Page 109 of Audiophile

“I’ll tell you, for a kiss.” Kinley pulls at the button of my pants, and I jerk back, out of her reach. It’s only after a half-dozen steps of this that I realize she’s backed me into the kitchen like she wanted. “She’s fine. Went somewhere ten minutes ago. What an idiot. She left the door unlocked.”

She doesn’t have a key. It’s around here somewhere, in a pile of discarded clothing, or maybe in the couch cushions. It doesn’t matter. I send a quick prayer of thanks to God for keeping Petra safe. Now I need him to keep her from coming back. “How did you find the house?”

“The address was in your emails. I knew as soon as you boarded a plane that this is where you’d go. It’s super cute!” Any trace of tears is gone. She keeps the gun on me as she opens the cupboardswhere Petra has already put things away. “I wish we didn’t have to leave it behind. Oh, you kept my My Little Pony plates from when I was little!”

It’s Janie’s favorite show, and I’d bought them for when Janie and Brooke visited, but I’d give Kinley anything to go away. “That’s right, take anything you want. Dishes, the sofa, records. They’re yours. Let me call you a car. I’ll pack them up for you.”

Kinley laughs. “Reed, where we go, we go together. I just have a couple loose ends to tie up before we leave.”

She can’t mean Petra.

My palms sweat, and my pulse pounds in my ears. “I changed my mind. Let’s go now. Where are we headed?”

Kinley shakes her head, keeping her eyes on me even as she rifles through a drawer. “Oh, Reed. I can’t have you longing to come back. I saw your call log.Seven hourson the phone with her? I wasn’t prepared for that trash to sneak out so early, or I would’ve killed her then.”

I search her face, but she’s serious. She hasn’t dropped the gun a fraction of an inch.

“But that’s okay,” she says with a girlish smile. I recognize it from each time we fought and I gave in until she got her way. “We’ll do it when she gets back. Once you watch her die, you’ll finally see that I’m the only one for you. No matter what you do, or where you go, you’ll always be mine.”

Chapter forty-one

Petra

I rush down thestreet, arms filled with coffee and donuts, hoping the brisk pace will help warm me up. My app made it seem like a short walk, but city blocks are a lot longer here than in Swift River. I round the corner to Rosewood Court, and Reed’s pretty, sunny house beckons me in.

God, I love that man. I thought sex would be scary after all this time, but with Reed it’s effortless. No uneasiness or second guessing. He drowns out any insecurities with kisses and dirty words that make my toes curl. I glance at the pink mark around my wrist, and heat pools in my belly. I’d ducked out because my stomach was growling and there was no food in the kitchen, but maybe we can have more sex first and donuts second.

But as I get closer, the front door is partially opened. Surely I didn’t leave it that way? I’m quiet as I make my way up the walk, weighing my apprehension and paranoia. Maybe it’s a quirk of the house, and the front door doesn’t latch properly without the lock.

“If you leave now, no one has to know,” Reed says from somewhere inside, and I hesitate on the porch. “You say you have my back? Ok. I’ll cover yours. No police, no jail.”

Jail?

Kinley. My blood turns to ice. I set my shoulders back outside the front door, steeling myself for the catfight I’ll need to put up. I promised Reed I’d protect him, and if he can’t get her to stop, I will.

“But you have to stop waving that thing around,” Reed continues. “The minute the gun goes off, that’s all out the window. You’ll be looking at years in prison.”

A gun. Panic steals my breath, and I struggle to remember what to do. We’ve talked about this at work, how robberies aren’t worth our lives, and we should comply and let them go. But this isn’t a burglary, and I have no idea what to do.

“I wish we could bring some of this with us,” Kinley says. Her voice is nothing like it was on the phone. It’s soft, pouty, girlish, and strangely familiar. “I got you these scotch glasses for your birthday, remember? Remember how, two glasses in, I stripped off my panties and—”

“I remember you forced me to drink.”

“Don’t be such a prude,” she chides, opening a drawer. “C’mon, Daddy, bring out your bad side. DK would tell me I’m being naughty. He’d tie me up and punish me right here. He’d pound my ass with something like this until I learned my lesson.”

“You’re sick, Kin. When’s the last time you took your meds?”

“Be careful who you call names. You’re not the one with the gun,” she warns. “I don’t need meds. I’m better now, remember? Used to be that anyone in a club bathroom could get me off. Now it’s only you. We’re meant to be.”

“People who are meant to be don’t have to hold each other at gunpoint.”

“If you don’t like my behavior, you should do something about it,” she taunts. “Remember when you threatened to fuck me with a baseball bat after softball practice if I didn’t stop being such a tease? Where’s that daddy? Be rough with me! Love me until I bleed.”

“I never—Christ, Kinley, come back to earth! Look at me. Fucking look at my face. That’s not me. I’m not him. You don’t even like who I am, remember? I’m boring.”

I remember that episode. He’d started taking requests from his highest tier patrons, and someone chose a bullying, authoritarianscene with a coach. Kinleycan’ttell them apart. If she’s this out of it, there’s no limit to what she might do.

I can’t lose him. Not this beautiful man who deserves sunny afternoons. I promised he’d get them.

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