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“You didn’t give them a choice,” I seethed through the searing ache in my chest and the hatred for this man.
“I didn’t give you a choice,” he countered. “Then again, the minute you survived us—tried to find and accuse us—all your choices became mine.”
He moved in closer so his muscled body was pressed to mine and his masked face was beside my ear, making my stomach roll and lungs struggle to work. “I was aware of every step you took and every call you made. When your constant presence at the department caught too much attention, I had Sean make sure you wouldn’t come back.”
Confusion had just started unfurling when I realized who he was referring to. What he was referring to.
Detective Higgins...trying to kiss me in the middle of the police station.
“Oh my God,” I muttered, that nauseating feeling growing as Lachlan went on.
“And when you told that dull therapist of yours just how scared you were to leave your apartment because you kept seeing masks that weren’t there...” My chest caved at the whisper of amusement in his voice, at the enjoyment he was clearly getting out of this. “She only suggested you start over—away from Richmond—after I paid her a visit.”
My eyes were wide, but I wasn’t seeing the demon in front of me or the bathroom we were standing in. My lungs were screaming for oxygen, but as I processed his confession, I couldn’t figure out how to do the most natural thing in this world. Breathe.
“Why?” I whispered numbly.
“You ask that a lot.”
“Because I wanna know,” I cried out and shoved at him with my free hand, a sound of frustration bursting from me when he barely seemed to rock from the hit. “I wanna know why you killed my boyfriend and left me alive if you were just gonna control my entire life. I wanna know why you think you can claim people who aren’t yours. I wanna know why you’re such a shameless, evil monster.”
A dark laugh built in Lachlan’s chest as he shifted back so that mask was directly in front of me. But then my head was snapping back with a shocked cry, my scalp stinging from the force of him pulling on the wet strands.
“Monster?” he asked, the word little more than a rumble. “I’m a god. Remember that—treat me as such—and I’ll make sure you know you’re the same.”
My jaw shook and words wavered when I declared, “I want nothing from you.”
“I don’t care.”
Just as he started releasing my hair and stepping back, I reached out. Grabbing the bottom of the mask that had haunted me for far too long and ripping it off his face.
From the guttural fear I’d associated with this mask, I’d been sure something equally terrifying lurked behind it. Something truly evil, sent from Hell. A dark void. Anything.
It was almost disappointing to find out I’d been wrong—to know this had been the source of my fear.
Undoubtedly one of the most handsome men I’d ever seen in my life. Sharp jaw and nose. Piercing blue eyes that bordered on unnatural, they were so light. But that evil was in the twitch of his jaw and the narrowing of his eyes, fueling his masculine beauty. It encompassed him, body and soul.
“You’re not a god,” I bit out as I shoved the mask against his chest. “You’re just a bloodthirsty asshole.”
His head dipped in a subtle nod, the look on his face chilling me to my core when the corner of his mouth slanted up in a ghost of a smirk. “Bed.”
I wanted to refuse anything he demanded. I wanted to defy him until he left.
But that look was a stark reminder that this was still the man who enjoyed murdering people. With or without the mask, he’d been my failed executioner last year, and I needed to tread lightly.
Besides, this was the longest I’d been out of bed since I’d woken in this ridiculous room, and my energy was draining as I fought the pain flaring in time with the beating of my heart.
I twisted to move past him, swallowing a hiss at the pull in my back, and tried walking tall and steady, even with him directly behind me.
Stopping once I made it into the room, I looked at the giant dog draped across the side of the bed, sleeping away, then to the pile of folded clothes at the end.
“Can I get dressed?”
“If you want,” Lachlan said as he moved toward the bed, showing in that simple action that he had no plans to go anywhere.
I watched him scratch the dog’s head on his way to the nightstand, where all the medical supplies waited, contemplating for only a moment longer before I tried silently slipping up to the bed.
As soon as I had the clothes in my grasp, Lachlan murmured, “I’ve already seen you naked, Ms. Bennett.”
