Page 25 of Cruel Devil

Powerful…not just physically.

The other VIPs kept their eyes on him. Nervous, jealous, reverential. I felt like a queen when he bent over and kissed the back of my hand.

Sully introduced himself and handed me a glass of champagne. Told me he liked the way I danced. He was much older than me, but that stopped mattering when he cut me two fat lines of coke.

Then he started grabbing my hips, my ass, my breasts. The micro-mini I wore didn’t offer any protection. I can still feel his hands on me, can still see the cruel slant of a mouth as handsome as the rest of him.

I was so fucking high, I laughed at everything, even the way he painfully kneaded my flesh. Even his suggestion that I turn around so he could fuck me from behind and show everyone what a good little slut I was.

If Liam hadn’t arrived out of nowhere and knocked Sully into a parallel universe with a single uppercut, bad shit would have happened to me that night.

I come back to the present with a suppressed shiver. “I assumed you were there to get drunk and get laid, like m—” I clear my throat. “Like everyone else.”

Liam huffs through his nose, mouth quirking like he’s thought of something funny, but when he looks at me his eyes are dead. “I was following you.”

“You were stalking her?” Savage growls.

“No!” He licks his lips and looks away as he takes another sip of beer. “I mean, yes, but only because my dad told me to.”

“Wh—? Patrick told you to stalk me?”

“I was keeping an eye on you and your sisters after your mum passed.”

“You’d been stalking me…for years?” My voice is an octave or seven higher than usual.

Liam stares at the front door, and I hope to God that’s not because he’s expecting another visitor because I can’t handle more fuckery right now.

“He was worried about you and the girls. Didn’t like that you were out there all by yourselves. No money. No one to look after you.”

“The fuck did he care? He didn’t even know us.” My voice keeps climbing. Soon, only dogs will be able to hear me.

“For how long did your father have a relationship with Mrs. Gray?” Savage asks.

It’s so out of left field that I laugh, truly laugh, but when I glance back at my husband he’s not smiling. My lips pull tight. I swing back to face Liam, every atom in my being expecting him to laugh off my husband’s ridiculous notion.

He sighs. “I don’t know. A few years? I wasn’t exactly keeping track.”

“Liar,” I huff out. “She loved my dad. She would never…”

Liam’s auburn brows rise. “I know what I saw.”

I slump back on the sofa, my spine collapsing along with my reality. Suddenly I’m questioning every. Fucking. Thing.

“That’s why you helped me? Why you got us a place to stay? Because our parents were fucking?”

“Does it matter? You were safe, weren’t you?”

“Yeah, real safe.” I snatch my beer off the coffee table to get some moisture back in my mouth. “In fact, I just got off the phone with Phoebe and Athena. They couldn’t stop telling me how safe they are.”

“Liam arranged that motel for you?” Savage takes a sip of beer, his eyes on Liam but the question aimed at me.

I dismiss his question with an irritated wave of my hand. This is between me and the man I once thought was my best friend.

Liam’s jaw hardens. When his eyes snap to mine, they’re frigid. “They would have been just fine if you hadn’t?—“

“Me?” I grate out, my hands curling into fists on my lap. “You’re going to blame this on me?”

His eyes narrow. “You could have worked at a fucking diner, Nyx. Could have become a receptionist, or a dog walker, or a goddamn babysitter.”

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