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Is she still a threat? Should I even have threats?
I hate this part of seeing someone. The talking stage. The sex stage. The stage that can feel like purgatory in every relationship.
His smirk falls and I watch as her eyes slowly come to his. I watch the silent conversation pass between the two of them and suddenly, I want to know their story. I want to know when they first met and how they feel about each other. How they really feel about each other.
My stomach drops. When he’s done with me, will he go back to her, his home base?
Maya starts walking toward us and I step backward, not wanting to be here or anywhere near them both when they’re together. I can feel myself fill with jealousy and I hate it. If I stay here, I’ll for sure display that fact out all over my face too.
“Hey,” Maya says, smiling at Killian.
“You alright?” he asks. I can hear the worry in his tone. It’s not the same tone he uses with me. With me, it’s playful, a little caveman like, but playful. But the way he addresses Maya, you can see that he takes her seriously.
My throat contracts and swells, making it hard to swallow. Their chatting dies out, everything around me fading to black. I didn’t know that I was walking back to the parking lot until I bang into Val. I fucked up.
“Wow!” She reaches for my arms, looking over my shoulder to see where I came from. Her smile turns into a slight frown. “Right, I see you were inconvenienced with KiMay.”
“KiMay?” I ask, eyebrows pinched in confusion.
She hooks her arm in mine and leads me back to one of the SUVs that followed behind Killian and I when we drove out. “Yep. Come on, my driver will take you home.”
I sigh, tension leaving my muscles when I reach for the door. I shut it after Val is in beside me. As the driver pulls away, I catch Killian spi
“What’s their deal?” I ask, ignoring my phone vibrating in my bra.
“Well.” Val rakes her long blonde hair away from her face as we drive down a road that reminds me of the Yellow Brick Road on the Wizard of Oz. “They were born on the same day, two years apart, so they usually celebrate their birthdays together. Delila and Draya, Killian’s mom, were really close. Best friends. Delila isn’t a perfect mom, not by any means, but one day when Maya was nine years old, Delila up and left Maya with Draya. So they ended up being literally raised together. At Kyrin’s sweet sixteen, she lost her virginity to Kill. He laughed it off afterward and she pretended to too, but Maya was heartbroken. She has always held a torch for him. Always. When—” She pauses, her throat gulping. “I should probably stop. Whatever I was about to say, is not my place to say it, but I will say this: Killian is not as harmless as he looks.” She gives me a side-eye before looking back ahead to the road. “He has dark demons living inside of him that were put there by an incident when he was a boy, and then everything he did for Midnight Mayhem after that only fed those demons.”
I gulp. An incident? I respect that she won’t tell me, but it doesn’t mean I’m not interested.
The driver pulls into Killian’s driveway, leaving the car idling.
“What I’m saying is that KiMay have been through life together, and it’s hard to compete for the affection of Killian, period, let alone compete with that, and I’ll be honest, no one has ever come close to being important to him—no one but Maya.” She offers me a small smile. “Just be careful and try not to let any walls down as far as Killian is concerned. He’s damaged. So damaged the only person who will ever be able to comfort him is Maya.”
I sigh, unclicking my seatbelt and reaching for the door handle. “Thanks for the chat.” I push open the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
Val nods. “Yep! Have you thought about where you’re getting marked?”
I groan, cracking my neck. “Not really. I mean, I don’t know where my parents were, so I don’t know.”
Val smiles, but it doesn’t reach her eyes. “Okay. Well I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I shut the door and turn toward the large house. “Great.”
The four white pillars are spread across a vast porch. There’s a chair at the front and solar lights spread throughout the well-kept garden bed that lines it. I jog up the stairs and open the front door, closing it quickly and making a run for my room.
“Oh, hello!” A voice interrupts my step just as I’m halfway up. I turn around to face her.
“Hi! Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you.” She’s wearing a white te
“No!” She waves me off, flashing a stu
I shuffle on my feet.
“Sorry,” she apologizes again. “Just let me know if you need anything and I’ll try to do what I can while you’re here.”
“Thank you, Cora, and my name—”
“—Saskia,” she whispers softly.
Shocked into silence, I take one step back down the stairs. “How did you know my name?”
She shakes her head, waving me off. “Killian had told me prior to your arrival, to ensure your room was ready.”
“Ah, okay. Well, goodnight!” I wave her off and continue back upstairs until I’m in my room.
I flip the lock, strip out of my clothes, dumping them in the dirty pile and slipping in and out of the shower, paying extra special attention to scrubbing off my face. Once I’m clean and sedated, I flip off the light and climb beneath the covers of my bed. I didn’t even put my phone on the charger, and before I could mentally drag myself up to grab it, my eyes had fallen and sleep had taken hold.
Black. The room is filled with dark smoke, spilling over my body. My vision is unclear, with no bright spots. No humanity. No light. No thoughts…
Banging. Loud thumping. A gorilla? King Kong banging on his chest? “Gorilla” by Bruno Mars starts playing in the background with laughing chimpanzees dancing around the room.
“Sass!” The gorilla spoke my name perfectly, before banging on his chest again. “Open the fucking door!”
Wait, what?
Another bang just as I shoot up off my bed, my heart racing and hair flying everywhere. I shove my eye mask over my head and rush for the door, worried that something may have happened while I was sleeping.
I swing it open, wincing at the sheer audacity of the hallway light.
Killian is standing in the door frame, seething, his chest bare and scratch marks down his chest.
He takes a deep breath, falling backward and sliding down the wall.
Scrubbing my eyes clean, I finally see him in real light. Along with the scratch marks, there are small splatters of blood over his chest, hands, and face.
“What happened?” I ask, falling to the ground opposite him while checking for injuries. “Killian!” My hands come to his cheeks and I pull his attention to me. “What. Happened?”
When his eyes fall on mine, they’re distracted. Lost. As if he’s here physically but not here mentally.
“Had to make sure you were okay.” He’s still not looking at me, so I move my head around to try to catch his sight.
“What do you mean?”
He reaches for my cheek, ru