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My feet are moving before my brain has a chance to conjure anything else, like images of Poppy fucking some random guy, sucking off some random guy.Kissingsome random guy.
I'm going to murder him.
Her.
Both of them.
I storm down the hallway, slamming my palm against the women's restroom door with an audible crack as it ricochets off the tile.
“Get.Out.” The words rip off of my tongue like a bullet out of a gun, “Now,” I growl it, my chest rumbling, my eyes narrowed in on the back of the guy where he crowds Poppy by the washbasin.
He turns to face me, multiple baggies of pills and powders in his hand, and like a deer caught in headlights, he freezes, lips parting, mouth opening and closing, wordlessly, like a gasping fish.
“Get the fuck out,” I bark and the kid tucks tail and runs.
I breathe in deep, trying not to see red, trying not to say anything. If Poppy wants to ruin her life with drugs, I should let her get on with it, saves me a fucking job if she destroys herself. But that isn't going to lead to satisfaction at knowingI'mthe one responsible for it. Fucking up the daughter of the man I intend to ruin. I need my revenge.
Poppy hasn't moved, her back to the basin, baggie in one hand, phone in the other, one that's lit up and buzzing in her palm. It's as though she doesn't even notice I'm here as she fumbles with the phone, seemingly panicked. Her thumb and fingers swiping over the screen with no direction, and I'm assuming she was attempting to hang up on whoever it is because when she answers the call, on speaker, nonetheless, her eyes are so wide, they look like they might burst in their sockets.
“Poppy?” a man's voice rumbles on the other end, the deep British baritone filling the tiled room. Poppy shakes then, like she'sscaredand then the man continues. “Poppy!” the voice snaps, “I have been calling you for the last two fucking days! Dr. Soren says he has not heard from you since you touched down in fucking Texas! When will you get it through your thick skull, girl, you need to do as you're told or you're going straight back to Briarmoor. Do I make myself clear, young lady?”
A brow arches on my head, Poppy's gaze down, hair hiding her face, those fucking eyes I see inside my head when I lie in bed at night, hidden beneath her bangs. I find myself stepping closer when her body trembles, and she doesn't say anything, I'm not even sure if she can. She crushes the baggie of pills inside her other hand, fingers blanching, nails puncturing her palm with little crescent shape indents.
“POPPY?!” the man bellows, “are you listening to me? And, for the love of god, take your goddamn pills! If I get one more notification about you missing pick up at that pharmacy, I'm going to go into cardiac arrest!”
She flinches, and I'm striding across the room, snatching the phone, my eyes on hers as I say, “I'm sorry, Mr. Carrington, Poppy can't come to the phone right now, but I'll be sure to pass on your message.” Without waiting to hear his response, I end the call, slip her phone into my pants pocket and my palms are on her cheeks, my bloodied hand smearing her in red.
“Poppy, did you take any of what that guy gave you?” I angle her head back, flicking my dark eyes between hers, the ones that haunt my dreams, lilac ringed in blue-gray, “Lollipop?”
She blinks, lashes fluttering over blown pupils, nostrils flaring, like she's breathing me in, filling her lungs withmeand something strong flits through me. Possessiveness hits deep in my gut as her eyes roll slowly in their sockets, up onto me, and her lips part, brow furrowing.
“Bennett?”
The way my chest heaves with the sound of my name on her tongue plays tug of war with my insides, I don't know what to do about it either. This loss of control. Because one minute I'm cradling her cheeks, the next, I'm lifting her up onto the basin, stepping between her parted thighs, angling her facejust soto get a better look at the purple bruising on her face.
“What the fuck is this?” I spit, the rage brewing over hearing that phone call now morphing into something worse.
“Oh, stoppp, you just wanna hurt me,” she swats at my hand on her jaw, trying to get me to let her go, but she's so fucking sloppy, she misses me completely. “You're all the same.”
My jaw ticks, nostrils flaring at the strength of liquor on her breath, but I know how much she drank, I watched her.
“All the same? I'm the same as who?”
“Your brother,” she squeezes the words out like they hurt her to say, and she must see something in my expression that gives away my shock because she attempts to shake her head as an invisible knife plunges into my gut. “I dunno why you all look so surprised.”
“Who'syou all? Poppy, look at me,” I shake her in my hold, forcing her lolling head to rest in my hand. “Who knows about this?”
She looks at me then. Lazy blinks of heavy lids over bloodshot lilac eyes, her lips curl up on one side, but it doesn't look anything like a real smile.
“Everyone,” she whispers and the knife in my gut twists.
Chapter 27
BENNETT
Poppy's glassy eyes try hard to fixate on mine, and it's the only thing, in this moment, keeping me exactly where I am.
I huff out a sharp breath, trying to uncoil my muscles, unclench my gritted teeth but I keep thinking of Lynx putting his hands on her. On any woman. That's not him, it's not him.
