Page 8 of Double Shot

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“I’m sure,” I said steadily, and he nodded, the glint in those dark eyes one that said Kyle Lachlan was galvanized. Diamond hard, wicked sharp, and ready.

“I’m going to ask you some shit, and I’m not going to tell you where I’m going with it but I need you to answer me without thinking, okay?”

I nodded slowly and took a bite of my oatmeal, smiling a bit. He’d tried. He really had, putting all the things I liked into it, just not nearly enough of any of it.

“Good?” he asked.

“Perfect,” I said. “And I understand to all that other stuff.”

“I mean it, Sadie. No trying to spare my feelings, no lying, no trying to sugarcoat or minimize anything. You got it?”

“You know me so well,” I said and nodded. “I’ve got it.”

“What was the worst thing to ever happen to you?” he asked.

I dropped my spoon with a clack against the side of my bowl, and suddenly couldn’t look at him.

“Sadie…”

“I’m thinking,” I said, and he sighed theatrically.

“See, I didn’t think this would work.” He put his hands on his knees and pushed up, standing, but before he could walk away from me, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Which one? There are two.” He froze and looked down at me.

“Both,” he said, going still. He sank down onto the side of the bed and I set the oatmeal aside and immediately regretted it for the shaking in my hands. I clutched them together until the knuckles mottled red and white, but it did nothing to stop the shaking in them. If anything, it only made things worse.

“You can talk to me,” he murmured, and I nodded.

“First one, the not so bad one… I was in love with an addict for a while. His name was Simon…” I told him. I told him everything – about how I’d slept with his dealer so Simon could score. After Simon had begged me.

“Simon have a last name?” Kyle asked, and I shook my head.

“He’s dead,” I murmured. “Overdosed six months after I finally broke up with him.”

“What about the dealer?” he asked.

I breathed in through my nose and out through my mouth slowly.

“They called him Turk. I think you and Roan would call him a low-level dealer. Last I heard, he was still dealing out of the tenderloin district of Indigo City.”

“Okay.” He nodded slowly. “Not sure what could be worse,” he said, and I took a fortifying breath.

“As much as I didn’t want to do anything with Turk…” I said. “Ididconsent… for Simon, to stop his pain to—”

“What did I say about sugarcoating and minimizing?” he demanded, rising to his feet again. “Don’t make excuses for either one of those pieces of shit, Sadie…fuck.” He raked a hand back through his hair and let out an explosive breath.

“I’m sorry,” I murmured.

“Do I even want to know what’s worse?” he asked, hands on his hips.

“Probably not, no… maybe it’s best I keep that one to myself.”

He shook his head. “Not how this particular game is played, baby girl.”

“Then could you sit down?” I asked. “It’s hard to talk about these types of things when you’re looming like that.

---