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Killian whirled around on Uncle Ace. “That’s where you’re wrong,” he snapped. “I am her only shot at love because there’s no way in hell that I’ll ever let another man have her. Unless you guys are ready to kill me now, it’s not fucking happening. I don’t know how many times I have to repeat myself.”
“Killian, they only want to make sure that I’m making this decision with a level head,” I said, trying to ease the tension. “That’s all.” Looking at the faces of my family, I added, “And I am. I promise.”
Uncle Deke looked over at Killian. “If you ever trespass on my property again, I’ll shoot first and not bother with any questions later.” I let out a deep sigh. “Understood?”
“The only way that I will ever trespass on your property again will be if you’re hiding Posie from me,” Killian replied. “So, if that’s the case, then I would expect things to become violent.”
“Okay,” I jumped in. “That’s enough of that.” I looked from my family to Killian. “I’m more than certain that everyone in this room is on the same page.”
“Are we?” Lennon asked, and she was looking directly at Killian.
He looked over at her and said, “You know, sooner or later, we’re going to have to find a way to get along for Posie’s sake. Marriage is my endgame, and if you want to be a part of our children’s lives-”
All hell broke loose, and being the one closest to her, Uncle Ace had been barely able to gather a violent Lennon in his arms, holding her around the waist, keeping her from getting ahold of Killian.
“Get him the fuck out of here,” Uncle Ramsey snapped. “Now, Posie.”
“I’ll fucking kill you,” Lennon snarled, and I almost told Uncle Ace to let her go.
Instead, I looked at Killian and said, “If you ever make me choose, I will choose them.” This was where loyalty trumped love. “No matter how much I love you, no matter how many children we have, and no matter how long we’re married, if you ever make me choose, I will choose them.” I locked eyes to make sure that he knew how serious I was. “Are we clear?”
“We’re clear,” Killian bit out, and that’s when Lennon began to settle down.
Chapter 36
Killian~
After Posie had made her stance clear on where she stood between me and her family, Lennon had calmed down, but the tension in the room had still been dangerously high. Posie’s family wasn’t one that was used to being challenged, and I hadn’t done myself any favors the more obstinate that I’d become.
The drive back to my hotel room had been quiet, but I hadn’t minded. I couldn’t be sure about Posie, but the silence had helped me gather my thoughts together. Facing the likes of Ramsey Reed Sr. hadn’t been easy and I was still feeling a little unnerved by the experience. He reminded me a lot of Luca Benetti and being on either of those men’s bad side was not anywhere anyone should aspire to be.
When we’d gotten back to the room, Posie had been gracious enough to let me take a shower before we talked. While I hadn’t been bleeding profusely, anyone that’s ever tangled with barbed wire understood the need to wash the blood off. Plus, I had also wanted to check for any deep punctures. I couldn’t remember when I’d taken my last tetanus shot and some of those spikes had gotten me good.
Showered, bandaged where needed, and dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of grey sweats, I walked back into the sitting room where Posie was waiting for me, her face in her phone. I imagined that she was probably texting Lennon, trying to convince her not to kill me just for the hell of it.
Taking a seat a few inches away from her on the couch, I said, “Do you want me to go first?”
Posie finished her text, then put her phone down on the coffee table next to her purse. “What do you mean?”
“Ellie was twenty-one when-”
“Killian, you don’t have to-”
“Yes, I do,” I told her. “You need to know…you need to know what drives me to do what I do and live my life the way that I do. Ellie knows all about you, so you don’t have to worry about protecting her privacy. Everything that I’m about to tell you, I’m telling you with her permission.”
“Okay,” she said softly. “As long as she’s okay with it, then I’m fine with it.”
Starting again, I said, “Ellie was twenty-one and in college when she was attacked. Trent Hendricks had become…enchanted with her. That’s…that’s the best way that I can describe it. The definition of enchanted is to be placed under a spell or become bewitched, so…I think that’s a good word to describe what had happened to Trent Hendricks because he’d lost all sense of reality by the time that he had attacked Ellie.” It was hard to revisit this part of the past, but it wasn’t like I’d ever really left it. “Ellie had already been dating Jamie, so she had refused Trent’s advances as politely as she could in the beginning. When it became apparent that Trent wasn’t going to give up, Jamie had gotten involved and had even threatened to kick the guy’s ass. It’d been a mess.”
“But you can’t reason with crazy,” Posie muttered, and she had no idea.
“But you can’t reason with crazy,” I echoed. “Ellie had done everything right. She’d told Jamie, campus security, and had even gone to the police when campus security hadn’t done enough to make the situation go away.” I let out a heavy sigh, one that I could feel all the way from my soul. “When he finally got his hands on her, Ellie said it was the most horrific thing imaginable, but not because he’d been beating and raping her. She was certain that he was going to kill her because he’d been out of his mind the whole time. He’d been screaming out how much he loved her and how much he couldn’t live without her. He’d been completely deranged, but Ellie said that she could see the truth in his crazed gaze. In that lunatic’s head, he was raping her out of love, and that’s what bothers Ellie the most about the memories. For years, she struggled with the pockets of sympathy that she felt for Trent. I mean, who in their right mind would sympathize with a man that had raped them and put them in the hospital for over a month?”
“Emotions are the most uncontrollable thing that we experience as humans,” Posie said softly.
I nodded solemnly. “At any rate, when I found out about her attack…I hadn’t handled it well, and I’d had to work hard not to make her experience about me. Ellie had been a broken, emotional, abused mess. My parents had been beside themselves. Jamie…God, Jamie had been…I’d never seen a person so torn up before. It still gives me chills when I think about it.” I shook my head. “Anyway, while I’d been ready to go to prison for her, plans for Trent Hendricks had already been made.”
“The Benettis.”
