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He straightens. “I don’t hate her.” Anger flickers in his gaze. “You’re losing your shit over her. You’re turning weak. I’m doing you a favor.”
Lina didn’t lie. The one person I trusted did. “Is that why you cuffed her and fed her a sleeping pill?”
“I cuffed her to prevent her from jumping out the window. Her screaming kept me up. That’s why I gave her the pill.”
“She screamed because she can’t be tied up or locked in.” I get into his face. “Do you know what they did to her in the institution where she spent one whole fucking year? They strapped her to a bed and isolated her after pumping her full of drugs. I think you can cut her some slack for freaking out.”
He blinks. His face is blank. No remorse.
“What happened to her hip, Zane?”
“I told you. I found her snooping.”
“You hurt her on purpose.”
“It was an accident. She provoked me.”
“Why did you strangle her on the night of the dinner party?”
He gives a cynical laugh. “Is that what she told you?”
“That’s what I saw. She hasn’t told me anything. Lina is no tattletale. Unlike you, she has some honor in her.”
“Honor?” His lip curls. “You’re so smitten with her you only see what you want to see. You so badly want to believe she’s a good person, that she cares.”
My patience is running out. I fold my fingers around his neck, just like he did with Lina. “Say what you mean and make it fast.”
“She didn’t tell you, because we have a deal.”
My composure dents. I give a fraction, but I don’t remove my grip. I shouldn’t ask something that will destroy the fragile relationship growing between my unwilling wife and my obsessive self, but I can’t stop. “What deal?”
“I get her the evidence. She disappears.”
The fight leaves me. I let him go. It was an idle dream. She’ll never come to me freely. My love is tainted and one-sided.
More pieces come together. That’s why she went to see Dalton, to share the news. “Did you give it to her?”
“Not yet.”
“When were you going to?”
“I’ve almost cracked the code.”
“Why tell me?”
“This is the end, isn’t it?” His eyes beg me to deny it.
My tone is cold and dead, like my heart. “I gave you the benefit of the doubt over Lina. You made a fool of me. You betrayed me.”
“I did it for you.”
“You did it for yourself. I gave you friendship, but it wasn’t enough. You hurt an innocent woman for something she didn’t choose, just because you couldn’t have it.”
“Dami, please.”
“You saved my life.” I take my cheque book and pen from my inside jacket pocket. Scribbling a figure, enough to set him up comfortably, I sign it with a flourish and finality. “I won’t forget you saved me from being raped. It’s the only reason I’m not bashing your head in and breaking every bone in your body.” The cheque tears smoothly on the perforated line, a clean break. I push it over the counter toward him. “We’re even.”
His eyelashes stick together with the wetness of his unshed tears. He takes the check without looking at the amount. “We’re not even.”
I don’t give a damn about his difference of opinion. “You’re out of get-out-of-jail cards. If you fuck with me or my family again, I’ll treat you like anyone else.”
His lips quiver. “You don’t mean that.”
“I’ll cut your throat myself.”
“Dami, you said she wouldn’t get between us. You said—”
“Clean up this mess and get out of my house. I want you gone before Lina gets home.”
He stares at me, body trembling, but he’s already dead to me.
After sending Jana a text to tell her to take the day off, I lock myself in my study. The sound of a suitcase being rolled down the hallway filters through the walls. The front door opens and shuts. A vehicle starts up. Silence descends. The dark house reeks of squashed hope and loneliness, of meaningless lives and unfamiliar ghosts.
It’s just me and my frazzled thoughts.
Lina betrayed me.
I lost the war for her affection.
Lina
The house is quiet and cold when I enter. Even in the heat of summer, it’s always cold inside. I thank Brink for driving me, who nods and takes up his post by the front entrance. I close the door, shutting him out with the sun, and shiver in my rain-drenched clothes. There’s something ominous about the silence today. Where are Zane and Jana?
Dropping my handbag on a chair in the entrance, I kick off my wet shoes and pad to the kitchen. I’m about to enter when someone grabs me from behind. I’m yanked against a hard chest. A big hand covers my mouth. Citrus fill my nostrils. Muscles bunch in the arm circling my waist. Damian is holding me too tightly. Despite recognizing him, I struggle in reflex, but he easily lifts me off my feet. I kick and tear at his arms, which only makes him squeeze harder. It feels as if he’s pressing the air out of my lungs.
