Page 84 of Her Dark Angel

Kinsley snorts. “You want to know what it looks like to me, Nash? It looks like you escorting a woman you have a history of sleeping with out of your house after we spent the night together. Do you know how fucked up that is?” She throws her hands in the air and shakes her head. “James and Adam are having to work hard to put out the fucking fire you started. Why would you ruin this deal when it’s been going so well?”

My head is spinning so much from the alcohol coursing through my veins that I’m finding it hard to keep up with what Kinsley is saying. Any words I would need to form a logical response are nowhere to be seen, leaving me dizzy as fuck and unable to speak.

This is not helping my case at all.

Kinsley chuckles dryly at my lack of response and shakes her head. “Just when everything was going so well with us and I thought… Well, it doesn’t matter anymore because it’s all been for nothing.”

She’s hurt at the idea that I went and slept with another woman after the night we shared. “Kin, please…”

“And of course, you turn straight to alcohol and drugs when the going gets tough and you don’t want to face the music.” She looks around the trashed house before her eyes meet mine. They’re filled with an emotion I can’t decipher and it only pains me further. “You’re stronger than that, Nash. You don’t need to hide behind that shit instead of facing whatever is troubling you.”

For some reason, those words are what sober me up enough to form a response.

“You don’t know shit about me, little devil. You don’t know why I do what I do.”

Kinsley regards me for a moment before shaking her head. “I know enough about you to know that you’re dealing with some trauma regarding your family and childhood that has made you think your voice isn’t worth hearing. So, instead, you turn to drugs and alcohol to silence yourself because it’s easier than speaking up.” She steps forward, her eyes brewing with an impending storm. “Let me tell you this right now, if you don’t face whatever demons you’re running from then you’ll spend the rest of your life running, exhausting yourself to the point the demons win and you’re forever consumed by the darkness. I don’t want that for you, Nash.”

I swallow hard at her words. How the fuck can she see me so clearly? How did she see past the mask I’ve been hiding behind since I was twelve years old?

The little devil is the first person to ever call me out on my bullshit and to say I’m shocked is an understatement, rendering me speechless.

“You should take your own advice, little devil.”

Kinsley sighs and steps back, running a hand through her hair. She’s frustrated and over my shit, I know that much. I know she has more she wants to say, but she pushes the words back down her throat instead of voicing them.

“I have to go,” she finally says after a moment. I reach for her, wanting to feel her skin against mine, but she pulls her hand out of my weak grasp. “Don’t, Nash. I can’t.”

The way she chokes on the last word nearly tears my heart out of my chest.

“Kin, please. I can explain everything.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t want to hear it. Just… please.”

I’m helpless as I watch the little devil swing the front door open and storm out of the house. I have no doubt there are paps hiding in the bushes in the front yard trying their best to capture this moment.

If I wasn’t so caught up in watching Kinsley wipe tears from her eyes as she slides into the front seat of her car, I would’ve beat the shit out of every pap I could get my hands on. I’m motionless as I watch her drive away into the darkness, taking a piece of my soul with her.

The front door opens and closes in one swift movement. I close my eyes and groan, not in the mood to converse with whoever just walked in.

After Kinsley stormed out of the house a couple of hours ago, I have been sitting on the couch in complete darkness staring at the new bottle of Jack on the coffee table. It’s taunting me, begging to taste my lips.

The pained look on her face and the tears in her eyes haven’t left my mind. My heart twists uncomfortably each time the image pops into my head—a reminder of my fuck up.

That’s all I seem to do these days. Fuck shit up, and not in a good way.

I’m a fucking mess, that much is clear.

“God, why is it so fucking dark in here,” Axel comments, his husky voice booming throughout the house.

“Hang on. I’ll flip the light on.” That’s Luca’s voice.

Why are they here at this time of the night?

“Where do you think he is?” Axel asks, his footsteps growing closer to the living room.

“If the faint amber glow in the living room is anything to go by, I would say he’s in there with a cigarette perched between his fingers.”

I tear my gaze away from the Jack Daniels bottle, blinking slowly as I glare at the source that gave me away. The lit cigarette has nearly burned to the butt, but I make no move to stub it out in the ashtray on the coffee table.

---