Page 89 of Lovely Wicked Things

Shaken out of my reverie, I lift my gaze—and my blood runs cold.

Kallum stands before the fire, the handcuffs discarded on the rug. A dangerous current charges the air as he drops a piece of metal to the floor.

“You seem to always forget that I can feel you,” he says, his expression void of emotion. “I felt you outside the institute and the whole way up here. That vortex of conflicting emotions. Thought I might need a few things in my pocket just in case.”

Chest heaving, air escaping too quickly to catch a breath, I take a step backward.

He moves in sync, one daring step toward me. “You know the rule about running?—”

“Run fast.” The words have barely left my mouth before I dart in the opposite direction.

The house is dark. The moonlight reflecting off the snow casts the interior in an eerie glow, yet not bright enough to light my path through the hallways. I use the wall as my guide and dash into a room, immediately slamming the door shut behind me.

Kallum catches the corner of the panel. I retreat as he throws the door wide. He advances on me, his steps eating the small span of distance in three long strides.

We’ve been here before.

Only this time, there’s no monitor wrapping his ankle. No agents to burst into the room.

No one to stop him.

My back flattens to the wall, and Kallum pushes into my space until he’s towering over me. He secures my wrists and pins my hands above my head. His nostrils flare as he traps me in his heated, predatory gaze.

His mouth descends on mine, kissing me with bruising demand, before he breaks away. “You want the truth so badly, yet you’re always running from it, little Halen. That sweet, sweet fear so goddamn tantalizing.” His claim is delivered in a low, deadly tone to rattle my heart.

Pulse crashing against my veins, I breathe heavily through my nose. “You let Emmons attack me,” I accuse around a ragged breath. “Just like Landry, when you watched him strangle me.”

He presses his ring into my palm. The scar flares hot at the feel of him closing my fingers around the cool object. “Every time, you get a little closer to unlocking that truth.”

“Just tell me thetruth—” I shout.The threat of angry tears stings behind my eyes. There’s still one piece missing—the final connection that needs to be made—and Kallum is the only one who can give me that. “Why don’t I regret killing Wellington?” I hold his lethal stare. “Even now? Why? Am I a fucking monster?”

Kallum drags his thumb down the inside of my wrist, and I clench the ring tighter.

“Because I have to be,” I say, the words torn through a racked sob. “Because even after everything you’ve done…god, I’m still in love with you.”

For the briefest second, his expression shifts. The subtle groove between his brows deepens. A hard swallow tenses his jaw. Then his heavy exhale traces a path down the contours of my throat in the wake of his heated gaze.

He links my wrists together in one hand and drops his other to my collarbone, his touch branding. “Trust me.”

That’s the only warning I’m given before his hand collars my throat. The sudden pressure ramps my heart rate. My eyes flare wide. “Kallum?—”

“Think back.” His tone is a gruff command. “Go back to that moment right before he attacked you. Wellington said something to you. What was it that set you off, Halen?”

He squeezes, his grip on my throat constricting my airway, and adrenaline pours into my bloodstream.

“What did he say that made you swing that weapon?”

Crushing pressure builds in my chest until my vision darkens. Like a reel flicking between past and present, the features of the man before me harden into the face of another—his dark, furious eyes seething with rage, his teeth gnashed and his breath as vile as his twisted features.

During Emmons’ attack on the dam, something was triggered. There was a fragment right on the periphery, a tease of a memory that felt within my grasp—and as Kallum seals off the air from my lungs, that moment in time crashes to the surface

Then suddenly, it’s Percy Wellington strangling my neck.

“I’ll show you, bitch.”

Blackness rims my sight as I gasp for air. I’m tunneling under too fast. As desperation claws my insides, I kick out, trying to break free, but the vise around my neck only cinches tighter. Then I feel the anguish take hold.

I was ready to stop fighting, to give in and let go. Until…

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