by B. B. Reid
I didn’t hear much of what she said after that. Guilt chomped away at my consciousness. None of them believed I could kill a man much less be responsible. “Sheldon…” I started but nothing came after.
“Jesus Christ.” We both swung and faced the entrance. Neither of us noticed Keenan watching us. The knowing look in his eyes and frazzled stare made me feel like I’d swallowed my tongue. He ran a hand down his face, but his expression was frozen in place. “You did it, didn’t you?”
“What? Of course, she didn’t do it,” Sheldon interrupted, saving me from answering. “It’s Lake. She doesn’t kill people. You should ask your brother what he’s hiding.”
He turned his cold gaze to his fiancée and if looks could kill… “I think the only one hiding something is standing right here.”
“She didn’t do it!”
“Why don’t we let Lake answer for herself ?” He turned his black gaze back on me. I felt so exposed. “Lake?”
“Leave it alone.”
He continued to berate me anyway, and I just stood there taking it all in. It wasn’t easy admitting you were a murderer. “You do know they’re after my brother, don’t you? What were you thinking?”
“You’re not helping, Keenan. You’re scaring her.”
No. I shook my head, denying Sheldon’s claim, but they didn’t seem to notice as they began to argue. I wasn’t afraid. I refused to be afraid. I spent my life giving in to fear.
“I killed him,” I blurted, stealing their attention again. Wide eyes turned on me, but I didn’t see them anymore. I only saw Mitch’s blood that poured from the open hole in his throat. “I dug the knife deep in that sick son of bitch’s throat, and I’d do it again. He deserved to die. He needed to die.”
I sounded monstrous even to my own ears, but my emotions were running too wild to care. Keenan swore and ran his hands through his hair. “Does Keiran know?”
“He knows.”
“All of it?” His grilling made my palms sweat. I ran them down my jeans and nodded. Keiran knew as much as I could safely tell him. I didn’t expect Keenan to grab and pull me into his side. He looked as much at war with his emotions as I was. “I’m sorry I’m being an asshole. I don’t want to see you hurt, and I don’t want my brother to lose you. What would Ken do without her Auntie Lake?”
His gentle words affected me more than his cold accusations. “What am I going to do, Keenan? I have to fix this.”
“Let your man handle this and accept the consequences when it’s time.”
“I’m not going to lie down and cower because he throws a tantrum. We’re not those people anymore.”
“It might be better for you. Safer.”
“No.”
Rather than argue, the beginnings of a smile broke his pensive expression. “Atta girl.” He shrugged and released me. “You always have plan B.”
“What’s plan B?”
“I kick his ass for you if he gets out of hand.”
Sheldon snorted, earning a glare from Keenan. “Careful, woman. I still have tonight.” Sheldon shifted and paled as I looked between them.
“What happens tonight?”
“I know she told you where Mitch was.”
“How?”
“She told me.”
“So you think you’ll punish her for it?”
He tore his gaze away from Sheldon and smiled a cocky smile. “I know I will.”
“Well, maybe I’ll have Keiran kick your ass.”
“You could try, but I’ve grown a full inch.” He comically poked his chest out with his words. “I won’t be so easy to beat now.”
“Want to bet?” Keiran’s deep voice rumbled from the door. His challenging smirk was far too sexy under the circumstances, and a violent shiver shook my body. As if he sensed my desire, his gaze shot to mine and darkened.
“Damn… You two look ready to hump each other right here. It’s like watching a mating dance.” I managed to hear Sheldon giggle at her fiancé over the blood rushing to all my pleasure points. Keiran ignored them and ate up the distance between us to take my hand and lead me upstairs.
“Where have you been?” I asked as soon as his old bedroom door was shut.
“Thompson had some information. I met with him to go over your case.”
“Don’t you think I needed to be there?”
“So you can tell more lies?”
“This is my problem. You had no right.”
