40. Reed

Chapter forty

Reed

The only thing better than falling asleep next to Petra is waking up to her. I’m groggy, exhausted after the multiple rounds we had yesterday and last night. Fuck, she was beautiful draped over the kitchen counter after our midnight snack. We’ve already used the shower once, but as soon as she’s awake enough, I’m determined to make enough of a mess that we’ll need it again.

It’s fate that my first time walking through the door was with her. She was radiant from the moment we crossed that threshold together, and the whole place is infused with her. Our first conversation in this house was difficult, but once we put that all aside, it already felt like home.

Petra’s eyes brightened while we unpacked, her body curving and brushing against mine with each reach and sidestep. Her hip fit under my palm like it was made to be there, and the curve of her neck was the perfect place to rest my jaw. When she laughed, her curls swung around her face as if they had a mind of their own, framing her green-flecked eyes and long lashes.

There’s rustling on the other side of the room, and a warm body slips under the sheet. Heat flares in my chest, and I smile as I reach for her. “I love having you here, Petra. I can’t wait for this to be routine.”

I wrap my arm around her waist, eager to pull her close. But her hip isn’t soft and round under my fingers.

The light, floral scent of my nightmares is back.

Roses .

“The hell?” I yank my hand back and shove, suddenly awake. “Kinley?”

“I love that you know my body in the dark.” Her voice is husky, and a shiver runs down my spine. I jump out of bed, yanking my pants on as quickly as I can.

“Get out! You—Jesus—I can’t even—” Sleep is a distant memory as adrenaline floods my veins. All of me hums on a frequency too intense to manage, as though I’m about to jump out of a plane. I’m two seconds from throwing up all over the floor. “How did you find me?”

Kinley prowls across the sheets like a tiger. “Good morning, Daddy,” she purrs.

Bile crawls up my throat. Those three words have haunted me for months. Ever since I woke up to them in Vegas. “Don’t fucking touch me. Jesus. You’re here, again , because no one matters but you and what you want!”

Kinley’s jaw ticks, her whole face stony, but she pulls her hand back. “Calling yourself a victim doesn’t change that we couldn’t have slept together if you weren’t turned on.” She traces a finger around her breasts, pouting, but she has zero appeal. I chuck a blanket at her to cover her up. “You’re just embarrassed because you said you didn’t want me. I went to jail , Reed. All because you couldn’t put your pride aside and admit you changed your mind!”

She balls up the blanket and throws it on the floor.

“Get the fucking picture, Kinley. I don’t want you.”

Her jaw clenches, and her slate blue eyes flash like sharp steel. “Do you know what I’ve been through for you? I forgave you for calling the police. I had your back! And then I get released and you ghost me? You should be on your knees begging for my forgiveness.”

I slam my fist against the wall, propelled back in time. I’m reliving my worst nightmare. “You’re not the victim here!”

“We need to move past this and get back together already!” She screams, then takes a beat, composes herself. “Daddy, let me show you. Let me help you remember how good it was.”

Kinley reaches for me, pressing our bodies together. Her hand slides down my stomach to my waistband, and chills break out down my arms. I shove her away, but the invisible scales and talons are back and shredding at my skin. I’m desperate to peel it off.

“Keep your goddamn hands off me.” Rage courses through me, white hot, and my yell booms across the early morning air. “Get out! ”

“Pooki, remember what it was like. Our memories are all around you.” She climbs off the bed and trails a hand over the dresser. “My lingerie in this drawer. My—”

My nails bite into the palm of my hand as my fist clenches. “You have ten seconds to put on your clothes, or I’m throwing you out the front door naked.”

“Reed—”

I’m shaking. “Ten.”

“Daddy—”

My skin crawls. “Nine.”

“Fine.” Her lip trembles as she slips her shirt on. The gray light signaling the dawn creeps in through the window, making her red-rimmed eyes shifty. Kinley is a coyote: sly, digging for scraps, yelping like a victim to lure city dogs into her trap. But it’s all an act.

“Eight.”

She yanks on her pants with a snarl. “Shut up, Reed, I’m going!”

“Seven. Six. Five.” I shove her hoodie and bag at her and march her down the stairs, flinging open the front door.

“Daddy?” Kinley is shivering in the cold morning air. Tears are tracking down her face and her sweatshirt is balled in her arms. “Please don’t do this. Remember how much you love me—”

She grabs my arm, but I pry her off. She’s delusional. Anything less than perfect clarity will leave her thinking we can work through this. “I don’t. I—”

I stop at the sight of the moving pod in the driveway, finally emerging from my nightmare and into the present. Shock whips through me, quickly followed by ice in my veins. Dread .

“Where is Petra?”

She stands up straighter, a glint in her eye. “How badly do you want to know?”

