Page 14 of Blood and Lies (A Twisted Duet 1)

“Why are you doing this?” Her voice trembled, and the sound made my soul come alive.

I shrugged. “I told you, you killed my brother.”

“I didn’t kill him!” she shouted between sobs before wiping the tears harshly off her face with the back of her hand. “I told you I didn’t kill him. I didn’t even fucking know he was dead. I thought he left me. All this time, I truly believed he left me.”

“Let me warn you again, Miss Linscott, your lies will only make this harder.”

“I’m not lying!” She fell to her knees, wailing like a banshee about to meet her own death. It was fucking music to my ears. “I’m not lying. You have to believe me.”

I crossed my arms, completely unaffected by her display of despair.

“Now, now, Miss Linscott. Don’t waste your energy on trying to keep up this charade. You’re going to need that energy for what I have in store for you.”

“You got it all wrong,” she continued as she rocked back and forth, clutching her stomach with her arms. “I loved him, and—”

“Shut the fuck up!” I pushed off the wall and stormed toward her. She scurried back on her hands and knees until her back hit the wall. Hearing her say she actually loved my brother fed the monster inside me, letting it growl and claw and slam against the gates I so desperately tried to keep it caged behind.

I glared at her. “You Linscotts know nothing of love, of loyalty. All you know is how to steal and lie and take what doesn’t belong to you.”

“That’s not true,” she hissed.

“You think daddy dearest makes his millions trading oil in the legitimate way? Think again, naïve little girl. No one gets the amount of power and wealth your dad has by following the rules.”

“You would know, I suppose.”

“Watch your mouth, little mouse. Or it might beyourfinger I’ll be sending to your dad next.” Straightening the lapels of my suit jacket, I pinioned her with my stare. “If you would like to survive for as long as possible, I suggest you never say those words again.”

Tatum lifted her chin, focusing her gaze on me. “What words? That I loved your brother?”

I stiffened, my blood scalding my veins. I was too busy trying to get my anger under control for me to even think about what to say to her, because if I let go, if I let my rage free, she wouldn’t live to see another day.

She got up from the floor, her eyes no longer sad as she looked back at me. “I don’t know who the hell you think you are, but you cannot stop me from saying I cared for your brother…because it’s the truth.”

“The truth?” I stepped closer and noticed she didn’t step back like before. “Tell me, Miss Linscott, if you’re so convinced about what the truth is, why do you think my brother would have lied to you about who he was?”

She glanced down at the floor, then back up at me, and I could see the ripples of doubt swirling around in the ocean of her eyes, but there was something else that wasn’t there two seconds a go—a fire, a burning determination.

“I don’t know…I don’t know why he would have lied to me.” She stepped closer with what seemed like newfound courage, and my stomach twisted as a bout of desire shot up my spine.What the fuck?

“But now that I’ve met his twin brother, I’m thinking that he was protecting me.”

I too took another step closer, bringing our faces a breath from each other. “Protecting you from what?”

She lifted her chin, her gaze etched on mine. “From you.”

I continued to stare at her, and when she bit her bottom lip, my gaze dropped to her mouth. Whether it was her show of boldness or the fact that she thought she needed protection from me, but right at that moment my cock swelled, pressing hard against the zipper of my pants. How I would have loved to tie her to that fucking bed and show her exactly how much protection she needed from me. The Linscott blood in her was too weak to handle the darkness I would unleash on her body. The pain and the pleasure would crack her wide open. God, what I wouldn’t do to be able to show her exactly what and who I was, to see her weak body come undone under my power. But unfortunately, that wasn’t part of the plan, and I needed to goddamn focus on what I came here to do.

“Well, then,” I locked my gaze on hers, “I’d say my brother was one smart man.”

“He was,” she replied, still not backing down an inch. “He was smart enough to not want to tell anyone about his supposed twin brother. Why do you think that is, Castello? What reason would your brother have to try to exclude you from his world?” She cocked her head. “To hide you from me?”

I couldn’t answer that. Her courage, the way she used her truth, twisting it so it was a slap in my face, was one fucking smart move. She was trying to rattle me, to fuck with my head, but there was no way I would allow that. I’d been preparing for this war with her for so long, my mind was a fucking fortress.

Deciding there was still more than enough time to go to battle, I stepped back. “Are you hungry,donna?”

She didn’t answer, but the way she licked her lips told me she was.

“Bring it in,” I ordered over my shoulder, and Vico appeared in the door with a tray.

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