want me to be off duty, I can do that.” Kenny lowered his hands. “If you move away from Aaron,” Kenny locked his gaze on hers, steady and unflinching, “I’ll show you exactly who I amoff duty.”

Mable tilted her neck, studying him. A lazy blink. But Aaron recognised the change in her expression. The faint pull of intrigue behind her eyes. Mable, for all her theatrics, had spent her life being watched.Observed. Dissected by people who thought they understood her. But Kenny wasn’t trying to analyse her from the outside.

He was inside her head now.

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