Authors: Julia Sykes
His eyes narrowed. “I could tie you up, throw you over my shoulder, and drag you out of here,” he said dangerously. “Is that what you want? Because that’s what I’ll do if I have to.”
My own eyes turned to slits, and I felt my lips twist into something like a snarl. “I will never forgive you if you do that,” I warned.
His jaw tightened. “If that’s what it takes to keep you safe, then that’s what I’ll do,” he said grimly.
“You don’t understand!” I cried out in frustration, knowing that he would make good on his threat. “I have to ask Bradley about his gun. Once I do that, I’ll leave with you. I promise. Please, Sean.”
I saw his determination waver in the face of my blatant desperation. “What do you want to know about it?” He asked, his voice calmer this time.
“Where did he get it?” I asked quickly. Maybe Sean could tell me. Maybe I was seconds away from finding out who had killed my parents…
“He got it from me.”
I felt as though Sean had repaid my punch in kind, and I physically reeled back from him. “What?”
“It was my father’s. I didn’t want it, so I gave it to Bradley. So if you’re worried about not getting it back from the police, don’t be. It’s not really his anyway.”
Everything clicked into place in one horrible instant. “Your father killed my parents.” I didn’t even realize that I had spoken the words aloud.
Sean’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about, Claudia?” He was eyeing me like I truly had lost my mind. “You said your parents died in a car crash.”
“No! They didn’t!” I was yelling now. Why was he being so slow on the uptake? Why couldn’t he see it? I was already down, but the universe just wouldn’t stop kicking me. I gathered my anger at whatever malevolent higher power was responsible for my torment and turned it on Sean.
“They were murdered, Sean,” I flung out the words. “Your father gunned them down in the street when I was thirteen years old. Oh my god, oh my god…” I jerked against his grip again, suddenly disgusted by his touch. In a way, he was a part of his father, and it was as though an echo of their killer’s taint clung to his skin, seeping into me, poisoning me. “Let me go!” I demanded, desperate to get away from him.
But he just gazed at me levelly, suspicion stirring in the green depths of his eyes. “Why do you think my father killed your parents, Claudia?” He asked.
My mouth opened and closed, but no words came out. As desperately as I wanted to get away from him, I didn’t want to reveal this. The answer would destroy us. I knew in that moment that I had gone too far; I had said too much.
He shook me hard. “Tell me why, Claudia!”
I swallowed. “The… The bullet that killed the man in my house last night. It came from the same gun that killed my parents.” I winced, and I wasn’t sure if it was from the increased pressure of Sean’s fingers around my arm or from the dawning realization in his eyes.
“And how would you know that?” His expression was furious, pained even, but his voice was low and calm. I pursed my lips, trying to lock the truth within me. My own heart might already be ravaged, but I didn’t want to do the same to him. I wasn’t ready. It was too soon. I wanted more time with him.
“How, Claudia?” He barked out, shaking me again.
“The FBI told me,” I admitted, my voice barely audible.
His hand dropped from me instantly, recoiling. He was looking at me as though seeing me clearly for the first time. “The FBI? Not the NYPD? Bradley was right,” he said, sounding as though he hardly believed the words that were coming out of his mouth. “You were just using me.”
“No!” I protested, lunging for him. I caught his hand in mine, and it balled into a fist. He was glaring down at me as though I was something disgusting on the bottom of his shoe. “Please, Sean. It’s not like that. You have to believe me. I was trying to help you.”
He laughed hollowly, a cold sound that cut me to the core. “You were helping me by turning me over to the feds? By making me believe that you cared about me?”
“Sean, I
do
care about you!” I clutched at his hand harder, my nails digging into his skin. “Please. Trust me when I say that everything I’ve done -”
“
Trust you?!
Are you fucking kidding me, Claudia? The fact that you would even think that I would keep buying into your bull just proves how little you think of me.” He wrenched away from my grip, and my nails scored his skin as I tried to keep hold of him. He was more furious than I had ever seen him, and I had to fight the urge to shrink away. His eyes studied me steadily, but there was a slightly maniacal glint to them.
“What am I going to do with you now, Claudia?” He mused. “I could just keep you here. That way you can’t go blabbing anything else to the FBI.”
Now I did back away. Fear coiled in my belly. No. He wouldn’t. “Please, Sean,” I begged hoarsely. I couldn’t bear to be his captive again. I saw the madness in his eyes and realized that I had to get out. His large body was blocking my way to the door, but I made a dash for it anyway.
His arms were around me in an instant, wrenching my own behind my back and securing them there with one hand locked around my wrists. I was pressed up tightly against him, and my body couldn’t help but respond. Heat flared between my legs and I couldn’t hold back a gasp. His large hand encircled my neck, a true threat for the first time. He squeezed incrementally.
“Do you know how easy it would be, Claudia?” He asked. There was an odd note to his voice, something husky and predatory and utterly terrifying. It made my clit pulse. “I could keep you here forever. You would be mine completely. I wouldn’t need any handcuffs or rope to bind you to me. Although I might use them on you if I wanted to. I will fuck you into submission, give you such intense, addictive pleasure that you’ll beg me for your next fix like a junkie.” A hard-edged, cruel grin spread across his face. I felt him hardening against my hip, and a strange whimper escaped me. I wasn’t sure if it was a sound of lust or terror. His smile widened. “You see?” He said, satisfied. “Very easy.”
“Please.” The word was a moan, and I wasn’t at all sure what I was begging for. For him to free me? To touch me? To forgive me?
I watched him with bated breath, all of my muscles taut. Then the furious lust slowly melted from his eyes, giving way to a sadness so profound that it brought tears to my own eyes. He released me, and I liked to think that I saw some reluctance in his movements.
“I want you to leave now, Claudia,” he said coldly, no longer looking at me. He stepped to the side, clearing my path to the door.
“Sean…” I trailed off, not knowing what to say. My rational mind was screaming at me to run while I had the chance. But the utterly irrational side of me, the part of me that had fallen hopelessly for Sean, felt rooted to the spot, unable to leave him when he was hurting so badly.
He let out a low, frustrated growl and advanced on me. My heart leapt as I thought that he was going to draw me up in his arms and kiss me. But he just grabbed me by the shoulders, turning my body and shoving me out the door. It had slammed shut before my back even hit the opposite wall across the hallway. The closed door did little to muffle Sean’s furious roar followed by the sound of something smashing to pieces.
I stood there for a long moment as I listened to him destroying his apartment, so many thoughts crowding my mind that none were coherent. They were roiling, each one fighting to be heard until they coalesced into a shrill, utterly bereaved shrieking that resounded in my skull. The horrible sound of it pained me more deeply than any physical wound ever could.
It hurt too much; I couldn’t take it anymore. I mentally reached out for my walls, desperate to pull them up, to force this agony away from my heart. But I found nothing. It was as though they had crumbled to dust. And now I was left bare, defenseless. There was nothing inside me but horrible, wrenching pain.
But no. That was wrong. There was something else, something that burned hot and bright and furious: vengeance. I clutched at it, cleaving to the searing heat of it in order to cauterize my internal wounds. I pushed myself from the wall, my back straightening and my chin lifting as I walked away from Sean’s apartment. A new sense of purpose imbued my every step; I had a different task now.
I was going to kill Ronan Reynolds.
The End
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