AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And? What?”
“Well, with four fathers, eight brothers, and Aunt Emerson in her life, Lennon…Lennon has the fighting skills to go up against any man her size and some that aren’t. She doesn’t look it, but she can fight with the best of them. Of course, Kenneth hadn’t known this. He’d seen Lennon as a simple girl that hid behind her family’s power.”
“Underestimating your enemy is the stupidest thing a person can do,” he remarked.
I nodded in agreement. “She ended up kicking his ass, but…that’s not all. Once she’d had him subdued, Lennon had tortured him. She had categorized all my injuries and had paid him back tenfold.”
“She found someone to rape him?”
I shook my head. “No. Lennon does her own dirty work. The entire family is like that,” I informed him. “Only nineteen-years-old, she used…instruments to mimic my rape, and she’d done it as violently as possible.” A cold chill ran down my spine at the memories of her recited details. “She beat him mercilessly and had ripped all three holes apart. Kenneth had no teeth by the time she was done with him.”
“Wait…what…three holes?”
“She…uh…his mouth, obviously,” I said, taking in a deep breath. “Then she used his…ass as a vagina, and…she ripped open his urethra as his anus.”
Killian winced. “Jesus fucking Christ.”
“By the time she was done with him, there was hardly anything left,” I went on. “Her family helped her dispose of his body, and Judge Thomas is still looking for his missing son.”
“Jesus fucking Christ,” he repeated under his breath.
“It took me years to heal, and I lived with Lennon and Camden for a long time before I’d felt stable enough to live on my own.”
“Posie-”
“From my terrifying childhood to the worst moments of my life to the years it took for me to heal, Lennon has been by my side every single step of the way, Killian,” I told him. “The reason that I told you all this is because I want you to understand why I’ll always choose her over anybody else. Lennon has saved me in ways that only a person as strong as she is could. It’s nothing personal against you. It’ll never be anything personal against you. It just is what it is.”
“Posie, I-”
“You told me that you weren’t going to bother trying to be the hero of my story because you knew that you couldn’t be,” I reminded him. “Well, even though I know that Lennon still blames herself for my attack, she is the hero of my life’s story. She’s my best friend. She’s the one person who refused to let me fade away into the darkness. If you ever make me have to choose between you and her, you’ll do more damage to me than those three assholes ever did.”
His blue eyes regarded me shrewdly. “I think I get the picture now.”
“I hope so,” I replied. “I really do.”
Chapter 38
Killian~
Hearing the dynamics of Posie and Lennon’s friendship had opened my eyes to a whole new world that lived inside Posie Tinley. Luca’s words reverberated inside my skull, reminding me of just how much loyalty mattered more to Posie than love. Since I’d been raised to believe that love trumped everything else, this new development was something that I was going to have to learn how to truly understand.
“Look, I’m not here to come between you and your family,” I told her. “I’m not here to undo the past, and I’m not here to lie to you about a perfect future.” Her lip twitched with a sad smirk. “We’re not going to have a perfect future, Posie. We’re not going to have a perfect anything. You’re going to be you, and I’m going to be me, and neither of us are perfect.”
“Then what are you doing, Killian?”
“I’m fighting for a love that I never thought I’d have,” I answered honestly. “I know that it’s too soon, and I know that being with you might be unhealthy for both of us, but I don’t care.” I scooted closer to her. “I know that I sound crazy, and I know that you have doubts, but…I see you, Posie. I see everything that you wish I didn’t.”
“My baggage is really heavy, Killian,” she said. “And it’s baggage that you can’t carry for me. No one can. What happens when the man in you can’t take that anymore?”
“See, that’s the problem,” I told her. “You keep talking to me like I’m your average man with an average life and average needs, and I’m not. You need to quit viewing me like some random next-door neighbor. You need to quit viewing me like I’m typical because I’m not, Posie. I’m anything but typical.”
Posie eyed me, those chocolate-colored eyes seeing right through me, and said, “Don’t ever violate my privacy again, Killian.” My heart jumped inside my chest. “I can take you missing the laundry hamper, leaving the cupboards open, and even leaving my car on empty, but do not ever violate my privacy again.”
“I can’t promise that,” I admitted honestly. “If…if you start acting sketchy, or…I feel like you’re pulling away from me, then…Posie, I’ll do anything to make things work between us. If that includes violating your privacy because you’re not being honest with me…well…” I shrugged. “I’m not sure what you want here, because I refuse to lie to you.”
Her shoulders sagged a bit. “If I start acting sketchy, then I get it. Hell, if you start acting sketchy, then I’ll probably do the same,” she admitted. “So, I’ll take the no lying and consider the privacy violation context.”
I grinned because I couldn’t help it. “That’s very magnanimous of you.”
