Page 96 of Caught Up

“Are you done?” I asked.

Instead of cursing me or screaming, she burst into tears.

Oh, shit.

I loosened my arms, and suddenly the woman I’d been holding morphed into a wildcat, all tooth and claw. There was a slap to my face, nails dragging down my arm, a foot in my gut, and then she was standing several feet away again, her expression contorted with anger even as tears streaked down her face.

Maybe she didn’t needself-defenselessons after all.

“You killed him, didn’t you?” she said.

I slowly got to my feet. “Lauren, wait. I—”

“My sister said that’s what you do! That you and your family are Lorenzo’s cleanup crew!”

I fought back a snarl. Fucking Kristen Marchetti. She’d been an asshole in high school, the epitome of a mean girl, and from everything I’d heard, she was still an asshole today. Her goddamn husband must have been saying shit to her that he shouldn’t have, and somehow, she’d passed it on to Lauren. I hadn’t seen this coming, couldn’t have anticipated it. The sisters weren’t even close. How the hell had this happened?

“Go ahead,” Lauren snapped. “Break your word to me. Lie to my face,Junior.”

Hearing her use that name again felt like another slap, and my temper flared. “Is that how little you think of me? That I would kill a man and then go after his daughter?”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “You said it yourself. I have no idea what you’ve done in your life, what you’re capable of. You’ve already stalked me. You’ve already hurt people who made my life difficult.”

“Which is why it’s stupid of you to think that I’d suddenly become the one to make your life difficult!”

“The only stupid thing I’ve done lately is believe I could trust you!” she spat.

“Youcantrust me!”

“Then prove it,” she said, voice shaking. “Tell me you had nothing to do with my father’s disappearance.”

I clamped my jaw shut, chest heaving, realizing I’d walked right into this one and had no way out. Tears continued to stream down her face while she waited for me to answer, and the sightwrecked me. I hated that she was in pain, hated that I was the one hurting her. I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms and beg for forgiveness, but I could tell she wouldn’t let me. Hell, sheshouldn’tlet me. She was right; I’d been lying to her all this time.

“You can’t say it, can you?” Her voice broke on the last word.

“Lauren, you don’t understand. Let me just explain.”

She stumbled back, hand rising to cover her mouth. “Oh my god. You killed him.”

“Yes!” I roared, losing the battle with my temper. “Is that what you want to hear? I killed that old bastard and then decided to spit on his grave by fucking his daughter.”

A sob wracked her body, horror filling her eyes.

My stomach dropped. What had I just done? All these weeks I’d been worried the explosion was coming, and now it was happening at the worst possible time, with the worst possible person.

“Lauren, wait,” I said, stepping toward her.

She leaped sideways. “Stay away from me!”

I stopped dead in my tracks. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I didn’t mean—”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she cried. “Why would you think I’d ever believe you after that?”

I took a step back, and then another, putting space between us, trying to make it clear I wasn’t a threat. She was right. How could I ask her to hear me out now?

Because you love her,I realized.And if you don’t say something, you might lose her forever.

“I didn’t kill him,” I said.

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