Page 96 of Unmask
Kaylor padded against the cold kitchen tiles as she pushed away from the counter, restless energy having her pace. “What happens if he tries to interfere? If he pulls you back in, pullsmeback in?”
“Then we don’t give him the chance.” I shifted my weight, planting my feet wider. “We finish this before he makes his move.”
“And if he does make a move…” Raine rolled his shoulders back. “We’ll be ready.”
Kaylor’s pacing stuttered to a halt mid-step. She turned toward me. No words, no accusations, just those light-blue eyes boring into mine, searching for lies I might be hiding.
Trust lived there in the depths of her gaze, fragile and new as morning glass. But raw and familiar fear lived there too, fear that came from knowing the one person you hated most in this world had the power to steal back everything you’d bled and clawed your way free from.
The distance between us stretched like miles and inches all at once.
I took a step forward, then another. When I reached her, I lifted my hand slowly, giving her time to pull away, to tell me to back off, to remember all the reasons we were supposed to be enemies.
She didn’t move.
My knuckles brushed down the length of her arm, from shoulder to elbow, skin warm against skin. The contact sent electricity racing up my fingers, but I kept my touch light as air. “He’s not getting you back. I don’t care what it costs.”
The room went still around us. For the first time in weeks, we weren’t snapping at each other, and somewhere beneath the fragile peace, beneath the warmth of her skin under my fingers, I knew with bone-deep certainty that the storm wasn’t done with us yet. Not by a long shot.
The fact that I was touching her, and Kaylor hadn’t jerked away or told me to go to hell, didn’t go unnoticed. Especially not by the peanut gallery currently crowding the kitchen doorway.
“Well, well.” Mason’s voice cut through the moment. He propped one shoulder against the doorframe. “Did you two finally kiss and make up?”
“I don’t know about making up,” Maddox grumbled. “But they were definitely making out when I walked in.”
Kaylor’s cheeks flushed, but her chin lifted in defiance. “We weren’t—” She stopped, shook her head, and shot my brothers a steeling glare before flipping Maddox the bird. “Don’t you guys have somewhere else to be? Like literally anywhere else?”
The four of us just grinned.
Something was off.
I’d been watching Kaylor for three hours straight, and every instinct I’d honed over the years was screaming at me to pay attention. She was being…nice. Every word that rolled off her tongue came with sugar on top instead of her usual sarcasm. She smiled too often, but it couldn’t quite erase the sadness she tried to bury in her eyes. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was trying to distract us. Trying to distract me.
And the fact that it was working, that I kept catching myself staring at the curve of her lips when she laughed, only made me more unsure about what I was feeling.
She was up to something.
Hours later, when the afternoon light had shifted to deep gold and the house had settled into that pre-dinner lull, I cornered the three of them near the den. “Keep an eye on her,” I said, pitched low enough that my voice wouldn’t carry beyond our circle. “All of you.”
Maddox arched a dark brow. “You think she’s gonna make a run for it?”
“I think she’s lying or hiding something.” A liar recognized a liar, and I was skilled at lying.
Raine nodded. No protest, no questions.
Mason smirked. “Only you would be suspicious because a girl can’t keep her hands off you. Maybe she’s just tired of resisting Kreed Corvo’s irresistible charm.”
Raine and Maddox snorted.
I ignored him. Had to, or I’d end up doing something stupid.
I left to go check in on her while we waited for the call on Raine’s phone to come in and made my way down the hall. I was halfway past the library when slender fingers wrapped tightly around my wrist, pulling me sideways before I could react.
Kaylor.
She stood framed by the soft evening light filtering in through the slatted blinds. Golden rays cut across her face in horizontal stripes, turning her skin luminous. Her hair was wild, silver strands catching the light, but it was her eyes that held me, locked on mine with wicked intensity.
My head angled to the side. “What are you doing?” I asked, trying to sound firm, trying to inject some authority into my voice, but the words came out rougher than I’d intended, betraying the effect she was having on me.
