Page 26 of Compulsion
The sea of faces passed Lily in a blur.Her mind was spinning, her chest aching, but she made sure to keep her game face on.Long ago, she’d learned to wear that face.The wrong emotion, the wrong expression could lead to chaos.
She was too good to make amateur mistakes.
So why did you strip in front of Atlas?Why are you riding off into the darkness with him right now without a single protest?
Her chest felt hollow when she thought of Benedict Swain.The detective was dead.Not like he could have survived those flames.Soon enough, the wreckage of the little cabin in the woods would be searched.His remains unearthed.There would be more grieving.A funeral.
She’d always hated funerals.Ever since she discovered how much her mother enjoyed them.Black had been Magnolia’s favorite color, and she looked extra fragile when she had tear tracks on her cheeks.
Desmond stood at attention near the rear of the limo.His gaze swept the crowd, and she knew he was searching for threats.Desmond Yoruba had been working with Atlas for years.Actually, they’d been friends long before Desmond had become Atlas’s head of security.They’d met at college.
Desmond, a Nigerian immigrant.A man who’d been forced to be a child soldier and see traumas no one should face before his family had been able to rescue him, and they’d fled to the US.Desmond had grown up to be determined, deadly, and to be the right hand of one of the most powerful billionaires in the world.
A billionaire who just happened to be the son of a serial killer.And a billionaire who’d been kidnapped and nearly murdered that night.
Only for his head of security to sweep in with a brigade of armed personnel.She did wonder, if Desmond and those armed guards had found Atlas’s attacker in that cabin, what would they have done?
Killed him on the spot.
“How do you know Lily Gallo?”A desperate shout from a nearby reporter.“Atlas, Atlas!Are you romantically involved with Lily Gallo?”
No, not yet.Though they had seen each other semi-nude so…
“Were you together when you were taken?”
No, I was just doing my due diligence and surveilling him.I saw the attack from a distance and ran to help.
“What do you have to say to the man who abducted you?”
The questions fired from the crowd.
She didn’t think that Atlas was going to stop and respond.What would be the point of that?But…
Just as they reached the open door of the limo…
Atlas paused.
She saw Desmond shake his head in a short, negative gesture.A clear warning to Atlas.But Atlas chose to ignore the warning.
“I do have a message to deliver to that piece of shit,” Atlas announced.
Oh, no.
“You had your shot at me,” Atlas said, voice clear, unflinching.No, more than that,threatening.“Now it’s my turn.”
She glanced back at him.
A cold, dangerous smile curved his lips.His dimples flashed, but instead of reassuring her, those dimples sent a shiver down her spine.The truth was, when Lily saw those dimples, she thought of a shark.Weird but…
By the time you saw a shark’s teeth coming at you, it was far too late to flee.
By the time you saw Atlas’s dimples…
The danger is already right in front of you.
“Do you believe your attacker will come at you again?Is that what you’re saying?”The words fired from a redhead in a black suit.
“What does Lily Gallo have to do with your attack?”A hard question from a man in jeans and a blue polo.
