Page 181 of Under the Lies

Noah Kincaid can love. His black beats a little red.

For me.

He loves me.

And I love him.

I survived the blue-eyed devil and came out with his heart.

In all my years I’ve never felt like I’ve belonged somewhere more than by his side.

I’ve spent my life looking for a place I belonged, never to realize it might not be a destination but a person who travels there with me instead.

One Year Later

“Fucking hell,” I curse, glaring at a set of narrow eyes from across the kitchen. “I can’t keep doing this.”

I’m met with silence and a slow, deliberate blink.

“Really? You have nothing to say?”

More silence.

My eyes cut into slits. “You—”

Before I can finish, they turn and walk away from me.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going? Get back here!” I start after the retreating form when a soft laugh hits my ears.

Spinning around, I find Sayer hugging the doorframe. An amused look on her delicate face. “What’re you doing?”

“That cat of yours is out of hand. Look at this!” I swipe my hand over my countertops, holding my palm out so she sees all the white hair left behind by her little shit, who thinks my island bar is a perch for him to sleep. “He has no respect.”

One of the rules I had when I couldn’t convince Sayer to let Pan go back to living with Reeve, was no cats on the counter. A rule he’s steadily broken.

“He’s a cat,” she reminds me, like that makes a difference.

Spoiler: it doesn’t.

“So is Hook, but he knows how to behave.” I point to the black cat that’s sleeping on the cat tree I bought him, not giving a single damn.

Hook is far superior. And I’m not just saying that because he likes me better than Sayer.

He’s the perfect creature. Keeps to himself, doesn’t shed like a snowstorm, and only scratches at the tree. Unlike Pan, who’s made me replace not one but two couches because he decided he wanted to sink his claws into my soft leather.

That’s right. This animal hating man now has two cats. All because he loves a girl and making her happy. When she told me she was thinking about getting another cat I told her not a chance in hell, but did she listen?

No. She didn’t. The next day she came home with a black kitten in her arms.

“I can’t believe you named him Hook,” she tells me, still hugging the wall.

“What? Only you can name animals after characters?”

Yeah, that’s right. I named him. Staying in theme of what Sayer named her cat after. Thea and Brin thought it was fucking adorable. But what else was I supposed to name him? Hook has a little snaggle tooth that peeks between his lips when his mouth is closed.

It reminded me of a hook.

Sayer shakes her head at me, the amusement growing as she pushes off the wall, walking toward me.

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