Page 57 of Kat Bethel

“Can you try to control yourself?” I meant it to be sarcastic, but it sounded like a plea.

“Not when you speak of that imbecile.” He snarled, and the pavement cracked under our feet.

“Fine.” I scoffed. It wasn’t like I wanted to talk about William either. If it kept him from destroying more of the ecosystem than maybe that was for the best. “Let’s focus on the important bits. You don’t get to claim me. In case you forgot, I came to kill you.”

I probably needed that reminder more than he did.

“You can’t kill a shadow.” His voice went back to that calm tone he usually had. Because speaking of his murder wasn’t triggering at all. The husband that was already out the door was worthy of a force of nature.

He didn’t make sense.

“And you claimed me first,” he said.

“Oh no.” I shook my finger at him. “I’m not taking responsibility for your bad behavior. I didn’t do shit to you.”

“You brought something back to life inside me that should have stayed dead.” His fingers brushed my hair out of my face. “You call that nothing?”

“Stop that.” My stomach jumped into my throat.

“I think I did the same to you.”

Everything inside me froze, and suddenly there wasn’t enough room inside of me for all my organs. Even my heart missed a beat. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Probably the fact that I leaned into him, even as I pulled away.

That I hid it behind bluster and sarcasm, but I’d felt his absence when he was pretending he wasn’t attached to me.

I swallowed the rock in my throat.

“Liar,” he accused softly, but didn’t seem to be offended by my denial. “I’ll stay at your heel forever.”

“Now, who’s the liar?”

Everyone used the word forever.

No one ever meant it.

Chapter 21:

Anothermotel.Anothertown.

“Three days to fix my truck,” I complained as I tossed myself back on the bed. Something told me he’d destroy more before he was done with me. That’s what made me nauseous. “All because I figured out what you are.”

As far as I was concerned, that was confirmation.

“That’s not why,” he answered so softly that I’d think he didn’t want me to hear it. “It made sense and caught me off guard.”

Surprised?

So he didn't know what he was. He hadn’t been deflecting me for fun before. Why couldn’t he just say that?

Men made everything more difficult than it needed to be.

Then again, who was I to talk?

My phone rang from across the room, and the shadows pulled into a human shape by the table where I’d sat down when I walked in.

“If you don’t want me to break that thing, I suggest you turn it off.” A threat vibrated his tone in a way that had me jumping up to see who it was.