Page 54 of Deceit

“I didn’t stutter.” My phone begins to vibrate in my jean pocket, but I don’t make a go to retrieve it.

Nah, Camilla is going to fight me on this, and I need all my focus on not tossing her out on her ass right now.

“Kace, no.” She swings her head back and forth. “They don’t work.”

“You don’t try. And I don’t have time to babysit you.”

Why the hell I’m doing it now is a combination of bad decisions, old flames, and the fact that I need something to occupy my fucking time since Emmy pulled a Houdini on me.

“I’m not going,” Camilla retorts, scooting out of her seat and rising to stand. “If you think thatthisis going to help, it’s not.”

“Says who?”

“Me.”

“It’s time someone lit a fire under your ass, Cam. I’ll just make sure it’s not as much as I inflicted on Bubba.” Her eyes span wider at the bleak reminder. “Time to face the music.”

“I asked for a fucking ride,” she gripes with contempt. “Not a lecture.”

“Yeah? Well, where are your other cronies at?”

Her face twists—she’s pissed—and she starts for the door. My palm slams into her chest above her breasts, and I thrust her spine into the drywall.

A gasp escapes her lips as I ungraciously let her soak in whatever pain I may have just inflicted.

“I have a job for you to do since you wasted my time,” I leer, tightening my grip on her pink tee. “I need you to keep your ears and eyes open around here. If any people are riding up in here that don’t belong, let me know.”

“Why—“ I pull her frame forward a bit, then slam it back into the wall, alluding for her to stop asking me dumb questions.

“Do it…and you can stay here. Snort snow in here, and I’ll have you out on your ass. Fuck around with me, Camilla, and you’re going to find out what I grew up to be.”

She tsks, remembering me for who I used to be and not what I’ve become.

Two different human beings right there.

“You’d never hurt me, Kace.” Her words are confident as she rises a little on her toes, allowing me to remember us this close before. Two young teenagers in love with the whole dark and unforgiving world ahead of them.

Her soft but dry lips brush mine before taking my bottom lip between her teeth. She tugs, coaxing me to recall the violent motive that Cam and I have when we’re together.

To forget everything.

I don’t remember her moving, but my spine slams into the opposite side of the hall.

Her arms wrap around my neck, and a flurry of mixed memories flood through me.

How much she loved me.

How many times we spent the night in the woods to get away from Shady Grove.

When I killed for the first time, it was justice for her.

The dozens upon dozens of occasions she picked cocaine over me.

“Still, my hero,” she whispers against my lips. “And my biggest regret.”

A crest of anger blankets over me, and I shove her back into the other side, but our union doesn’t break—no, it intensifies.

My rage for everything Emmy and how Camilla made me second best. How I know to mirror some of Camilla’s bad habits with bottling up anything or anyone else in a way where we can just hurt and enable ourselves.

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