Page 19 of His Ruthless Obsession

I walk over to the door and rip it open, poking my head out. Killian's figure fades into the doorway beside mine, closing it behind him. I walk out into the hallway and over to the door, pressing my ear against it to listen.

The dense wood makes it impossible to hear anything soI grip the handle and slowly turn it, silently pushing the door open.

Inside, I’m greeted by a modestly decorated bedroom. It’s a little larger than mine. A giant four-poster bed is set in the middle of the wall on the far side of the room. It’s the first thing that I notice. The walls are painted a light sage color, and the soft carpet beneath my bare feet is a light beige.

I’m surprised by it all. I never imagined Killian would have such a classy looking bedroom. For someone with such a dark reputation, I at least thought there would be some kind of torture device in here, some blood on the walls. The usual. Anything other than… this.

I move further into the room, walking towards the bed to take in the deep cherry-red wood that it’s made out of. My hands touch one of the posts, feeling the smooth gloss of the wood under my fingers. On the nightstand, a glimpse of silver catches my eye.

I walk over to it, seeing the different knives laid out on top of a velvet drawer base.

My brother has something similar hanging in his office— collectibles that were worth a lot and had taken him years to gather.

Again, the refinery surprises me.

Behind me, I hear a door open. I turn to it, seeing Killian step through the frame with a towel pressed against his face. He pats his skin dry before wrapping the towel around his neck. When he spots me, he stops in his tracks and takes me in.

A smile works its way onto his face. One that promises something dark.

“Came back for more so soon?”

I frown at him, stepping away from his knives.

“I want to know what you meant byyou’re seeing my father soon. Do you two have a meeting set up?”

“Not exactly. But I want him to know where you are and that I have no intention of returning you anytime soon.”

I feel my eyes widen. “What?!”

“He’ll know to back off with whatever he’s planning,” Killian continues, “once I express to him that I plan to do whatever I want with you.”

I feel my stomach sink. “Why would you do that?”

He shrugs a shoulder. “I’m planning on giving him the impression that you came to me for help getting out of your wedding. You said as much for yourself yesterday that he would suspect that. I’m only playing into it.”

I feel myself start to panic. He can’t be serious. He’d play my own fears against me and use them as a tool against my father in the process. It would ruin any chance I had of salvaging my relationship with my family. No one would be able to trust me if Killian wrapped me up in a lie such as that.

“You can’t tell him that. It isn’t true! You need to tell him that I wasn’t a part of any of this.” I wave my arms around. “I would never betray my family like that.”

Killian’s steps are predatory. I feel myself start to shrink but hold my ground anyway, balling my hands at my sides the closer he gets. He towers over me, looking down at me with a weird gleam in his eyes that I can only call hunger.

His hand reaches out, cupping my face in a tight grip.

“You need to start taking your life into your own hands and stop worrying about what your father thinks.”

I swallow hard. It was the same thing that my brother said to me, right before any of this had even started.

“Is he looking for me? My father?”

Killian regards me with a cool expression. “He’s looking to skin you alive.”

His thumb strokes my cheek gently, clashing with the words coming out of his mouth.

I search his face for any truth to his words and find no deception. How could my own father want me dead like that? Nothing has been confirmed and yet he already wants my head on a silver platter. Why?

“How do you know any of this?”

He drops his hand from my face. “Can’t say.”

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