Page 108 of Audiophile

“Reed—”

I’m shaking. “Ten.”

“Daddy—”

My skin crawls. “Nine.”

“Fine.” Her lip trembles as she slips her shirt on. The gray light signaling the dawn creeps in through the window, making her red-rimmed eyes shifty. Kinley is a coyote: sly, digging for scraps, yelping like a victim to lure city dogs into her trap. But it’s all an act.

“Eight.”

She yanks on her pants with a snarl. “Shut up, Reed, I’m going!”

“Seven. Six. Five.” I shove her hoodie and bag at her and march her down the stairs, flinging open the front door.

“Daddy?” Kinley is shivering in the cold morning air. Tears are tracking down her face and her sweatshirt is balled in her arms. “Please don’t do this. Remember how much you love me—”

She grabs my arm, but I pry her off. She’s delusional. Anything less than perfect clarity will leave her thinking we can work through this. “I don’t. I—”

I stop at the sight of the moving pod in the driveway, finally emerging from my nightmare and into the present. Shock whips through me, quickly followed by ice in my veins. Dread.

“Where is Petra?”

She stands up straighter, a glint in her eye. “How badly do you want to know?”

I don’t rise to the bait. “Wherethe fuckis she?”

Kinley smiles. A coyote. “Afraid we’ll be best friends? Too late!” She unlocks her phone to show me a selfie of her and Petra together in Mulberry’s. They’re both smiling. What the hell has she been up to? “Afraid I’ll take her from you? I can lick pussy with the best of them, you know.”

“You have three seconds to tell me.”

Kinley rolls her eyes and drops her phone back in her bag. “Maybe you’re obsessed with her now, but she’ll become old news. You can only listen to a recording so many times before it loses its power. Before you crave something real.”

“If you hurt her, I’ll—”

“Oh, Reed.” Kinley sighs and pulls a handgun from her purse, aiming it right at my forehead. I freeze, and everything goes hazy. “You always force me into Plan B.”

Oh. Well, fuck. I’d always said she’d have to hurt me for anyone to understand, but Jesus, she’s going to skip right over that.

Her ice blue gaze is sad but determined, and her hand is steady. She’s not just my monster, but her own. I escaped for a little while, but she can’t run from herself.

“Kin.” Kinley shakes her head, like she knows what I’m going to say. Her lip trembles, and I know there’s still something good inside her. There has to be. I barely scratched the surface of who Petra is. I’m not giving up our future together that easily. “You don’t want to do this.”

“I really don’t.” Kinley blinks up at me, and a tear slips down her cheek. For once, I believe it’s real. “Everything is fractured.”

“I know. This isn’t you. Give me the gun, Kin. Let me get you some help.” I stretch out my hand, and the movement shocks her out of her thoughts.

“You still love me,” she says, blinking back her tears. She settles into herself, closing the distance between us with a smile. “I knew you did.”

Fuck. She’s in the middle of a crisis, completely out of touch. There’s a reason why Kinley prefers a father figure. I shift, imagining I’m talking to someone fragile, like Janie. “No, Kinley. I want to help you. You’re feeling fractured? We need to get you to a doctor.”

Kinley shakes her head. “I need a different medicine. I want to work this out the way we always did. I’d hoped a little sex this morning would remind you how good we are, but you like to play hard to get, Daddy. It’s frustrating, butsohot.” The gun never wavers as she bats her eyelashes at me.

“That’s not an option. Let’s talk about other ways forward.”

She shrugs, as if holding me hostage isn’t a psychotic move. “No. Now we do it my way. Kitchen, Reed. Go. If you’re not going to be my Daddy today, then be my good boy,” she croons.

I’m not going anywhere. I have to trust that she wants me alive more than dead, but she’s lost touch with reality, and I can’t rule it out entirely. And if she’d consider hurting me… Fresh panic claws at my ribs. “Tell me where Petra is, Kin. Please. Just tell me if she’s okay.”

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