“I could say the same to you but get this… I have every right. It was my father you killed. It was my right you took, and you’re mine. Mine,” he repeated with force. “But don’t worry,” he whispered, calm again. “You’ll have the opportunity to dig a deeper hole for yourself tomorrow morning.”
“Whatever you’re going to do, just do it already. I’m sick of your threats. I’m sick of you treating me like I’m weak.”
“Aren’t you?” he spat venomously.
I didn’t know I would slap him, but it felt good when I did. I moved to repeat the hurt, but he caught my wrist and yanked me to him. “You’re going to regret that.” His voice was too level for the anger I knew brewed inside him. I didn’t have time to analyze it because I was tossed face down over the side of the bed. I wasn’t given time to recover. His fingers pinched my skin as he ripped the button of my jeans apart and stepped between my legs, forcing them open.
“Your niece is in the next room,” I reminded. I was grasping at straws.
“Don’t worry. I’m not going to fuck you. Consider this a preview.”
He leaned down so I felt his breath on my neck. It was ragged and deep, and I knew he was warning me how close he was to losing it—how dangerous it would be for him to let go and was I willing to let us risk it?
The answer escaped me just like my common sense.
“I’m worried about us.”
“You should be.” He shoved his hand down the front of my jeans and cupped me through my soaked panties. “You did this.” He flicked my clit, and I moaned against the bed sheets. “But I swear to fuck, Lake. I’m going to fix us.” He plunged inside me, feeding my hunger. I felt his other hand as his fingers threaded my hair and pulled my head back. “When you’re ready, I’m going to take your ass.”
It was more than just a heated threat. It was a promise that excited me as much as if terrified me.
Chapter Seven
KEIRAN
She started to protest, but I shut her up by nipping the corner of her mouth. I felt her pussy clench hard around my fingers and somehow, I felt the same sensation around my dick.
“When you’re ready,” I assured. She nodded looking far too relieved, so I hooked my fingers inside her to catch her attention and felt her gasp against the skin of my throat. “But you will be ready.”
It was a warning and a threat. Two things she didn’t deserve from me. She should have pushed me away and ordered me out, but fuck me, why did her pussy flood my fingers instead?
Even under the worst of circumstances, I could never get enough of how she still managed to come apart at my command.
“Hey, man. I need to you stop whatever freakiness is going on in there. Q just pulled up.”
I listened as Keenan’s footsteps retreated at the same time Lake stiffened. I watched her for a beat, but she didn’t move. It looked as if she had stopped breathing altogether so I pulled her up and fixed her clothes, but she continued to look spooked.
“Lake,” I repeated her name, but it wasn’t until I snapped my fingers that she became aware of me again. “What’s up with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“Q shows up and you go catatonic on me.”
She avoided my gaze and talked to the floor. “Let’s just see what he wants.”
“What makes you think he wants something?”
“Seriously?”
This back and forth was getting us nowhere so I took her hand and led her downstairs. Dash, Keenan, and Q were in a corner talking too low to hear. “What’s up
?”
“Hey, man. I heard they bagged Lake. I came to see what I can do.”
“It was a bogus arrest. Those pigs must have gotten desperate because they were fishing.”
“Are you sure they were only fishing?”
I felt a nervous twitch at the threat of doom. Or maybe I was just being dramatic. Either way, it didn’t stop me from being suspicious. I’d never seen Q nervous, but he looked ready to buckle now.
“Why? Do you know something I don’t?” Rather than answer, he turned to address my girlfriend. “Tell him, Lake. I’m giving you one chance or I will.”
“Quentin, don’t do this.”
“Tell me what?” My voice had risen to an ear-shattering level, but Q continued to stare down Lake, who stood with her feet braced and her fists clenched. She looked ready to do battle. I was used to her running.
Q finally met my stare and steeled his jaw. “Lake didn’t kill Mitch. I did.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Dash inch closer to me. Keenan pushed Lake and Sheldon behind him and braced, but I hadn’t moved.
