Page 76 of Truths

“They really should've done research before coming in here like this,” Lex says and grabs her phone. “Hey, baby.”

Her eyes don't move away from the men on the ground. Lex killed them. She never flinched, and she knew what to do. Talked to them like... like they were equal. No wonder she told Dani to trust her. She promised no one would hurt her here, and she didn't lie.

“So, I need you to come home. Right now. Bring Dax. And a truck.”

Dani stares with wide eyes at this woman. If it was Dani, she'd be shaking like a leaf in a windstorm, but Lex just looks cool and collected. How the hell is she so calm?

“Well, here's the thing. Um, there were two Kingsmen that showed up. Kicked in the door and wanted to take Dani. They didn'treallyknow who I was, and now they're dead. Really dead. On our kitchen floor. See you soon. Love you.”

Hanging up, Lex looks at Dani.

“You... you just... they were... and now they're... holy shit, you just killed them.”

“Do you have a moral issue with this? Do you wish I'd let them take you?”

Blinking, she just stares. “H-how... how?”

“I told you that I saw them. I grabbed the gun and kept it under the table. My intuition is pretty spot on.”

“Holy shit.”

“Are you okay?”

To her credit, Lex doesn't move towards her or try to touch her. She gives her space to process the crazy scene before her. “No, I'm not okay!”

“Sit down, and I'll get you some water.”

“With two dead men on the kitchen floor? Two dead men who wanted to kidnap me and lock me back up in the basements? So many basements.”

“Do you want to sit in the living room instead?” Lex asks and stands to get two bottles of water in the fridge.

Joking. She's joking right now. “You... you don't care that there are two men dead in this house. Right... right there? Like, doesn't bother you in the least?”

“If it's them or me, no, not really. I can't move them, which is what Dax and Colt are for. They'll take care of them.”

Her stomach continuously flips, but she takes the bottled water from Lex. Part of her thought everything Lex told her was nothing more than exaggerated stories, but now she knows that she told her the truth. It's both unnerving and relieving at the same time. “You aren't going to dismember him in the bathtub?”

“Hell no. That was a once in a lifetime situation. Well, in theory. Given the right circumstances, I might do it again. But it would have to be pretty big.”

“How are you so okay with this?”

Letting out a deep breath, Lex looks into her eyes. “It was you or them. I chose them. This shit ends now.”

The resolve in Lex's tone cracks a little bit of the vault Dani holds so tightly inside her, and she wants to cry. She wants to scream and punch and kick and bury her head in the sand. But she also wants to be free.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Summerville

Dax

“Can't you go any faster?” Dax asks, his leg bouncing in the passenger seat in the pickup Colt drives to his house.

“I could, but you guys never souped up the fucking engine. I have the pedal pressed to the floor.”

When they pull up outside, Dax doesn't even wait for Colt to shift into park before he jumps out of the pickup and runs into the house through the kicked-down front door. Hearing Lex tell Colt the Kingsmen tried to get Dani has him feeling as though he's on the edge of cliff and ready to jump. He hears Lex and Dani talking, and he stops as Colt joins him while they stare atthe sight of the two dead men with bullet holes between their eyes in the opening of the kitchen.

“Dani, you must know something. They wouldn't have wanted to take you back if you didn't,” Lex says.

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