Chapter 40
DO YOU TRUST ME?
Lexi
My knees wobbled. My entire body broke into a cold sweat. The scent of cigars and whiskey filled my nostrils. Leather creaking. Vomit.
The room tilted, sound warping into something distant and wrong, as if I was underwater. If Killian’s arms hadn’t been wrapped around me like steel bands, I would’ve hit the floor.
Stan glared down at us, his lips curled in disgust as they raked over his precious stepson and the piece of shit he was keeping upright.
I waited with bated breath for Killian’s hold to fall away, for him to abandon me to the monster.
Only… it didn’t.
He didn’t let go.
Not this time.
Confusion flickered through the panic—because Killian Davenport didn’t choose me. Not when it mattered. Why now? Why protect me after all this time?
A hint of hope bubbled up. It was stupid, but... My broken, battered heart felt full, because in that instant, it seemed like for once in his life he’d actually chosen me over his bastard stepfather.
“Well, Killian?” Stan growled. “Are you going to explain yourself?”
Instead of waiting for the pain of Killian’s imminent rejection, I peeled myself from his body and stepped behind his broad shoulders. Let him deal with this asshole.
“Why are you associating with Alexis Vega after all the lies she spread about me?”
“Lies—” I lunged forward, but Killian’s arm clapped across my chest and pinned me behind his back once more. That son of a bitch.
“Chill out, Lexi,” Killian hissed.
My hands curled into fists at my sides as fiery anger surged through my veins. Fuck this. I wasn’t little Lexi Vega anymore. I’d come a hell of a long way from that scared little girl on the side of the road the great Stanford Davenport had tried to rape.
As I stood there behind Killian with the devil himself leering down at me, I vowed to bring that lying piece of shit to justice, even if it meant dragging my own name through the mud. And Killian’s...
I’d find Micah, and I’d ask him to help me. I knew he would. He had access to the resources I never did. I’d prove Killian wrong about my friend too. There was no way Micah would ever hurt me.
“So you two are seeing each other again?” Stan snarled. Those frosty orbs razed over me, and phantom fingers trailed up my inner thigh. One look and I was back in that damned car all those years ago.
My pulse escalated, manic heartbeats roaring across my eardrums.
No. It’s over, Lexi. This asshole can never hurt you again.
As if Killian could sense my impending meltdown, his hand snuck behind his back and warm fingers curled around mine. He gave a quick squeeze, and the panic began to subside, the darkness receding.
“I just ran into Bass,” Stan continued. “I couldn’t believe it when he said you’d beaten him to a bloody pulp. And over this girl?”
“I lost my temper,” Killian muttered. “He had his hands on her and—”
“Sebastian is your goddamned brother, Killian. And she’s nothing to you, or am I mistaken?” His icy glare flickered between the two of us. “I was under the impression you didn’t even know she attended Stonewall. Isn’t that what you said?”
“We were paired together for a school project, sir. I can’t have her all banged up for the presentation. It wouldn’t look good.”
He was protecting me... but it still felt like he was reducing me to something disposable. It was a lie meant to save me, but somehow, it still cut.
“Hmm.” Stan rubbed at his clean-shaven jaw. “I know Bass can be a hothead, but you, Killian, I expect more from you.”
“Of course.” His head dipped, but the tendon in his jaw was clenched so tightly, the flutter beneath the dark scruff gave him away. Or maybe I just knew my old best friend that well.
“Finish up this school project quickly, son. The less you have to do with this girl, the better.” He raised his arrogant nose at me as if I were a piece of gum stuck to the sole of his designer loafers. “God forbid she starts spreading lies about you too.”
“They weren’t lies!” I blurted, unable to stay quiet a moment longer. My voice didn’t shake this time. Not even a little. Fear burned away, leaving something sharper behind. “And you can’t talk about me like I’m not even here. I’m standing right here.”
“Lexi...” Killian whisper-hissed. “Let it go.”
“You fucking let it go,” I snarled and barreled past the man who’d ruined my life and the boy who continued to break my heart.
The scent of cigars lingered in the air as I ran, clinging to my skin like a memory I couldn’t scrub away.
“Lexi, wait!” Killian’s shouts echoed in the distance, but I was too pissed to listen. I raced down the hallway, turned the corner and smacked into a meaty wall.
Big hands wrapped around my shoulders and cloying fear clawed into my heart as I met a familiar pair of cold blue eyes. “Where are you running off to, Alexis?” Bass sneered down at me, his face a landscape of mottled purple bruises.
I couldn’t help the smile of satisfaction from spreading across my lips. At least now, that gruesome face matched the wicked monster inside.
“I’m going home,” I hissed. “Now, let go of me, or I’ll scream bloody murder.”
His gaze slid over me like he was already calculating how to break me. A sinister chuckle vibrated Sebastian’s chest. “You’ll be screaming soon enough, that’s for sure. You think Killian can protect you? You’re damned wrong. I own his ass, just like I do every single member of this fraternity.”
