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“Out.”
Ava stands there for a long moment, clearly contemplating whether or not she actually wants to get involved. She knows it’s a dangerous game to test me.
Slowly, she backs away from us. A wise choice. She scoops Leo up, ignoring his cries, and brings him back to her room. Shutting the door firmly behind them both.
Nella’s breath punches out of her as soon as the sounds of Leo meowing cease. Her hands shake while she lets go of the knife, letting it fall into my lap. I continue to hold her wrists in my hands, my grip tight enough that I know it’ll bruise in the morning.
“Let me go.”
I pull her forward, sinking my mouth over hers into a bruising kiss.
“Never.”
CHAPTERFIFTEEN
After our fight, I avoid Killian for the next few days.
There is a strange kind of disconnect that settles inside of me, one that feels unshakeable and cold whenever I think about it. I can’t get the thought of his cruel eyes, staring deep into mine, out of my head. Daring me to shove the knife deeper into his chest.
It’s a wild thought, now that I’ve been keeping my distance. The more I dwell on the memory, the more I’m convinced that he had been playing some elaborate game that I had no chance of winning.
I sigh to myself and bend down to the cat currently zigzagging around my ankles and scoop him up into my arms. I cuddle him to my chest and open the door to the backyard. I breathe in the clean air and smile a little at the sunshine.
I didn’t ask if I could come out here, but at this point I don’t really care. They could drag me back in by my hair, God knows that’s Killian’s favorite thing to do with me. I set Leo down on the grass and shut the door behind us.
It’s a nice little backyard. Its high fences clock out any prying eyes that might be foolish enough to take a look. Around the edges of the fence are small shrubs I can’t really identify. There is a garden with plants over to the right, elevated off the ground with a cage around it that has a single door on the front facing side.
The only time I’d seen a plot like this was in a movie where the main character created poisons that killed people.
I shake my head and walk past it, following Leo over to a bench that sits on the far side of the backyard under a big tree. I settle onto it, tucking my leg over my knee and leaning back to enjoy the shade and the nice weather.
I don’t know what kind of outcome I had been expecting when I asked Killian about the meeting with my father, but there had been something inside of me that snapped when he didn’t even bother defending himself against my accusations.
He really had gotten my father to believe that I’d betrayed all of them. For him.
I had a sneaking suspicion this whole time that he’d been the mastermind behind putting a wedge between me and my family—devising a plan that made me look like the whore my father thinks I am.
It breaks my heart, knowing all of this could’ve been avoided if Killian hadn’t gotten involved.
A small voice in the back of my mind whispers cruelly to me, reminding me that if it hadn’t been for Killian, I’d be stuck in a loveless marriage with a disgusting pig like Ben.
I sigh loudly and fold myself back onto the bench, letting my head roll back in exasperation.
No matter how hard I try to put the puzzle together, it feels like there is a piece missing, or one that just doesn’t belong—somehow, it still fits.
I’m so tired of trying to justify one thought while another contradicts me all in the same sentence. It’s exhausting.
I open my eyes when Leo yowls and lift my head just in time to see him claw his way up the side of the fence nearest to us and lift himself up onto the top of it. I blink, watching him disappear onto the other side of it.
“Leo!”
I shake my head and get up from the bench.
“You know I can’t climb that high,” I grumble at him, hearing him meow back at me.
I move around the backyard, looking around for some kind of break in the fence, but of course I find that the entire thing is practically impenetrable.
“Damn it, Leo…”
