Page 36 of Lock Up the Darkness

He tapped her shoulder and she turned her head, eyes locking with mine.

Liza.

She was with Killian. All over him.

Her lips pulled into a nasty smirk as she took me in. “Enjoying the show?” she called over.

I strode closer. “You weren’t in trouble.”

“Didn’t see this coming, did you?”

“It was all a ruse.”

Or, more like a trap. Shit.

She shrugged. “Kill made me promises I couldn’t pass up.”

Indignation burned through me.

And a whole lot of other things I was fighting to keep in check before I unleashed all over these fucking fools.

The urge was overwhelming.

But it would also be way too destructive.

At least, in public.

Beyond that, behind closed doors, all bets were off.

Killian bolted up, knocking Liza off him in the process, a squeal sounding from her.

“What the—”

“You’ve had your payment, don’t be greedy,” he tossed over his shoulder at her. Looking at me, he said, “When I told you she’s loyal like a dog, I meant to me. To the Infidels, little fighter.”

“A dog?” she yelled.

She went to reach for him, but he batted her hand away like it was nothing. “You’ve served your purpose, get gone.”

In the next moment, he was snapping his fingers, and two security guards pushed off from their positions around the edge of the gardens and dragged her away.

Killian stepped toward me.

I turned and ran.

Either that, or gouge his eyes out right in front of everyone.

Everything rushed by in a blur as I fought to reconcile the true reality of what had just been brutally revealed to me, the fact that I, Aurora Blackthorn, had been fucking played!

Before I knew it, I was bursting out through a side door.

Somewhere devoid of anything or anyone.

Just trees and the side of the house.

I breathed in the cool night air and hunched over, my hands on my thighs as I fought to catch my breath and get a grip.

That all went to hell in the next second when the air moved.

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