“Don’t you mean ‘secret society’?” The words tumbled free in a fit of rage. The moment they were out, I regretted my loose lips.
“You better be careful, little kitty. You know what they say about curiosity and the cat, right?”
“Fuck you, Sebastian. I’m tired of being scared, and I’m fucking fed up with cowering beneath men like you. I don’t care how much money or power you have, I’m bringing you and your father down, and I don’t give a shit what it costs me.”
I was still terrified. That hadn’t changed. But for the first time, fear wasn’t enough to keep me quiet.
Those piercing orbs seared into mine, anger tapering them at the corners.
“You better keep your mouth shut, Alexis Vega. You have no idea of my reach, or my father’s.
You think hurting you is the best I can do?
What about your dear Papá? Or Kill? You play a good game pretending you don’t care about him, but if you didn’t, what the fuck are you still doing here? ”
“You’re right, Sebastian.” I shoved at his chest, and he finally released me. “There’s no reason for me to still be here. I’m getting the hell out of this house of horrors.”
I darted out of the frat house so quickly the ornate interior flashed by in a blur of deep mahoganies and shimmering crystal chandeliers.
I didn’t stop running until I reached the end of the block and folded over, bracing my hands against my knees.
A tremor raced through my body, a lethal mixture of rage and fear.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled a deep breath, then another, forcing my lungs to keep pumping.
I couldn’t let Stanford Davenport win. I’d finally make him pay for what he did to me all those years ago, and I’d take down his murdering son Sebastian with him.
“Lexi!” The smack of approaching footfalls forced my spine to snap straight up. Killian jogged toward me, anguish written across his unfairly handsome face.
“Leave me alone, Killian,” I snapped and spun back toward the center of campus.
His hand wrapped around my upper arm, steel fingers digging into my flesh. His grip was too tight, like he was scared if he let go, I’d disappear. There was something wild in his eyes. Not anger. Fear.
He jerked me around to face him. “No,” he snarled. “I’m not letting you go anywhere by yourself. Especially not after threatening Bass like that. Are you out of your fucking mind?”
His control was slipping, and that scared me more than anything.
I tried to wriggle free of his hold, but his fingers only tightened around my arm. “You heard that?”
“I’m pretty sure the entire damned second floor of the Sigma Delt house heard. Including Stan.” He finally released me and dragged his hands over his face. “You have no idea what you just did.”
“Yes, I do. I’m tired of hiding, Killian. I’m tired of pretending I’m fine, of waiting for you to uncover the truth about your stepfather and finally believe me.”
“I already told you I would look into it.”
“Then try harder. You owe me that much, Killian. You don’t get to half-ass this.”
“I know.” He loosed an exasperated breath.
We stood there on the corner, a heavy silence weighing down on us, neither speaking. I’d crossed a line today, but so had he. It was the first time I’d seen him even remotely stand up to his stepdad.
The silence stretched, heavy and charged, until it snapped. Too close. Too much. Too everything.
“So, are you coming to the party tonight?” He shot me a wicked grin.
“Fuck no.”
Killian stepped closer and curled an arm around my waist. I willed my hands to shove him off, but instead my fingers only latched onto his soft tee. “Stan took Bass when he left. They won’t be back tonight. We’ll have the whole frat house to ourselves.”
I snorted on a laugh. “Plus dozens of your fraternity brothers and everyone else they invited to this exclusive party.”
“I don’t give a fuck about any of them.” He pressed his body flush against mine, and his rock-hard erection nudged against my belly. How the hell did he get hard so fast? Weren’t we fighting just a second ago?
“No?” I rasped out. Dammit, I sounded way too needy already.
“No.” He tilted his hips so his cock rubbed against my center. A rush of heat surged to my lower half.
“I’m not going back on my word, Kill. I’m not letting you fuck me until you come through with your promise.”
“I already told you I’m on it, Red. And trust me, I’m going to work fast, because I know how much that hungry little pussy is begging for my cock.”
“Killian...” Heat raced from said pussy and crawled across my cheeks. My gawd, the filthy mouth on this one.
“Just come tonight. With Stan and Bass gone, I can get into the Grand Domnus’s files.”
“The what?” My brows shot up to my hairline.
His gaze locked on mine, searching, like the answer actually mattered. For once, there was no arrogance. No edge. Just him.
“Do you trust me?”
Trust. The one thing he’d shattered, and the one thing I still wanted to give him. My chest tightened, the past and present colliding in one impossible question.
With those blazing emerald orbs locked on mine, all logic jumped out the window.
My head bounced up and down of its own accord. When I first arrived at Stonewall, Killian wanted to ruin me. Now, something had shifted, and the need to break anyone who hurt me burned stronger than anything else.
Maybe after all these years, he would finally see the truth.
Or maybe trusting Killian Davenport would be the thing that finally destroyed me.