AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“This is about you and Killian,” she continued. “And what you’re going to do about your relationship with him.”
“I don’t even know if I have a relationship with him anymore,” I pointed out. “This is all so jacked up.”
“Oh, it’s super jacked up,” she remarked, agreeing. “Still, while the killing people is…concerning, I know that it’s not a deal breaker for you. After all, we’re still best friends.”
“Jesus, Lennon,” I swore. Only Lennon could be so blasé about killing people.
“Well, it’s true,” she insisted.
“Still, that’s not-”
“His motive is also admirable if you think about it,” she went on. “He wasn’t able to avenge his sister, so he’s doing the next best thing.”
“Do you really think that the Benettis are the ones who took care of it?” I asked, still shocked that this conversation was happening.
“I have no proof, but it makes sense,” she replied. “Ellie and Saveria Benetti were close back then, and I can’t see her letting Ellie’s attacker go unpunished.” Lennon kept shrugging like this entire clusterfuck wasn’t concerning. “Plus, not all people view jailtime as punishment enough. If it took Ellie Warrick months to recover, I can totally see Saveria Benetti not appreciating that.”
“It’s more than that, Lennon. He…he didn’t lie to me, but he did.”
“I know,” she agreed softly. “He never should have made a move on you without telling you that he knew about your attack.”
“But…?”
“He knows the details, Posie,” she pointed out. “Think about that for a minute.”
“I’d rather not,” I huffed, still feeling conflicted about Killian knowing the details. While I’d never been embarrassed to warn my partners about my attack, I hadn’t ever shared the details.
“Well, too bad because we’re talking about this,” she returned sternly. “We know that you don’t care about the killing, so that’s not an issue. He had to do a background check on you because of the killing, so once you see that as more of a precaution on his part rather than an invasion of your privacy, that won’t be an issue, either.”
“You and your damn logic, I swear.”
She waved her hand around dismissively again. “His work-bloody and otherwise-comes from a good place, speaking to his character in that regard, so that’s also not an issue.”
“Can we get to the issue already?”
“The issue is you, Posie,” she said, but not unkindly. “You’ve come a long way since we were kids, and the thing that scares you most is reverting back to the old, timid, shy, broken Posie that you’d been when we were in the sixth grade. You think that the details are going to make Killian see you as a victim, rather than the woman that you are today. You think that he’s going to see you in the same fashion that he views his sister. You’re afraid that it’s not love, so much as a hero complex. You’re afraid that you might be another one of his causes.” Lennon reached over and squeezed my arm. “You’re afraid that he sees a rape victim when he looks at you, instead of just the woman that he loves and wants.”
“I will always be a rape victim,” I reminded her. “That will never change.”
“Yes, you will,” she replied. “But…do you really think Killian would have slept with you if he saw you that way? How could a man sleep with a woman that he views in the same light as his sister? Plus, if he saw you as some fragile rape victim, he would have stayed away from you for fear of causing you anymore trauma. After seeing what happened to his sister, I imagine that he’d be terrified to be the guy that would ever hurt a woman. Hell, the man has dedicated his entire life to helping women.”
“You can’t know that, Lennon,” I argued. “You don’t know him well enough to know any of that.”
“True,” she conceded. “But I know you. I know you, and I know that you only let men that you trust in your life, much less your bed.” She gave me a knowing look. “Whatever it is that Killian makes you feel, it was enough for you to take the leap. Don’t be a coward now.”
“You’re a dick.”
“Yeah, I’ve been told.”
Unfortunately, she was also right a lot of the time.
Chapter 28
Killian~
No calls had been answered, no texts had been returned, no phone calls had been made for two days and three fucking nights.
I was staring out of my office window, and I wasn’t even supposed to be here this week. I was supposed to be in Calypso for the next two weeks. After that, I was supposed to spend a week in Jermaine. I had three call centers, two focused on abuse, one focused on drug addiction. The call center in Jermaine handled drug addicts, and the call center in Dalton handled the abuse of minors. Because I only employed the best, I was able to divide my time evenly throughout my entire foundation. However, this situation with Posie had me here, instead of in Calypso, where I was supposed to be.
