AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Willa?”
Hannah—it had to be her. And she didn’t sound ugly.
I pressed my nose into the bar as if it had the power to unlock some secret portal and teleport me anywhere but here.
When that failed, I tried Option B.
I sucked in a big deep breath and spun on my barstool to face the woman with the ethereal voice who smelled like sunshine.
“Hi!” Waved the bubbly brunette. I may have cried a little on the inside because she wasn’t just not ugly—Hannah was drop-dead gorgeous. “I’m Hannah! I’ve been dying to meet you!”
Was this what freshly fucked looked and sounded like for the willing?
My heart did a weird flip in my chest as Grifin slid a very sad-looking glass of water in front of me. He beamed at me like he’d just found my lost puppy and had returned it unharmed.
I shook my head, my mouth a straight line. “Remember what I said about the Black Label?”
He gave me a hesitant nod.
“Make that a double.”
Lucifer
“Willa’s here.”
My head snapped up and there stood Keegan in front of my desk. His hands rested on his hips, a rare neutral expression on his face.
The papers beneath my fingers crumpled as two fists took shape. “What the fuck?”
Keegan sank into the chair opposite me. “What. The. Fuck. Is right.”
Something in his demeanor told me that he wasn’t referring to Willa being at The Ruby Slipper on a Tuesday afternoon.
My eyes narrowed as I cleared my throat. “What?”
Keegan ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “Dude.” He shook his head as though trying to make sense of something. “You. Willa. Whatthefuck.”
Tension spread across my shoulders. I sat back in my chair, gripping the armrests to prevent myself from going in search of the woman who refused to stay out of my head. Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see were the haunted set that penetrated so deep it felt like they could see my soul. Or whatever scraps remained of it.
“How do you do it, Lucifer? How do you block out their pain and suffering?”
“Teach me . . . like my father taught you . . .”
Willa was perceptive, but she’d missed one significant detail. When it came to my ability to block out the pain and suffering of others, she was the one exception to the rule. I felt Willa’s pain and suffering when her past leaked through those blue irises. In those moments, everything I believed that I was—what I’d become—in the wake of my mother’s death was challenged. I feared that—not if but when—the secrets of Willa’s past were unearthed, they would have the power to destroy us both.
I folded my arms over my chest, but the racing of my heart was too distracting, so I returned them to the armrests.
Keegan’s gaze followed my movements, and his brows hiked to his hairline.
“What?” I barked.
“I saw the video footage. You. Willa. Fucking Cillian.” When I didn’t respond, he shook his head. “You’re my best friend, my brother ...” The intensity of his emotions deepened in his eyes. “Listen, man, I’m gonna give it to you straight because I know that’s how your”—he wiggled his fingers in the air on either side of his head—“your mind prefers to process shit ... and I know it’ll stay between us ... so I’ll just say this—your brother is a jealous and possessive fuck who has no chill when it comes to hurting you. Clearly there’s something going on between you and Willa, and if our fucking boss finds out, he’ll kill you both.”
Willa and Keegan were of the same mind when it came to my twin.
My thumb rubbed at the scar on my bottom lip.
“You know I’m right, Lucifer. And I know because you’re rubbing that fucking scar.” Compassion etched across his face. “He’ll never forgive you ... he’ll hold a lifelong grudge ... another lifelong grudge ... and this time, his payback won’t be a nickname that sticks for life, and if you fight him on this, he won’t stop at a split lip—it’ll be a bullet between the eyes.”
