Page 82 of Hide Little Traitor

Pressing my eyes closed to warn away the stupid tears that gather at the corners, I steel myself. What he’s saying isn’t true, but that doesn’t mean it hurts any less.

Just the way he intended.

“If she wants me to stop coming, she’ll tell me,” I reply calmly.

“None of us can wait for you to graduate so we’ll finally be free of you. Dad wants Neil to send you to boarding school so Ronan will finally grow up and stop playing house with you, but your mom won’t let him.”

He’s not telling me anything I don’t already know. I overheard their argument a few weeks ago, but Damon doesn’t know that. He thinks he’s blindsiding me.

“Okay.” I shrug. “Can I go now?”

His hold on my arms tightens almost to the point of pain, but he stops himself before it gets there. This isn’t the first time he’s trapped me like this, and each time he stops himself before he actually hurts me.

Steeling my shoulders, I find the courage to look up into the ice-blue eyes that used to give me so much comfort. “Why do you hate me, Damon? Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

“Because you’re weak,” he spits. “And you make my brother weak. You’re going to get him killed. You realize that, don’t you? When he blows off training to spend time with you. When he refuses to meet his responsibilities in favor of his little crush, he gets behind, and it will be what kills him.”

“That’s not why,” I challenge. “Is it because I saw you kill Matt? Is it because I was watching the night you became a monster?”

Pain flares in his eyes at the reminder, but it’s gone so quickly I almost wonder if I imagined it. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t I? Because that was the day you withdrew. That was the day you started getting enjoyment out of my suffering. Does it make you feel better to hurt me? Does it make you feel good when I cry?”

When he first stopped talking to me, I begged him for an explanation. Begged to understand how we went from best friends to enemies overnight. I tried to tell him that I understood why he killed Matt, even if I didn’t agree with it. But he didn’t want to hear it. His mind was made up, and that’s all that mattered.

“Why would I want to continue being friends with someone that makes me just as weak as my brother?” he growls. “I only have room for one whiny woman in my life, and that will be my future wife.”

The reminder of his arranged marriage stings, but I’m too angry. I want to slap him, to knock some sense into him.

But instead I shove his chest until he’s forced to take a step back, and I waste no time fleeing.

He may have been my best friend once upon a time, but now he’s my worst nightmare.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

RYKER

NOW

My siren has been quiet since her argument with Damon, and I don’t fucking like it.

I’ve never been particularly in tune with the emotions of others, but I feel Chloe’s in surround sound. It’s like when her heart hurts, mine aches right alongside it.

It was confusing at first, but I’ve learned not to question my own quirks.

Like the fact I can cut someone’s dick off without flinching.

Maybe I should cut Damon’s dick off and gift it to Chloe.

“Dude, why did your face get so murdery just now?” Ronan asks. He’s sitting across from me with Chloe’s head in his lap.

She curled up with him when they returned and promptly fell asleep as he brushed his fingers through her hair.

“I was thinking about maiming your brother,” I admit. “How do you think our girl would feel about receiving a dick in a box?”

His eyes widen for a moment before a deep laugh fills the warm cabin.

It’s just us in the living room, with the man in question sulking in his bedroom and Kingston making phone calls outside where the reception is better.