Page 24

“The comfortable bed, eight-hour sleep, and delicious food kind of outweigh the negatives of being locked in your basement.”

“Ah, so the fact that you don’t deserve those things doesn’t weigh on you. Interesting.”

“Those things are pretty basic. Surely everyone deserves those, regardless of who they are,” I argue.

“If you thought you deserved them, you wouldn’t keep bringing it up.”

I pause for a moment, I should really mention this to Dr. Alfie. “Perhaps you’re right.”

My self-inflicted four-hour-a-night sleep routine is a form of punishment in itself, but I don’t want to admit that to her. “Is this where I discover the true meaning of Christmas and change my life by moving to a small town and falling in love?”

“Would that be so awful?” she murmurs.

I lean forward, my eyes dropping to my thumb circling her wrist. Her eyes follow mine, and she inches closer, too.

“I couldn’t think of anything fucking worse. And I think you’re the same.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“You’ve said that already.”

“And yet again, you’re not listening.”

I smirk, drop her wrist, and notice the tiniest of furrows in her eyebrows. She steps back like I’ve stung her.

She likes me. She fucking hates that she likes me, but she does.

“Perhaps I haven’t met the right woman,” I say, attempting to break the tension and failing miserably.

“Oh, so you are into women then?”

I smirk, how clever she is at gathering information. “I’m open to all things Killer, but yes, I’m interested in women.”

“I thought by the way you’re holding my brother hostage, you were interested in him.”

I grin. “No, you didn’t.”

She turns, hiding the tug of her lips I spot for a brief second.

“No . . . I didn’t. I knew you liked women.”

“And how did you know that?”

“At Squeeze the Day, you were practically drooling one day over a lady who walked in. She really was quite beautiful.”

“That can’t have been me.” I shake my head.

“It was, I remember,” she says, practically pouting. Sweet Olivia is not a good poker player, I see.

“Impossible.”

She rolls her eyes. “And why is that?”

“Because I’ve only ever looked at you at Squeeze the Day.”

Her mouth opens, but nothing comes out. She steps back further before turning on her heel to head toward the stairs.

I smile, stretching out my legs in front as much as I can in these chains.