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“Understand what?”
She looked like she was about to breathe fire.
“None of this has anything to do with me. Whatever I’ve done recently has been to protect you, but these pictures?—”
“Bullshit!” she picked up the pictures and shook them in my face. “Protect me from what? A monster like you! You’ve been following me for years, apparently.”
Her eyes suddenly widened, and she dropped the pictures. She looked up at me and looked horrified as if she didn’t recognize me. She turned pale and looked sickly, suddenly.
“Didyouhave Jason murdered? Did you kill him so you could be with me?”
So, that’s why she was upset. She figured I had something to do with the death of her precious Jason. I didn’t know how I could hate a dead man, but I hated him at that moment.
I hated that she still felt something for him that she would probably never feel for me.
“Your question doesn’t even deserve a response. Why would I want to kill Jason?”
The silence stretched between us. Her skin was still sickly pale. “Did you kill him—did you kill him to get to me?”
The bark of laughter that came out of my mouth was bitter and mean, but I was done caring. I’d saved her life. I had kept her safe. I gave her a life that most women could only dream of and yet, Jason was her preference.
He was the one that she still cared about. He hadn’t been the one who’d been inside her, kissing her, touching her, memorizing every part of her perfect body just minutes ago.
Yet, he was the topic of this conversation.
I knew that I was stressed and overreacting. I didn’t want to push her away, but shit, if she wanted to cast me as a monster, then I would show her a monster.
If a monster was what she wanted, then that’s what she would get.
“Tell me, what did Jason ever do for you?”
“What?”
“You heard me. Why did you love him?”
She hesitated, “I just did. Love doesn’t have an explanation. It just exists. And you would know that if you knew what love was.”
“Interesting. You think Jason would say the same?”
“Jason loved me.”
“Loved you enough to get himself killed and leave you broke, depressed, and alone? Everything I’ve done tonight and every moment since I found out you were trying to kill my brother was done to protect you. I’ve protected you from yourself. I’ve protected you from my brothers. And I’ve protected you from the mess Jason made of your life?”
“Don’t you dare! You don’t know him! It wasn’t his fault?”
“Stop. How can you defend him when you don’t even fully know the whole story?”
“Because I know Jason?”
“Knew Jason,” I corrected cruelly, “He’s dead.”
She marched away, turning her back on me. I took that moment to walk away as well. I was in a bad mood.
Minutes ago, you couldn’t tell where my body stopped, and hers began, and yet her mind was on Jason.
Without thinking, I closed the access door to the bottom half of the boat and locked it.
I sat down and made myself a drink as she banged on it. I ignored the racket she was causing. Soon, she would get tired and realize that I had no plans to let her out.