Page 81 of King of Cruelty

Lyla slowed ever so slightly. “Don’t need to. I know why you’re here. You want one more taste of the indoors before you’re out on a street corner, shaking your ass for loose change. Did you know your sister got fired—again? And guess who manages the Johnson account now?” She tossed a smirk over her shoulder. “Me.”

“Well, that’s a bald-faced fucking lie. The Johnson account was closed the same day Vance Hollywell wrongfully terminated my sister to hide his crimes. And even if it wasn’t, the Johnsons wouldn’t buy so much as a button from Caddell House now. The business relationship is well and truly destroyed.”

I shook my head at the surprise on her face. “See that, Dawson? That’s why I’m here. Your desperate need to show up my sister, even if it means resorting to lies, it’s just... exhausting,” I burst out. “And if it is for me, it has to be for you, and it definitely is for Kenzie.

“Don’t you think it’s about time we all just say what we need to say?”

She sniffed, lips curling. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I have something to say to you. Matter of fact, you’re a trespasser. Fuck off before I call security.”

“Okay, but before you do, do you mind if I change your niece’s diaper? The kid dropped a serious poop in between us running from our lives to get away from a gun-wielding psycho cultist, and even though all I want to do is take her home to hermother, said home isn’t safe for either one of us right now. I assume the rest of the gun-wielding psycho cult members have something to do with it.”

Lyla gaped at me, her hand on the door—gripping it mid-slam. “My— My niece?” she rasped, stuck on two words in a mind-blowing speech. “You meanyourniece?”

“No.” I spoke clearly, erasing the distance between us. “I mean yours. My sister figured it out this morning when she was talking to her boyfriend about family. How they can get under your skin and dig a vengefulness out of your soul that not even your worst enemy can touch.

“But with you, Kenzie had no idea why you declared yourself her worst enemy all those years ago. She didn’t know you. She had nothing to do with you. And she never did anything to hurt you. But then, it wasn’t about what Kenzie did to you. It was about what my mom did to our dad.”

“Stop it.” Hard, shiny eyes filled with rage. “Shut up. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Then, tell me I’m wrong. Tell me we don’t share the same dad, but before you do, let me say straight off that I’ll know you’re lying.” Blunt was always the way to go. “Now that I know what to look for, I can see my dad’s eyes and nose on your face clear as day.

“So how about it?” I asked, pointing to a giggly Laurel. “You going to let me change this baby or not? And before you answer, remember that saying no makes you a bad person.”

“I— I don’t— We’re not—” she sputtered, stumbling over my sudden subject change. “Yes, fine. Change her, but I didn’t—”

I blew past her before she could change her mind.

Stepping inside Lyla’s lair, I was mildly surprised to see that it was a total mess. Nice enough for a Leighbridge loft with its sleek designer-picked leather furniture, the detached staircase leading up to a plush loft space, gorgeous art prints covering thewalls, and a kitchen so nice you’d take your wedding photos in it... if it wasn’t for the mass of dirty dishes spilling out of the sink, the dried bits of meals past stinking to the countertops, dirty clothes strewn all over the place, and coffee rings on every single surface.

But all of that only got a passing glance from me. My attention fixed on the photograph snuggled amidst the art prints of a young Lyla cheesing with her arms around my father.

“Yeah,” I said, gesturing to the picture. “I’ll definitely know you’re lying.”

She shot past me as I made for the living room and laid Laurel down on the carpet.

“You don’t know anything!” She tore the frame off the wall. “You can’t just come in here, call me a liar, and—and— say whatever bullshit you want! If you had a single clue—”

“I’ve got more than a clue, Dawson.” I was calm getting out the diaper supplies. “My father treated my mother terribly. It’s hardly a surprise that he cheated on her too. It’s also not a surprise that you loved him. He was good at that,” I said softly. “Making people love him.

“It fed into his malignant narcissistic fantasy that his goodness was measured by all the people he could dupe intobelievinghe was a decent, charming person. That way he could be as monstrous as he wanted behind closed doors, and think it all balanced out—”

“That’s not true! Don’t you dare—!”

“Don’t yell,” I sliced in—voice light as can be. “You’ll scare the baby.”

She flicked from me to Laurel—who was staring at the shouty, red-faced being in curiosity—then, shockingly, lowered her voice. “It’s not true,” she hissed. “He wasn’t a monster. Don’t you dare call him that. I knew him.”

“I knew him too.”

“You know what your psycho murdering mother told you to say.” She darted to her couch, perching on the edge and leaning over to growl in my face. “It wasn’t enough for her to kill him. She had to destroy his memory and reputation too. Turn him into a monster so that she could be the victim—even though there were never bruises or scars on her, but there is a coffin around him!”

I was chill in the face of her fury, focused on cleaning Laurel and slathering her in diaper cream. “Not all abuse is physical, Dawson.”

“Yeah, your crazy mommy tried the same argument at her trial—”

“—and it didn’t work,” I snapped, anger beginning to bleed into my voice. “It wasn’t enough for the judge or the jury that he forced her to drop out of college when she miscarried their first baby, convincing her that it was all her fault working and studying when she should’ve been taking care of herself and the baby.

“They didn’t care that after he guilted and shamed her out of an education, he then sabotaged any attempt she made to get a job. Making her late to interviews. Forcing her to drop shifts for every fake emergency that popped into his head. And then when she got pregnant with Kenzie—forget it. Her working days were over.

---