Page 104 of Kneeling for Them
I’d bet my keyboard, if I still had it, that the “lawyer” was Trina.
“If Bastian Crown wants to talk to you about this himself,” I say, “would you be willing?”
“Willing to talk to Bastian Crown?Hells yeah.”She looks around.“I mean, just a conversation.I’m happy with my partner now.But I always did think the whole thing was weird, so, I don’t know, some closure could be cool.”
“Thank you so much for your time,” I tell her.“I’ll let you get back to work.”
I have to get to work, too—I need to get back to San Esteban in time for a shift at the pub.If it weren’t for Garth driving me, I’d never make it.I make a mental note to text another thank-you to Kingston.
Alyssa and I say goodbye, and as I leave her house, all I can think about is what an epic lie Trina has told.And for seven years.
Seven years, Sebastian has been weighed down by guilt and shame.Seven years, he’s ignored his career, his art, because of this.
That’s just fuckingwrong.
Twenty-Four
Sebastian
Kitty Cat Karaoke is depressingly empty tonight, but I don’t let that stop me from sulking in my favorite booth at the back.My phone buzzes in my pocket, not for the first time.I ignore it.I dread what I’m going to find there.
Looking out around the club, I think I can’t possibly reach a lower level of misery.It’s probably past time I go home and hang out with Schrödinger, because an attitudinal cat is way better company than this.
I’m so fucking miserable, though, that it seems unfair to foist my company on Schrödinger.Poor beast.
Tonight’s performers aren’t all that bad, but the energy is so low in the club, it doesn’t matter what song these people choose or how well they sing it—nobody here is going to care.It’s as if a heavy mantle of malaise has dropped over everything and everyone.
Or maybe that’s just me.
I don’t like how Ella and I left things yesterday morning.I need to trust her, and when I’m unsure, we need to actually talk.I can understand her wanting space after that conversation, but I’m done with space.I just want to hold my little girl, sing lullabies to her, get to know her better.I want to see her smile.I want to watch her brown eyes lighten with humor and darken with heat.
“Yes, I’m here to meet Bastian,” a familiar female voice says from the doorway, which is out of my line of sight.
I don’t need to see her to know who it is, though.I’d recognize that breathy, manipulative tone anywhere.It’s Trina.
My lungs seize and I straighten up.Shit.I wonder if I should sneak out the back.
Then I realize I sound like a fucking coward.Yeah, she used to have power over me.But she doesn’t anymore.
She comes around the dividing wall that separates this part of the lounge from the entryway.Her blond hair is pulled back with a purple headband that matches her lipstick.Her pantsuit is rumpled.She looks tired, with dark bruises beneath her green eyes.I wonder if she just flew into town, or what.
As she approaches my booth, I’m already shaking my head.
“No,” I say.“Just turn right around.My mind’s made up.”
“Bastian.”She gives me a saccharine smile, like she thinks I’m some misbehaving kid or something, and she’s indulging me.“Let me sit down, let’s talk this out like adults.”
“No.I have nothing to say to you.You’re fired, it’s over.”
“I don’t think you want to do that.I’m here to make arrangements with Ella.It would be a shame if you get left behind.”
I stare at her, incredulous.Like Ella would fall for her lies, after everything that’s happened?
Unless Trina was never lying about my assault.Maybe Ella has figured it out already—maybe Ella knows, now, that I’m a monstrous, abusive sack of shit.In which case, Trina’s been telling the truth all along.
It doesn’t matter what Ella has discovered, I decide—at least not as far as Trina’s and my working relationship goes.The trust is gone.I’m tired of Trina blackmailing me.
That’s what this has been, for the past seven years.Blackmail.I don’t know why I never really saw it this way before, but now I do, it’s hard to imagine anything innocent about the way Trina’s been nudging me to do her bidding.
