Page 45 of Locke 2

I shrugged one shoulder. “Was I so obvious in Blackwater?”

“You ignored it in Blackwater. When I met you, you were angry.”

“I’m temperamental.”

“No, you were angry at the world.”

“I was poor.”

“You were broken.”

I shot him a sardonic smile. “News flash, Locke, I still am.”

“No,” he returned, inquisitive. “You’ve been processing in this town. I see it in your eyes. You’re going back to the past. You’re looking for penance, but you won’t find it. Something else awaits you, little lion.”

“What?” I asked, looking back up at him, warmed by the nickname he used on me. “What am I going to find, Locke?”

“I won’t spoil it for you.”

“I like spoilers.” When he didn’t budge, I raised a brow. “I hope you don’t mean I’ll find peace. That inner peace bullshit doesn’t appeal to me.”

He still didn’t answer. He just watched me, and I knew what he was doing. Even in the darkness, he saw right into me. Where the raw pain lurked. But did he know how crazy I was getting? I felt like telling him, but then he might learn the true depth of lunacy he was dealing with.

He would leave.

No one ever stayed.

Even a monster like him had limits.

“Aside from visiting his room, have you learned anything else about Lenny?” I asked, eager to change the subject.

“I’m working on it.”

That bothered me. “I want to know, Locke. More than just that you went to his damn house and saw his bedroom. I want to know everything.”

“If you’re hurting as it is, it would do you no good to learn how dark this world is, Kali—”

“No, that doesn’t work on me,” I cut in, heatedly. I slid off the bed and came head-to-head with him. Well, more like I was in front of the damn wall that he was and craning my head to see his face, and even then, it was just the sharp stubbled line of his cut jaw. His eyes were dangerously black from this angle. Despite the hiccup of fear, I straightened myself and hissed, “I know how ugly the world is. Don’t presume I’m innocent.”

His lips curved. “I have never taken you as innocent, Kali.”

I eyed his mouth and tried to ignore the warmth pooling at the pit of me. “I’m like you.”

He nodded. “I recall saying that exact thing. You weren’t quite agreeable then.”

“Fine, whatever, I’m agreeable now. So, involve me. Don’t hold back, either. I want to know everything.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking.”

Goddammit.It took everything not to yell. “I do.”

“Kali—”

“My dead sister is standing at the end of the bed, watching us,” I cut in, cheeks burning with frustration. “She’s my version of processing, Locke. I like when she visits me because she doesn’t have a bullet hole in her head, and I don’t have to hold her cold dead body before she’s been put in the ground, knowing the embalmer pieced her skull together, and that it might fall apart in my arms if she gets too warm.” I inched closer, my voice trembling. “I moved from one hell to another, and I scraped by, bruised and bleeding. I know how ugly this world is, don’t you dare try to shield me from a truth I’m very well aware of.”

There.

I said it.

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