Page 81 of Deadly Oath

I tilt my chin up, taking a step towards him as I hold his gaze, ready to fight him on this if need be.

“I want proof.”

33

KIAN

The easiest thing would be to take her back out to the car, send her home with strict instructions for her to be carefully watched, and forget about all of this. I don’t owe her answers.This is about my revenge, I think as I stand there looking at her, at the fierce gleam in her eye and the hard set of her mouth, an expression that I’ve never seen on her face before. And I think of what she said to me, just a few minutes ago, as I had her pinned up against the lockers.

Is that what you want? To become the same thing you’re trying to get vengeance over?

It isn’t. I never intended to become them, but looking at Sabrina, I’m struck by that feeling again—the feeling that I’m not so sure I haven’t already.

“Fine,” I tell her sharply. “Wait here, and we’ll go back to the mansion. I’ll show you the proof.”

She looks startled, as if she didn’t believe I’d actually give in. But if I’m being honest, I want to see what she does with the proof. If she tries to fight it, tries to excuse it—or if she realizes the kind of man her father really is.

If it’s the latter—maybe I really was wrong about her. Maybe I have been all along.

“I’ll find you if you run, princess,” I warn her. “You stay right there, while I clean up.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” Sabrina sits down on the bench, her arms crossed. “Feel free to do whatever you need to.”

I smirk at her. “You’re welcome to join me in the shower if you want.”

She looks away quickly, but her cheeks flush. “I’ll pass,” she says tartly, and I chuckle.

The laugh fades almost immediately, though, as I turn to go to the showers. The banter between us has come back easily, in this moment of semi-truce.Tooeasily. We fit together too well, even in the moments when we’re angry, and in the moments when we’re not?—

She’s nothing like I thought she was. I was wrong.

The thought stays with me, stuck in my mind, nagging at me as I shower off the blood and sweat from the fight. When I’ve cleaned up, I step out of the shower, and I towel off, bare naked across the room from Sabrina. And I can see, out of the corner of my eye, that she steals a glance before she looks sharply away.

As angry as she is, as betrayed as she feels, she can’t pretend that she still doesn’t want me. It should make me feel victorious, the way it used to, the ultimate sign that I’ve won, that I seduced her so thoroughly, made her mine so completely, that she can’t help but want me.

But now, all I feel is guilty. Guilty, tired, and a different, sharp feeling that almost feels like longing.

We had something, in between all the machinations of my plan. And I’m finding, now that it’s lost, that I miss it.

Right now, what I think I miss most of all is how her hands felt on me, that night I came home from the fight, after the wedding. When she came into the bathroom and cleaned me up. I can’t recall a woman ever touching me that way before—gently, soothingly, as if she wanted to care for me.

But I miss more than that, too. I don’t mind it when she yells, but Imiss hearing her laugh. I miss the way she wrinkles her nose when she’s annoyed with me. I miss the way she curls into me when she’s falling asleep. All things that I never thought to care about, that I noticed without meaning to—and that suddenly, I feel as if losing has punched holes in me that I won’t ever be able to fill.

When I’ve dressed, Sabrina stands up, following me out of the locker room without a word. I talk to Sean briefly, telling him something has come up at home, and promising him a proper introduction to my wife another time. I tell him to set my winnings for the night aside, and I’ll come pick them up later, and then I escort Sabrina out to the waiting car, my hand firmly on her back.

“Don’t punish the driver,” she whispers, as we approach the car. “Ailin can be very convincing. He really believed her.”

“He should have listened tomyorders. And what did I tell you about telling me what to do, princess?” I open the door, pushing her forward, and she slides inside as I follow. I have every intention of making certain the driver knows just how big of a mistake he made, but I’ll deal with that later. I want to get back to the mansion, and find out how Sabrina will react to the truth about her father.

She’s silent on the drive back. She stays firmly on her side of the car, looking out of the window, until the car finally pulls up in front of the mansion. Then she opens her door herself, without waiting for me, and steps out of the car, walking up the stone steps to the front door as I stride behind her to catch up.

“We’ll go to my office,” I tell her, my hand on her back as I step up next to her. “My files are in there. I’ll show you.”

“Fine.” Her voice is tight, her entire bearing tense, as if she’s ready for a fight. And I can understand that. I can only imagine how I’d feel if I was going to be given news about my father that could change everything I thought about him. How I felt about him—who he was to me.

I unlock my office, switching on the light as I lead her inside. It’s a relatively small room, compared to the rest of the house, with a large bookshelf on one wall and my desk near the window. I go to the filing cabinet next to it, unlock it as well, and Sabrina sinks down into oneof the leather chairs on the opposite side of the desk, and take out a file and a small leather pouch.

I set them both down on the desk in front of her. She looks at them both warily. “What is this?”

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