Page 49 of The Devil's Spawn

Folding my arms, I sank onto the end of the mattress. This particular spot bled with memories. He’d bend me over in a heartbeat and blast some sense into my ass if I let him. I couldn’t let him get that close, or I’d crack wide open. Hell, I’d probably fracture regardless.

“I need to do this,” I said, shaking my head just as his car sounded. “I need some space, but I also need…”

Answers.

Simone lingered by the bedroom door, chewing her bottom lip. Uncertainty was a strange feature on her face. She didn’t do uncertain—she was a pick-a-path-and-follow-it kind of woman.

“I’ll be okay, Simone. I promise.”

She let out a sigh. “I’ll be right out there,” she said, jabbing a finger in the direction of the living room. She left the door cracked open upon her exit, and her absence echoed in my ears. The room hummed a solitary tune, and each lonesome note poked at my will. But a single question repeated on loop within the chaos of my foggy mind.

Could I really go through with this?

I had no time to mull over the question, or to second-guess my knee-jerk reaction to what Katherine had told me. The front door opened and closed, and I heard murmuring in the living room, then footsteps. Firm, urgent steps that brought him down the hall. I withdrew my cell from my coat pocket and gripped it in a sweaty hand. He shoved the door open, and my pulse skyrocketed.

Gage took one look at my red eyes and splotchy face, and his complexion blanched.

“Are you okay?” He covered the distance in a few long strides, but I held up a hand.

“Please don’t touch me.”

He halted a couple of feet in front of me. “What’s going on? Tell me you’re okay.”

“Physically, I’m fine.” I rose, tilting my chin up, and met his eyes. “Katherine pushed me against the wall, but that was the extent of it.”

A vengeful storm brewed in his gaze, and he clenched his hands at his sides. I wondered what his reaction would be after he heard every detail of his sordid history from Katherine’s own mouth, courtesy of the recording the bitch knew nothing about.

“What did she do?” he asked, his voice ominous enough that I shivered.

“She told me all the things you wouldn’t.” I handed him my cell, screen displaying the play button.

He glanced at the phone, brows furrowing in confusion. “Kayla, you’d better start explaining right now.”

“Press play. I’d rather let Katherine explain since she’s so good at it.” I edged around his body and stood a few feet away.

His thumb moved over the screen, and as Katherine’s voice infiltrated our private space, some of her words slurring a bit, Gage captured me in his gaze. For twenty minutes we listened to the foundation of our marriage fissure at our feet, all the while looking at each other as if the other could save us from the wreckage.

He shut the recording off. “I’ve heard enough.”

“No,” I said, gesturing to the phone. “You haven’t gotten to the best part. She threatened our baby.” I settled a hand over my belly, seething at her parting shot. “The bitch actually looked at my stomach and threatened to hurt me if you take Conner from her.”

His face twisted into something ugly, and he launched the phone through the open door where it thumped against a family portrait in the hall before dropping to the hardwood. I probably had a cracked screen now, if the cell still worked at all. A few seconds later, Simone appeared in the doorway.

“Kayla?”

“I’m okay. I’ll be out in a minute.”

Gage thrust an irate finger in her direction. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”

Simone wasn’t someone Gage could command, and she made that clear by the way she planted a hand on her hip. “Good thing she has a brain of her own and two feet to carry her out of this house.”

“Simone, please. I’m okay.”

“And there’s this little thing called the Portland PD,” she added. “So if you think of laying a hand—”

“What I do with my hands is none of your business, and neither is this conversation.” He stalked toward her, and his expression must have been fierce because Simone backed into the hall. “Get the fuck out of my house beforeIcall the police to have you removed for trespassing.” Indignation arched her brows as Gage slammed the door in her face. He turned the lock then crossed to me, and he wasn’t stopping this time.

“Gage, no—”

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