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I wave my arm in the air. “How will I know which scary blokes are watching out for me, and which ones are coming to kill me?”
Claudia taps the center of her forehead. “If they’ve got a gun pointed here, they’re probably not on our side.”
“Helpful as always.”
Eli shakes his head. “I can’t stay here.”
“Not negotiable, Hart. Whoever is after me is shooting at Noah too, so you’re all in danger. And we can protect you better if we stick together.” Claudia folds her arms and shoots Eli her Ice Queen glare, and I kind of wish he’d push her because I want to see what she’ll do to make him obey. I hope it involves whips and—
“I don’t care.” Eli crosses to the French doors leading out to the pool and tries the latch. It’s locked. He pounds on the window with his fist. Noah gets up and rushes toward him. I hobble over as well. My lunch disagrees and I have to stop halfway to grab ahold of the cat castle to stop myself from toppling over. A black paw swipes at my nose from the uppermost turret.
Noah gets Eli around the neck, holding his head down so he can whisper something to him. I topple against them both, wrapping my arms around their shoulders and nearly putting Eli’s head through the window. “Cuddle huddle!” I cry.
Noah flashes me his patented ignore-Gabriel look and turns back to Eli. “I know how you feel right now, but—”
“You really fucking don’t.” Eli’s face is red with rage.
“Oh yeah? I don’t know what it feels like to be confronted with an ugly truth? Ever since she started at school I’ve been tied up in knots. She walked in those doors and it all came rushing back – what she did to Felix, how her family attacked us during the trial, how they disappeared and it felt like she escaped justice. And then she’s… she’s her. I liked her. And I’ve hated myself for liking her because she’s a Malloy. But now she’s not…” Noah shrugs. “Mackenzie isn’t coming back, man. And this house was never hers anyway. I say Claudia can have it, and we should help her.”
“I agree.” I turn to Eli and lick his cheek. He’s too far gone to even react. That’s bad.
“Fuck you both.” Eli whirls around and stalks toward Claudia, fists raised. She leaps out of the way just in time. He slams into the doors and flees deeper into the house.
Claudia
I open up three of the guest rooms for the guys – I put Gabriel across the hall from me in a room that’s a mirror image of mine. Noah and Eli get rooms on the second floor, overlooking the pool, in the same hallway as Mackenzie’s creepy doll bedroom. Their rooms share a bathroom, and I glare at Noah meaningfully as I show him the connecting doors – he’ll have to watch out for Eli, make sure he doesn’t try to shimmy down a drainpipe or do anything stupid.
As for Eli, he’s standing in Mackenzie’s old room, sifting through the decapitated dolls as if he expects to find her buried there. I wonder if he’s looking for her diary. It’s under my bed downstairs. I think about giving it to him and throw up a little in my mouth. I can’t bear the idea of seeing her words affect him.
I want to cut Mackenzie Malloy for the hold she has over him, and since I’ve been pretending to be her for over four years, this is disturbing. Even from her grave or wherever the fuck Mackenzie is now, she rules Eli’s heart. And I’m nothing.
Nothing.
I wish it could be different.
I can’t watch Eli anymore. I go to the kitchen and pull open cupboards and drawers, looking for complicated food to cook. I need to stay busy. If I stop and stand still for a moment, I’ll crash into the fact that they know my secret and I’ll fall to pieces.
Antony watches me from the doorway as he barks orders into his phone. He’s pulling some of his fighters from the club to watch the house. He tells them they’ve been hired by Mackenzie Malloy and there will be a cash bonus if they catch anyone trying to harm me or my friends. It doesn’t hurt to have a psychopath as a cousin with an army of soldiers at his disposal.
I start chopping carrots, but the knife blurs in my hands. I grip the edge of the counter and try to calm my ragged breath. Who else knows who I am?
Because if it’s not Brutus coming for me, if it’s not Brentwood after Mackenzie, if it’s not Alec avenging his ruined face and car, then there’s one other possibility for who shot at me today.
And it’s terrifying.
I can’t think about it. Because thinking about it means unlocking a box of memories I wrapped in chains and shoved out into the ocean. That box has sunk so deep that whenever I flit around the edges of what it contains, I willingly bring up the memories of being buried alive – they’re more pleasant than what I keep in that box.
Inside that box is my last secret.
There’s another person who has seen my face, who knows that Claudia August and Mackenzie Malloy look alike.
Another person who could unravel our entire plan.
And I have no idea who he fucking is.
All I know is the way his fingers pressed into my throat, how his breath panted hot against my ear, and the way his hands slithered like snakes over my body.
Antony watches me as I lean over the counter, as the knife in my hand quivers. He breaks off his call with an abrupt order to his soldier and slides his arms around me. He forces the paring knife from my hand to wrap me in an awkward hug.