“The fuck did you just say?”
“Kennedy is upstairs,” Keenan cautioned. I ignored him and grilled Q with only my gaze. It didn’t take him long to start talking when it became apparent Lake wouldn’t.
“The day you left with Fitzgerald to secure a deal, the hold on my leave was pushed through. I figured it was too late to call so I just dropped by. You were already gone, but I caught Lake leaving. She looked…off.” He cast a quick glance her way and rubbed a hand across his nape. “I followed her to campus and waited. She didn’t stay long, but she headed out of town right after so I followed her to Summit. I hung back at first and called you to give you a report, but I couldn’t get through to you.”
Fuck, I remembered the missed call that day. When I called him back later, he said nothing about Summit. He’d fucking lied to me.
“She snuck in the back. I followed. It took me a while to track her, but I got there just in time. She—she was going to kill him, man. I stopped her. Whatever he’d been feeding her had pissed her off enough to kill him.”
He was wrong. She had gone there to kill him. Whatever she learned while there was just an added bonus.
I focused on Lake now who stared back at me with unapologetic eyes. She knew I knew, and she didn’t seem to care. I counted the lies and promised to pay her back for every one of them.
“He’s who you were protecting all this time? He’s why you keep lying to me?” I hadn’t realized I was closing in on her until Keenan stepped in my path, completely blocking her from me. “Move.”
“You’re out of line.”
“I won’t ask you again.”
“Then I’ll put you down.”
I struggled over my next move because I could tell he was serious. The last thing Keenan and I needed was another reason to fight, but I wouldn’t let anyone keep me from her.
“No one’s fighting,” Dash ordered. He came to stand in front of me, blocking Keenan and Lake from my direct line of vision. “You need to talk this out, but only if Lake is willing.” He held my gaze until I nodded and then he turned. “Lake, do you want to go with him?”
“Yes.” Her voice was small and hesitant. I could tell she was grasping for strength, but her true nature was to submit and she would. I’d see to it if only to keep her safe.
Dash nodded and Keenan moved, also hesitantly. Lake was acting on her own, and my brother was taking orders from Dash now. I began to realize none of them trusted me to do the right thing—to stay rational and act in everyone’s best interest.
Did I even trust me?
Five years had passed, but my past was still very much a part of my present. Maybe it always would be. Maybe I was fighting a losing battle, I thought as Lake came to stand by my side.
She looked up at me with wary eyes, and I stared back down at her wondering what I would do to her before taking her hand and leading her to the stairs.
Before I disappeared with my secretive girlfriend, I met Q’s watchful gaze. I managed to refrain from killing him, but I wasn’t through with him. I knew when I was outnumbered, and Kennedy didn’t deserve another traumatic experience. She loved the lying motherfucker.
I dragged Lake back upstairs because I didn’t know what else to do. Once we were safely inside, I slammed the door and trapped her against it.
“What—”
I gripped her lips a little too roughly. Her skin would bruise, and I relished the idea of seeing her soft skin affected by me. “No more lies. I’m losing control.” It sounded like a plea because only she could keep me together, but if I broke… I wasn’t sure I could be pieced back together.
“You know it all.”
“Do I?”
She nodded and squealed when I slammed my forearms on the door on either side of her head. “You led me—you led everyone—to believe Mitch was still out there, all to feed your lie. I don’t even know who the fuck you are!” I breathed her in and stole her ragged breath. Her chest heaved against my own. I needed to get closer. I wanted to intimidate her. To make her yield so I wouldn’t feel as if I was losing her.
“I had to. What else could I do?”
I ignored her question and turned away to pace. I felt caged. I needed to release, but that would destroy us. “What else did he tell you, huh?”
“He told me who killed John.”
The blood in my veins hardened to ice. My skin prickled and the hair on the back of neck rose. “Who?”
“Greg.”
