Page 57 of Deviant Illusions

His face remains still but his pulse quickens as he calmly says, “I understand why she never spoke about you now.”

I kiss his neck again as I softly massage up his nape to thread my fingers through his hair while ignoring their conversation to have my own. “You’re the only person who ever loved me, and I miss him. That Kane would never hurt me.”

He tenses with each verbal blow he and Helene trade. I tell myself that his increasing heart rate is due to my whispered admissions, proof that my Kane is still there. Somewhere deep inside, he remembers me and when I leave his neck, he’ll smile at me. He’ll hold my face in both hands, kiss my forehead, each of my eyes, then the tip of my nose, like he’s making the sign of a cross and worshipping me.

But he doesn’t.

His chest puffs out, knocking into mine as he roars, “Shut the fuck up! You conniving, stupid fucking cunt!”

Icy cold fills the car and I slowly turn my head to see Helene stare at him. She doesn’t blink, despite her eyes filling with murder. She thaws slightly as Kane roughly pushes me to the side. My head nearly slams off the side panel but he wraps his fingers around my jaw to drag me up as he snarls into my face, “None of this means shit. Do you understand?”

I push against his chest, but he tightens his hold on my face. There’s going to be fingermarks bruising my cheeks by the time he lets go. Using his hold on my face, he makes me nod and grabs my left hand. He brings it up between our face and his breathing is harsher as he points to my empty ring finger. “There is no ring. So stop fucking asking for one. All you areis an agreement. A fuckingthingfor your father to give me as collateral.”

He flicks his gaze up and down my body like I’m lower than shit on the bottom of his shoe. Meeting my eyes, he gets closer and his hand around mine softens minutely.

“Even then,” he says, deep and husky, “you’re already used and undesired. I never wanted you, not then and not now, but a reflection has to know every part of the life they’re portraying.”

Slow clapping comes from Helene while he continues staring into my eyes like he hasn’t just crushed everything that kept me going. If I could open my mouth to utter anything more than an unintelligible mumble, I’d scream that he’s a lying bastard. He loved me in the way normal people do and he cared. He fucking cared about me, and he might not now, but he doesn’t get to take the only morsel of that protection I’ve ever felt.

“Oh, sweet boy,” Helene coos while still fucking clapping. “There may be hope for you after all.”

The car comes to a stop, gently rolling back before the grinding of the handbrake can be heard. No one moves. I stop breathing as I watch Kane. His eyes slowly move in a triangle between my eyes and lips. My heart fucking hurts. It’s a physical pain that I’m not allowed a moment to nurse with the sound of gravel crunching under the driver’s foot as they walk to the passenger door. Helene’s cane rattles the small stones as she digs it into the ground to steady herself getting out of the car.

But Kane is silent.

Just staring at me with rage burning in his eyes.

I manage to find some foolish spark of confidence to whisper, “You loved me.”

He leans closer, instilling hope that I’m right as his nose brushes mine.

Then rips it away from me as he says low in his throat, “That’s my biggest regret.”

27

KANE

Delilah is fucking with my head. She’s not a gentle or soft person, or emotional in the slightest. She’s detached and finds everyone replaceable. I’m a fool, wanting to believe her when she’s toxic. Exactly like a fool, I slip my fingers through hers as soon as we get out of the car. The loose gravel driveway won’t be comfortable on her bare feet, but I’ve already fucked up by allowing Helene to think Delilah means something to me.

Lennox’s most recent warning repeats in my head as I take in the derelict surroundings.

“If you don’t want her to be used to control you, make her useless.”

Each turn of my head reveals more trees as crystal-clear water laps against the rocky edges below us at the bottom of the cliff. There’s a split second where my limbs scream at me to run, to wrap my hand tighter around Delilah’s and get her the fuck away from whatever it is that the Kobalts and her parents are involved in on this small island. But she squeezes my hand, infusing strength into me as she looks up with her eyes brighter than ever to whisper, “Don’t leave me.”

Helene’s stick digs into the gravel, creating pockets in the surface of the driveway. I turn my head so she can’t see my lips and mouth to my girl,“We’ll stay together, yeah?”

Despite the shit around us, she smiles at me. A genuine one that isn’t forced or cordial like her parents had forced her to do. It’s real. She isn’t hiding anymore.

I used to live for that smile. I’d structure my days around it, I’d go out of my way to get more hits of it like an addict. It didn’t matter that she was cheating on her boyfriend, or that her boyfriend was my brother. None of it meant anything because she’d allow me to witness her joy in a way that no one else ever did.

Tucking our joined hands behind my thigh, I drag Delilah with me into the large stone house. The bricks have aged from the salt in the air, turning the edges white. Some spots on the flat stone are black, and without the greenery, I wouldn’t be able to see anything other than varying shades of black and white. The trees packed up the steep hill of the driveway aren’t lush or pruned to form elegant shapes. They’re rough with brittle bark. Some of them have holes cracking through the wood and others are charred.

Delilah clings to me with her free hand wrapping around my forearm and the gravel crunches with her uneven steps. The driver doesn’t wear a mask as he stands beside the door like a freaky butler. There’s a scar starting at the very bottom of his earlobe, curving under his jawline before disappearing into the collar of his shirt. His eyes are covered by the shadows cast from the overhead stone porch. I don’t even blink as we get closer.

The climate isn’t hot enough for me to be able to work out which area of the globe we’re on, but the sun is at the highest point in the sky. It makes it difficult to see the drivers’ features fully as we enter the house. He walks ahead, leading us into alarge foyer. Yet the house is dim and gloomy despite it being midday wherever the fuck we are.

Antique paintings line the walls. Each one is adorned with a gold plaque embedded into the frame and different markings at the top of the frame. I stop beside one that has a dragon head eating its own body. The head seamlessly curves into a serpent’s tail. The driver abruptly turns, forcing me to step back at the sight of his pitch-black eyes, nearly crushing Delilah. Even the whites of his eyeballs are covered but there’s no film over them. How the fuck are his eyeballs fully black without blackout lenses? It’s creepy as fuck, and it doesn’t get better when he attempts to open his mouth. His lips quiver, fighting something like his jaw is wired shut, as he lets out a garbled mumble that reveals bars.

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