I don’t rise to the bait. “Where the fuck is she?”

Kinley smiles. A coyote. “Afraid we’ll be best friends? Too late!” She unlocks her phone to show me a selfie of her and Petra together in Mulberry’s. They’re both smiling. What the hell has she been up to? “Afraid I’ll take her from you? I can lick pussy with the best of them, you know.”

“You have three seconds to tell me.”

Kinley rolls her eyes and drops her phone back in her bag. “Maybe you’re obsessed with her now, but she’ll become old news. You can only listen to a recording so many times before it loses its power. Before you crave something real.”

“If you hurt her, I’ll—”

“Oh, Reed.” Kinley sighs and pulls a handgun from her purse, aiming it right at my forehead. I freeze, and everything goes hazy. “You always force me into Plan B.”

Oh. Well, fuck. I’d always said she’d have to hurt me for anyone to understand, but Jesus, she’s going to skip right over that.

Her ice blue gaze is sad but determined, and her hand is steady. She’s not just my monster, but her own. I escaped for a little while, but she can’t run from herself.

“Kin.” Kinley shakes her head, like she knows what I’m going to say. Her lip trembles, and I know there’s still something good inside her. There has to be. I barely scratched the surface of who Petra is. I’m not giving up our future together that easily. “You don’t want to do this.”

“I really don’t.” Kinley blinks up at me, and a tear slips down her cheek. For once, I believe it’s real. “Everything is fractured.”

“I know. This isn’t you. Give me the gun, Kin. Let me get you some help.” I stretch out my hand, and the movement shocks her out of her thoughts .

“You still love me,” she says, blinking back her tears. She settles into herself, closing the distance between us with a smile. “I knew you did.”

Fuck. She’s in the middle of a crisis, completely out of touch. There’s a reason why Kinley prefers a father figure. I shift, imagining I’m talking to someone fragile, like Janie. “No, Kinley. I want to help you. You’re feeling fractured? We need to get you to a doctor.”

Kinley shakes her head. “I need a different medicine. I want to work this out the way we always did. I’d hoped a little sex this morning would remind you how good we are, but you like to play hard to get, Daddy. It’s frustrating, but so hot.” The gun never wavers as she bats her eyelashes at me.

“That’s not an option. Let’s talk about other ways forward.”

She shrugs, as if holding me hostage isn’t a psychotic move. “No. Now we do it my way. Kitchen, Reed. Go. If you’re not going to be my Daddy today, then be my good boy,” she croons.

I’m not going anywhere. I have to trust that she wants me alive more than dead, but she’s lost touch with reality, and I can’t rule it out entirely. And if she’d consider hurting me… Fresh panic claws at my ribs. “Tell me where Petra is, Kin. Please. Just tell me if she’s okay.”

“I’ll tell you, for a kiss.” Kinley pulls at the button of my pants, and I jerk back, out of her reach. It’s only after a half-dozen steps of this that I realize she’s backed me into the kitchen like she wanted. “She’s fine. Went somewhere ten minutes ago. What an idiot. She left the door unlocked.”

She doesn’t have a key. It’s around here somewhere, in a pile of discarded clothing, or maybe in the couch cushions. It doesn’t matter. I send a quick prayer of thanks to God for keeping Petra safe. Now I need him to keep her from coming back. “How did you find the house?”

“The address was in your emails. I knew as soon as you boarded a plane that this is where you’d go. It’s super cute!” Any trace of tears is gone. She keeps the gun on me as she opens the cupboards where Petra has already put things away. “I wish we didn’t have to leave it behind. Oh, you kept my My Little Pony plates from when I was little!”

It’s Janie’s favorite show, and I’d bought them for when Janie and Brooke visited, but I’d give Kinley anything to go away. “That’s right, take anything you want. Dishes, the sofa, records. They’re yours. Let me call you a car. I’ll pack them up for you.”

Kinley laughs. “Reed, where we go, we go together. I just have a couple loose ends to tie up before we leave.”

She can’t mean Petra.

My palms sweat, and my pulse pounds in my ears. “I changed my mind. Let’s go now. Where are we headed?”

Kinley shakes her head, keeping her eyes on me even as she rifles through a drawer. “Oh, Reed. I can’t have you longing to come back. I saw your call log. Seven hours on the phone with her? I wasn’t prepared for that trash to sneak out so early, or I would’ve killed her then.”

I search her face, but she’s serious. She hasn’t dropped the gun a fraction of an inch.

“But that’s okay,” she says with a girlish smile. I recognize it from each time we fought and I gave in until she got her way. “We’ll do it when she gets back. Once you watch her die, you’ll finally see that I’m the only one for you. No matter what you do, or where you go, you’ll always be mine.”