AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She spun fully around to him. “Coming where, Wes? You needn’t worry on me. I am capable of sleeping on the floor. You’ve done your duty—seen me to London—fulfilled whatever noble-minded cause that you felt you owed Morton. You are done. Released from me. I don’t need a keeper.”
His fingers twitched, looking to grab her again. She took a step backward.
His fingers twitched all the more. “It’s not safe here. Even you can recognize that, Laney.”
She snorted a caustic chuckle. “EvenIcan recognize that? Because I’m too dumb to understand it’s not safe here? It’s safer than the current alternatives, so I don’t have a choice, Wes. Please, just leave me be. Walk away as I know you are dying to do.”
He took a step toward her, filling the slice of air she’d just gained from him. “Except that I’m a choice. A safe choice. At least for the night. I have a home in London and that is where we will go. Where we will sleep. At least until the mess of this”—his fingers flung about him—“is figured out.”
“You needn’t bother.” Her left hand flew up in between them. “I don’t need your protection—and especially not your pity.”
“Dammit, Laney, I told your brother I would see after you and that’s exactly what I mean to do.”
“Why you ever agreed to Morty’s fool request to do so is beyond me. Unless…” Her look snapped to him, her eyes narrowed. “Unless this is exactly what you hoped to do by inserting yourself into our lives—make me suffer. Well, congratulations, Wes.” Her palm slapped onto her chest, the last thread of control snapping deep within her. “I’m suffering. Is this enough for you? I have no money until I find that stupid box. My home is destroyed. I have nowhere to sleep. My brother is dead—the last person that ever loved me. And I have no one—no one left.”
“Laney—”
“Is this not enough—not enough pain for you? What more do you want from me, Wes? Do you need me to bleed? Do you need me to fling myself off the roof? Would my death be enough?”
Her hand stopped in mid fling and her fingers spread wide. “But wait, no, my death wouldn’t be enough for you—for you aim to torture me. Any good revenge includes torture. Torture me by judging every step I take, judging every word I utter, judging every thought I have. Torture me by having complete and merciless control over everything in my life. For that’s what my brother effectively made you—a dictator of everything in my life. When will it be enough vengeance for you? When do you stop? Because I sure as hell would like to just move along to that point. So tell me how much more pain you need to see me in for it to be enough.”
“It’ll never be enough, Laney.” His head dipped toward her, his voice low through gritted teeth.
Her head jerked backward, all words stolen from her tongue.
She hadn’t understood it before. Not until that very moment. How very deep and vicious his hate for her boiled.
She’d never wanted this, never thought this could happen to them.
But there it was.
He despised her more today than the day he’d left her.
She hadn’t thought it possible.
But it was.
He straightened slightly as his face went oddly calm. “But for tonight—for tonight it is enough. You need to come with me and sleep in a bed that’s safe. The driver is still waiting for me.”
His hand extended out to her, palm up.
“Tomorrow will come, and you can hate me, and I can hate you. But for tonight…” His eyes closed, his face ragged as though he was drawing on his deepest well of strength. “For tonight we do not need to hate each other. We can just be.”
“You think it that easy?”
“I think we’re both capable of it. I swear I will curb my anger.”
Her head dropped forward, her eyelids closing.
If only.
If only she’d kept her mouth shut all those years ago. If only she’d not drunk so much port. If only she’d known how terrible she was at keeping secrets.
If only.
Her head didn’t lift, but her eyes cracked open.
Wes’s hand below, open, outstretched to her.
