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Not to take a knife and cut where he knew I’d feel the most pain.

I had to clench my jaw to keep from screaming. “Can’t wait to hear it. That’s one thing I certainly missed.”

The sarcasm fell like a boulder, crashing through the table. At least that was how it appeared, because Lukas looked like he was halfway out of his chair and was planning on tackling me to the floor.

“Okay,” Rose interrupted, drawing out the word until we both looked at her. She could always do that, break tension like it was glass. “Why don’t we focus on something productive? Like filling in Daphne on what we know.”

I looked back at Lukas for a second and watched him heave in a few breaths and physically calm himself down. A soldier’s move, trained to stay in control.

Because now I was his opponent. I was the one he was fighting against. When I had only ever wanted to be on his team.

Chapter 3

Lukas

I wished she wasn’t so fucking beautiful.

It would make the whole thing easier. But no such luck. She was the most intoxicating thing I had ever seen. Her eyes were round, hazel, bright. Her lips—full, dark pink, distracting. Her entire face—high cheekbones, straight nose, a little dimple in her chin.

She was as perfect as I remembered.

And watching those lips of hers turn down into a scowl, her features falling after I said her name was anything but easy.

It hurt like a slap to the face, punch to the gut, and knife through the chest combined. I’d rather let a shark bite my leg off than do that shit again.

And when she pushed her long, dark red hair over her shoulders. Fuck, that hurt. She did it when she was nervous. Always had, from when I met her to now.

The thought that I made her nervous, in the dreadful, panicked way, not in the excited, anticipated way, made me want to throw something.

This was fucking torture, sitting there and watching her stiff movements, so unfamiliar in the chair she used to occupy multiple times a day. The soldier in me was yelling at me to fight. To kick Rose and Dominic out of my house and lock Daphne in this room until she told me what happened.

Until she explained why she’d left me when I thought we were finally ready to say fuck it and be together.

But the soldier in me also knew how to weigh the odds of a fight. To know when you were walking into a battle where you would destroy the other side or if you’d lose your life.

This was a fight I was going to lose. Because Daphne’s entire life had been about me, about doing things that people told her was good for me or for our relationship. And when she grew up and got away from the people controlling her, she took that freedom and ran.

I wouldn’t walk into that fight, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to arm myself.

Because acting like I made her nervous was an act of fucking war. She got nervous around people she couldn't figure out.

The idea that she couldn’t figure me out was ridiculous. She knew me better than anyone.

On top of that, she didn’t get to walk into our house after a damn year acting like it was an inconvenience to have beensummonedhere. Whatever reaction I had to her when she first walked in was quickly squashed by the reminders of the person she’d turned me into over the last year.

And that person’s overpowering feeling toward Daphne was anger.

“What a capital idea, sweetheart,” Dominic said, somehow towing the line between complimenting his wife and still being a sarcastic asshole. Classic.

“Go ahead,” I grumbled, giving them the leeway to explain what they’d been through since they’d gotten married. I didn’t like hearing this shit, not about my friends. Rose and Dominic had both found something most would envy, but that hadn’t come without a fair bit of pain.

I just hoped Rose got a few good shots in before she forgave Dominic. I knew better than anyone how much her punches hurt.

Rose turned toward Daphne, the only one who needed to be filled in. I studied her for a moment, watching her eyebrows pull together then relax. Trying to figure out if she actually didn’t know or was just putting on a show.

“We are pretty sure there’s a conspiracy of sorts,” Rose began, and Daphne’s eyebrows shot up.

I couldn’t help but laugh under my breath. When I got a death glare from Dominic, I explained, “Just ripping the bandage off, no warning.”