Malice

Saint chuckles darkly. “Talking in code now, little masochist? That’s adorable.”

The fucker is clearly not going to give me anything useful, so I turn to Liam. “Liam … please?”

But he crosses his arms and gives his head a brisk shake. “It’s better if you don’t know anything.”

I take a wobbly step closer to him, and when my shoulders curl forward, Liam reaches out to steady me. “Shouldn’t I know what to expect?” I murmur after a beat.

He shushes me and bends down to whisper in my ear, “Don’t worry about it. It’s been handled. Not only have I satisfied a debt I owed Saint, I’ll get to collect a thank you from you … eventually.”

My cheeks heat in a furious blush, and I can’t help but glance toward Saint to see his reaction to Liam’s intimate whisper.

He doesn’t seem pleased. In fact, he looks as if he could rip his best friend to pieces at any moment. “Watch it,” he says through clenched teeth.

Liam looks like he’d like nothing more than to challenge Saint, but I remember the split lip he bore the last time they came to blows. Saint hadn’t had a mark on him.

At last, Liam takes a step away from me and shrugs, an air of nonchalance hanging about him. “You should have known I’d go after her when you brought me into this. I’m not going to back down again. Sorry, shithead.”

I should be angrier that they’re talking about me like I’m an object, but I’m too drained to put up a fight about it. Moving around Saint, I sink down on the edge of his bed and drop my chin to my chest, fisting my hands in his bedspreads as they have the same old argument all over again.

“Go for it,” Saint’s saying, his alpha male on full display now. “You can go now. We both know she’s not going to follow after you.”

I can tell Saint’s high-handedness rankles Liam, who glances toward me as if he’s waiting for me to contradict what he’d just been told. I simply don’t have the energy to deal with their shit, so I say nothing, earning a frustrated huff of breath from him.

He turns for the door but pauses before he opens it. “Let me know if you need anything else from me.”

“Thanks, neighbor,” Saint replies through gritted teeth.

“That was for her. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for her,” Liam retorts.

“I was there for you sophomore year, remember?” Saint reminds him in a voice that makes the back of my neck prickle.

They don’t say another word until Liam’s out the door and it’s shut firmly behind him. Then, moving like a predator, Saint starts my way.

“You all right?” he asks in a gruff voice.

“I … I think so,” I lie.

He closes the space between us, and I shoot to my feet, not willing to be at a disadvantage with him. Reaching out, he snags my chin in his fingers and turns my head, first to the left, then the right, examining me intently.

“What are you looking for?” I ask, dumbfounded.

“Checking for evidence,” he says, as if that’s a very normal thing to look for on someone’s face. “Don’t want to give people any more reason to believe you’re guilty, do we?”

I suppose he has a point, but still, his touch is u

A slow grin spreads across his face.

“Now, you do exactly as I say.”

I don’t like his tone of voice. Or how elated he looks.

“What’s that mean?” I murmur.

“It means, I’ve done this big, terrible thing for you.” He steps toward me, and I take a step back to avoid him, the back of my knees hitting the bed. “I want something in return.”

That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, but I don’t say that out loud.

Instead, I retort, “Well that sucks for you, because I have nothing of value to pay you back with.”

Except for the Jacoby fortune.

Which Nora wants to use to destroy his family.

“Oh, I disagree.” He pushes me so I fall back on his mattress, then he crawls up over me to pin my arms above my head. “Because I really do own you now, little masochist.”

TO BE CONTINUED…

Book three, the conclusion to the trilogy, is coming summer 2020! Click HERE to sign up for release notifications. Want to discuss MALICE? Click the link below to join my group on Facebook.

E.M.’s Little Masochists