Page 66 of After Our Kiss

“Plenty!” he laughed sourly. “I always hated your damn guts. We had a good thing going, you set it on fire when you let Georgia go free. We could have stayed in that house, doing what we wanted towhoeverwe wanted after Mom was gone! Didn't you get that Dad was happy she was dead? She'd cramped his habits from the start.”

My tendons squeaked as I tightened my hold further. “Kidnapping girls isn't a fucking hobby.”Was that really what happened?Had our father's evil desires been unleashed without Mom to hold him back? Or had he done something to her to get her out of the picture?

Lonnie was laughing openly. “We could have buried them all like Anna! But then you had to go and play hero.”

“I wasn't playing,” I growled. “It was never a game.”

He dug his nails into my wrists until I bled. “It was, it still is.” The pain bloomed and he flashed a manic grin. “Go on and drop me. It would feelso good,right? I know it will. I had dad killed, and I wanted todanceafter that.”

“Dad is dead?” I whispered, struggling to believe it. “I thought... but you said he'd asked you to help him with this.” Hadn't that been his motivation from the start?

“He did ask me for help. Help gettingyouto break him out of prison. He didn't want me to do shit! I'd gone in there, the only one who'd taken the time to visit him, and he still wantedyou.”

“You're evil,” I said in wonderment. “I hated him too, but to kill him when he wasn't a threat? He was never getting out of there; there was no breakout happening. It was all a damn lie!”

“You think I'm the evil one? That you only did horrible things because me and Dad were whispering in your ear? Do it, murder me and see how innocent you become. How many good deeds you suddenly do because we're not around. You're not special! You're not better than me!Do it! Kill me, do it!”

The wind caressed my forehead. I breathed it in, letting it soothe me. Raindrops splattered heavily on my skin—the sky cracking open angrily. In my head, I heard Georgia speaking:I realized how much it meant for me to live.

“Do it,” he hissed, all teeth and gums.

Flexing, I heaved him upwards. “Conway!” Georgia screamed.

With a grunt, I spun, slamming him onto the solid ground. “No,” I said, pinning his arms behind his back. “I'm nothing like you or dad. I never was. I won't start now.”

His expression crumbled. The playfulness in him vanished; Lonnie became infected with ugly rage. “Fuck you,” he cackled. “Let's go to Hell together, huh? Bring Emily while you're at it. One big happy fucking family!”

Georgia's bare foot tapped into the mud beside me. “I thought you were going to do it,” she said. “For a minute I swear you were going to throw him over.”

“Without you, I might have,” I admitted.

Lonnie's baby-blue eyes sank onto the woman I loved; he went limp. “Little peach,” he crooned, “Are you coming close because you feel safe? Does knowing my father is dead give you closure?”

“Shut up,” I said, putting my weight on his arms.

He ignored me, his smile full of dirt. “If Conway won't kill me, he's guaranteeing I'll be able to come after you again. If I can find my sister, you better believe I can find you. You'll never feel safe. How will you ever sleep again?”

She crouched, elbows on her knees, lowering herself to speak in a soft tone. “I want to thank you, Lonnie.”

My brother and I both went stiff. “What?” he asked, scowling.

“For nine years I've been terrified. I barely left my home, never trusted anyone to get close. You and your father haunted my nightmares.” New hatred started to rise in my blood. Then she set her perfect smile on me, stopping the feeling in its tracks.

She said, “When I see you defeated in the mud like this, I know how weak you are. I know that evil people can be taken down by men with good hearts.”

Georgia looked at me through her eyelashes. “I've never felt safer in my entire life.”

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