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Muscles that had killed a man twice my size.
I took a step back into the empty parking lot behind me, my hand going to my pocket with the paring knife. I needed answers, but I already had more than Gia might be willing to let me leave here with. So I’d just have to make sure she didn’t get a chance to stop me.
Her lips curled as she watched my partial retreat. She dropped her bag on the ground to give her better mobility. “So you figured it out. You’ve got such a bad habit of snooping into other people’s stuff.”
“Is that really any worse than making up a whole secret identity?” I asked.
She barked out a laugh. “I do what I have to do to survive.”
“But surviving isn’t all you’ve done, is it?” She moved toward me, and I sidestepped. “I saw the move that you used on Hammerhead. Catching his neck like that… it reminds me of something.”
An emotion closer to panic flickered in her eyes. She sprang at me, but I’d watched her moves carefully, and she was already tired from her brawl in the ring. No matter how many fights she’d won in the past several months, I’d been training to hold my own since I could walk.
I dodged and ducked, weaving back and forth as she followed me into the parking lot. I wasn’t going to bring out the knife until I had to. As long as she didn’t see me as too great a threat, I could hope to keep her dancing and taking a little longer. I still needed more answers.
“Is that the best you’ve got?” I said.
Fury flared on her face. She threw herself forward to catch me by my knees, and I managed to kick her in the shoulder before twisting away.
We circled each other. As she lunged for me again, I spun around her and snatched at the back of her neck. My fingers closed around a leather strap that snapped at my swift tug.
I darted backward, the dog tags dangling from my hands.
Gia clapped her hand to her throat. “Give those back,” she snarled.
I could barely make out the letters etched in the metal by the dim light of the streetlamps, but the last nameMADDENwas unmistakable. I raised my head.
“These don’t belong to you. You stole them from Kaige.”
“Whatever belongs to him belongs to me,” she said.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Her obsession had made her delusional.
“We don’t need to play this game anymore,” I said. “I know you killed Titus.”
To my surprise, instead of denying it, she started giggling. “Oh, did I? And how are you going to convince anyone else of that?”
I ignored the question, focusing on my own need for answers as I kept out of range of her swings and grabs. “Why’d you do it? Don’t tell me it was for Kaige. He doesn’t care one bit about you.”
Hurt flashed across her face before it was replaced by rage. “What do you know about that, you heartless bitch? You fucked him and then gloated to me about it. I love Kaige. I’ve loved him for ages. Titus was going to have him killed, so I did whatever it took to protect him.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You murdered a man over an empty threat fueled by too much testosterone?”
Gia scowled. “I know what I heard. I’m not a fucking idiot. He was talking about it after—he really meant to screw Kaige over any way he could, even setting him up to take a bullet that would seem like just the wrong place, wrong time.”
I didn’t know if I should believe her or if she’d justified the act to herself with more delusions. It didn’t really matter. “You could have just warned him instead of going all murder-happy yourself.”
A maniacal glint lit in her eyes. “But my way worked, didn’t it? And Kaige never even needed to worry about it. I was his avenger in the night.”
What, did she figure she was Batman now? More like batshit crazy.
“Did you leave that drawing in my room? And the severed cat’s tail?” I demanded. “Was it a way to scare me off?”
The confused knitting of her brow looked genuine. “What are you talking about? I wasn’t threatened by you. I knew you’d never get to the truth.”
“And yet here we are,” I said. “Looks like you underestimated me.”
“Do you think any of that matters? Wake up, I’ve already gotten away with it. It’s the perfect crime. Titus is buried six feet underground, and he sure isn’t coming back from the grave to snitch on me. Nobody believes I could be capable of it. If you manage to get back to the house alive and tell them your story, they’ll laugh you out of the place.”
