Page 54 of Lock Up the Darkness

That took the wind out of Kill’s raging sails. “You… what?”

“You heard me.”

Kill blinked. “I don’t… how?”

“It’s a long, complicated story, one I’ll get into once you sober up.”

I gestured at Aurora. “She has a part to play in it, yeah? It’s why you engineered all of this?”

Asher didn’t take his eyes off Kill, given what an unstable element he was currently proving to be. Asher’s attention always went directly to where the immediate threat was. “More than a mere part. She’s instrumental.”

Kill released the bottle to Asher, then pulled his hand free and stepped back, shoving his hand through his floppy hair. He couldn’t let himself believe it, to have hope after all this time, in case it was false. So, instead, he gestured wildly at Aurora and told Asher, “You expect me to work with her then?”

“Yes,” Asher responded simply.

“After the shit she pulled? Are you fucking kidding me?”

“For the big picture, for your freedom, I expect you to be willing to do anything. And stop fooling yourself while you’re at it. We all know it’s not just anger you have for her.”

Aurora rose to her feet and finally broke from her quiet, studious observations. Damn, she was so much like Asher, clearly sitting there gathering intel, making plans and strategies.

Asher watched her like a hawk as she stepped right up to Kill.

“You’re really still pissed about the parking lot incident?”

“Yes,” he growled.

“Or is it you overcompensating because of something else?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Tonight.”

He flinched.

Undeterred, she pushed, “You think I’m upset about how you set me up tonight? About Liza?”

He frowned. “You were.”

“I know you were under orders. I know why you were under orders. I’m over it.” She dropped her gaze for a moment as she spoke more quietly, “I know you didn’t sleep with her, that it was just a show.”

Kill softened, her words breaking through all that rage. “It would’ve bothered you if I had?”

“Apparently.”

“Would’ve bothered me too,” he muttered.

I chuckled. “There’s my boy. Well done, Pretty, finally putting it out there. It bothered him that I finger-fucked you into oblivion earlier too.”

Kill shot me a look.

His eyes flashed.

And then he grabbed Aurora by the throat and jerked her into him, a second before he crushed his mouth to hers.

She froze up for a moment from the shock of it. But as he thrust his tongue into her mouth, she sank into it, letting him have his taste.

I tensed when I saw him tighten his grip around her throat, enough where it was gonna leave one hell of a red-raw handprint.

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