The face of the private investigator I had hospitalized the day I found out Kennedy was kidnapped formed, and I gritted my teeth to keep from spewing as much venom and hate as I could muster. I should have killed him. If I had, John would be alive. It was the first time I expressed regret over his death. It was still hard for me to admit love for the man who saved me.
“There’s more.” I didn’t bother to respond, but I didn’t have to. “He was hired by your father to kidnap Kennedy.”
“Mitch didn’t have any money.” Any money he did have couldn’t have been enough to hire three men to kidnap someone.
“He said someone owed him.”
“Who?”
“He didn’t say.”
The room descended into silence, but I was too in tune with her not to notice she had more to say. I could sense her inner struggle.
“Talk, Lake.”
“I won’t apologize for protecting you. You don’t want to lose me, but I refuse to lose you.” That wasn’t what I was expecting her to say. I inched closer despite the voice in my head telling me to stay away. “Tell me you can forgive me.”
“Do you think now is the time to ask for forgiveness? You’re still lying to me.”
“Protecting you!”
“I don’t need your fucking protection.”
“I don’t think you’re in the right place to hear what else I have to say.”
“So help me—”
“Uncle Keke?” We both froze at the tiny voice infiltrating the door.
Lake flung open the door and found Ken standing on the other side clutching a one-armed doll.
“Ken, baby, what’s wrong?”
“I broke my doll.” She lifted the doll up for Lake to inspect with fat tears in her eyes. Lake took the doll while I scooped her up. I met Lake’s eyes over her head, and we silently called a truce.
“Where’s the arm, sweetie?” Ken dug the arm from the pocket of what Sheldon called her day pajamas. I traded Ken for the doll, and she immediately hid her face on my baby’s shoulder while I inspected the doll. It looked like a simple fix. I popped the arm back in the doll and tested it out. Chances were it would break again, but to a four-year-old, it would be a miracle.
“What’s her name, Ken?”
“Lulu,” she answered without lifting her head.
“Well, I think Lulu is all better and ready for you to play with her.” Her head lifted then, and when she noticed her d
oll looking good as new, her eyes grew as wide as saucers. Her girlish squeal threatened to blow my eardrums as she scrambled from Lake’s arms and snatched the doll from my lap.
“Thank you, Uncle Keke. She scrambled up my lap and choked me with a hug for which she made up for with the sweetest kiss to my cheek. Lake watched with tears in her eyes, and I restrained from rolling my eyes.
Women.
I pulled her to my lap when Ken jumped down to run screaming for her dad.
“That was real sweet of you, Uncle Keke.” She smiled, but I could only stare back at her. Her smile fell, and worry replaced the temporary escape Kennedy had brought with her broken doll. “What is it?” Her voice shook, and I felt it in my chest.
“I don’t think I can forgive you.”
* * *
I shouldn’t have said it. For the rest of the night, I had to pretend not to notice her fight not to cry and then to finally give in and cry all night. Like a bastard, I ignored her turmoil and offered her no comfort. I knew what went through her head as she cried.
Did I still love her?
Would I leave her?
I knew, and I didn’t do shit about it.
Every night she spent in my bed, I always held her in my arms, safe from the monsters that threatened to break us apart. She counted on that connection just as I did, but we were both denied it tonight because of her lies and my pride.
When I couldn’t trust myself anymore not to give in, I left her alone for the solitude the couch provided.
In five years, Lake had taught me how to love, but she hadn’t taught me how to forgive. Until now, I had no idea it was something that still eluded me. Effortlessly, she had become my reason, so while I knew I could never let her go, a part of me feared we would never be the same. I couldn’t bring myself to trust her. I only felt the need to control her for purely selfish reasons. I couldn’t be without her. I refused.
“Hey, man.” Q’s greeting broke the silence I had settled into and already, I could feel my jaw harden and set. He appeared from the kitchen, holding a beer and dropped into the recliner adjacent to the couch I took over. “We need to talk.”
