Page 196 of Kiss the Villain

“Gareth, listen to me.” I grab his jaw and wrench him closer. “I never had her soul in my blood. I know you’re hurt and in pain, but I want you to know I never cared about her like I care about you, okay, baby?”

He shudders, his hand trembling on my lap. “Do you lie to everyone you care about? Use them for revenge against their grandad? Make them fall for you just to pull the rug from beneath their feet? Is that what caring looks like?”

“No, and I’m sorry.” I release his face and wrap Band-Aids around each of his cuts. “I admit that I approached you for revenge in the beginning, but my vision blurred along the way and things changed. Every single moment we had was genuine, Gareth. I truly care about you, more than I thought possible. Seeing you in pain is worse than being stabbed.”

“Why would you care about my pain after you caused it, Professor? Oh, wait. You’re not a professor. That was part of the image you crafted so well to draw me into your web.” He laughs, the sound a bit unstable and unhinged. “Was the PI your work as well? Must’ve been. You’re filthy rich and come from an influential family, apparently. God, you must’ve thought I was a pretentious prick trying to impress you with all that expensive stuff.”

“No, I was thankful for everything, Gareth. I mean it.”

“Don’t fucking lie to me!” He wrenches his hand from my wound and then grabs my hair, tugging hard. “If Declan hadn’t told me, would you have kept me in the dark my whole life?”

“Of course not. I was planning to tell you the truth.”

“The truth that I’m only a means you’re using to avenge your wife?”

“I told you that changed, Gareth.”

“How can it change? If you loved her so much to go ballistic after her death, to tattoo her on your body and keep her soul beneath your skin, how can it fucking change?!”

He’s becoming agitated again, his pupils dilating, his breathing growing all chopped off, and his grip tightening on my hair.

I gently hold his bandaged hand in mine. “I never loved Cassandra, Gareth. Not like you think.”

“Liar!” He jerks up, releasing me as he paces back and forth, back and forth, biting his finger until blood coats his teeth, lips, everywhere. “Liar, everything is a lie…you’re a goddamn liar…you’veusedme…playedme… I need to remove you like I did with all of them.”

“Gareth, baby, please calm down.”

“Don’t…” His head snaps in my direction, his eyes glittery. “Don’t fucking call me that!”

“Okay, I won’t. Would you sit down? You have a severe concussion, and this will make it worse.”

He comes to a halt, cocking his head to the side, his eyes manic. “Do you care if I’m hurt?”

“Of course I do.”

“Will you go crazy if I die like when she died? Will you start hunting people down and going into a loop of nothingness?”

“Gareth, fuck.” I rush toward him and hold his shoulders. “Don’t say that, please. Don’t…don’t make me lose you. I will do whatever you want me to do.”

“WhateverI want?”

“Yes. You name it and I’ll make it happen.”

“Leave Grandpa alone.” His voice trembles before it becomes steady again. “I don’t know what evidence you have or don’t have, but he’d never assault a woman and kill her. Not after he saw me kill my girlfriend’s rapist. He doesn’t…doesn’t even take rape cases. He’s not that type of man.”

I pause. His girlfriend’s rapist?

Whatgirlfriend?

And he’s killed? He took a life before?

While I’m not surprised, I have so many questions. But this isn’t the time to ask them, so I nod. “I won’t go after your grandfather. I’ve abandoned that for a while now.”

“Because of guilt? Can you feel that?”

“If it’s toward you, yes, I do feel all sorts of emotions I thought I was incapable of. And it’s not guilt per se. I would never hurt someone you care about.” I stroke his shoulder. “What else do you want, Gareth?”

“I want to kill you.” His hand shoots up to wrap around my throat, but he’s not squeezing. “I want to carve your heart out and erase her from it. I want to leave a hole in your chest shaped like me. I want to hurt you so deeply, you’llnevermove on. You’ll become a ghost of yourself, haunted by me in your dreams and nightmares, waking up screaming my name, only to realize I’m gone. I want topossessyou, to make sure you die with my taste on your tongue and my soul coursing through your veins.”

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