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Chapter Thirteen

SKYLA

Logan snatches my coffee from the pickup counter before I have a chance to take it. “We need to talk since your husband interrupted us the other day.”

I was looking forward to having a good morning, starting off with the coffee I have been dreaming about. Now all I’m thinking about is grabbing Logan by the back of the head and slamming his face into the edge of the counter.

It’d be fun to watch the blood run from his face, to see his skull split in half.

Joshua wants him alive, though.

For now.

“I’d rather die.”

I spin and walk out of the café, without my fucking coffee, and stride down the street.

I should go back in there and kill him now. It would be nothing to take him in the bathroom. I could smash his head off the stone ledge. Maybe drive the corner into his temple.

He’d scream. He’d probably cry.

There would be blood everywhere and a ton of people to pay off.

I could stage it to look like an overdose, though.

Summer or Jade wouldn’t draw any attention if they came to the café and gave me a little bag of coke to stage the entire thing.

I’d finally be free of his shit.

The idea is tempting. I don’t think I’ve liked the thought of killing him more.

I’m itching to turn around and march back to the café and just finish the job.

Joshua would have to forgive me eventually.

Logan catches up to me. He falls into step beside me, my coffee long gone, and his hands in his pockets. “I’m sorry, is there a reason you thought our conversation was done?”

“Do I look like I answer to you?” I glance at him, considering pushing him in front of the oncoming taxi.

“You can either talk to me, or I’ll have CPS pay Gia a visit. What do you think the chances are of them finding some heroin hidden in the bathroom? Needles in the nursery?”

I grab him by the throat and shove him against the brick wall. “You bastard. If you even think about framing Gia for possession and endangering her child, it will be the last thing you do.”

“You know, everyone keeps threatening my life lately, and it’s starting to get old.”

I drop my hand as people start to watch us.

Getting hauled into the police station where he has power over me isn’t an option. He’s practically foaming at the mouth for a reason to put me away for the rest of my life. I’m not going to give him one.

Logan smirks and tucks his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket. “Now, I told you that I wanted to talk with you, which means I think you’re going to be kind and you’re going to listen to what I have to say for the first time since we met.”

“You’re a dead man for threatening my family.” I keep my tone low as I keep walking.

He follows me. “That threat is getting old, Skyla. I just told you that. Do you see what I mean about you not listening to me?”

“What do you want?”

“I just thought you should know that you’re making a mistake with my brother, but I’m ready to forgive you for it.

” He smiles at me like a benevolent dictator.

“Now, I’ve been thinking about the divorce, and you should be able to take him for at least half of what he legally has because we both know he didn’t make you sign a prenup. ”

“How concerned you are with my marriage is disturbing.”

He scowls, stepping in front of me. “You may think this is a game, but it isn’t. I’m willing to forgive you, so I would suggest that you listen to me and stop trying to make a joke out of this.”

“I have nothing to be forgiven for.”

Logan’s eyebrows climb, and there’s a crazed and dangerous look in his eyes. “You don’t think you have anything to apologize for?”

“No, I don’t. I moved on with my life because you decided to put your dick where it didn’t belong.

You decided that you could go ahead and fuck my best friend because you were too much of a pathetic little boy to get your shit together.

I’m more successful and powerful than you’ve ever been, and it’s eating you alive. ”

His hands clench into fists, knuckles turning white. “You don’t get to talk to me like that.”

I step closer to him, blood rushing in my ears and boiling in my veins. “The best thing I ever did was leave you. If I were a smarter woman, I would’ve killed you the day I caught you cheating.”

“I would’ve liked to see you try.”

My hand slips into my pocket, and I pull out the butterfly knife there, flicking it open and stepping closer to him.

To other people passing us on the street, it would look like we’re just standing close to each other, maybe two lovers caught up in the moment.

In reality, the broken nose isn’t enough for him. Now he has a knife pressed beneath his jacket and just over his right kidney.

Logan’s inhale is sharp as he looks down at me. “And what do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m reminding you who I am and what I’m capable of. If you think I won’t kill you in the middle of the street, you’re wrong.”

“You do that, and I’m going to have everything you’re keeping a secret from my brother delivered to his door.”

I dig the knife in deeper, feeling the slight give of his flesh and smirking at his hiss of pain, his entire body tensing.

“You don’t want to play with fire, Logan, you don’t have the balls to get burned and walk out on the other side.”

He grits his teeth against the pain. “You’re making a mistake.”

“No. The mistake was ever being with you. Or maybe the mistake will be a slight slip of my hand. Turn the blade ninety degrees. You’ve seen stabbing wounds. What do you think of the scar you’d have from that?”

“Don’t you dare.”

I smirk and drive the knife a little deeper. “I could pierce your kidney instead. Leave you on the sidewalk with toxins spilling into your body.”

Logan tries to squirm away, but it only makes the stab wound worse. “You’re going to regret this.”

Only when it comes to dealing with Joshua, but I can handle myself just fine. I always have.

“I don’t think I am.” I pat his face, fingers grazing against the dark bruise high on his cheekbones and making him wince. “I don’t know why Joshua keeps you alive. My siblings would’ve killed me if I pulled the shit you pull.”

“You’re a fucking psycho.” Venom spills from his voice before he seems to remember himself. “Just come home with me, and we can find a way to fix this, all right?”

“You want me to leave my husband? The man I love? To be with you?” I laugh and shake my head, patting his cheek again and hitting the bruise harder. “That’s not going to happen, and the fact you think it is might be the most pathetic part of this whole thing.”

“You don’t know who my brother is or what he’s involved in.”

“Cute that you think that.” I twist the blade a couple of degrees to the right. “There are no secrets, so whatever you think it is you have on me or him, you’re wrong, and you should give it up now.”

He whimpers at the pain, a tear sliding down his cheek.

How the hell did I ever delude myself into thinking I loved him?

The thought comes with stunning clarity.

If I had seen this side of him when we were together, I never would’ve been attracted to him.

“Skyla, you’re not thinking clearly, right now. It’s why you need to come back home. We can sort you out, and you can get back to the life you had.”

I tilt the blade upward a little, laughing when he whimpers again.

“I don’t fucking think so.”

As I pull the knife out, he groans and slumps over, his hand clamping to his wound.

I crouch down until I’m level with him. “I think you should probably see a doctor, Logan. That looks like a nasty cut.”

I wipe the blade on his shirt, inspecting it for any blood quickly before folding it back up and slipping it into my pocket.

“I’m going to take you and your entire family down.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “You’d actually have to be good at your job to do that.

You’d have to actually have evidence that could put me away, and since you don’t have that, I don’t think you’re actually going to do anything.

You’re nothing but a pathetic and weak little man who tries to prey on other people to make yourself feel better about all your shortcomings. ”

He coughs, more blood seeping out from between his fingers. “I have the evidence, and I’m done hiding it. I’m done protecting you, you stupid bitch. You’re on your own.”

“Oh, Logan, when it comes to you, I was always on my own.”

Joshua is standing in the front hall when I get home. He moves quickly, grabbing me by the throat and throwing me up against the wall.

I grunt at the pain radiating through my back.

His glare is like a white-hot fire, searing through me.

“You want to tell me why the fuck you stabbed my brother in the middle of the street?”

“We were on a sidewalk.”

His grip tightens, and it gets harder to breathe, but I don’t react.

“I don’t give a flying fuck where you were, Skyla.”

“What about a stationary fuck?”

There’s a thin glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “Now isn’t the time to piss me off.”

“Shame. I kind of like you pissed off.” I smirk even though I know it isn’t going to get me anywhere.

Joshua sighs and reaches for the gun in his shoulder holster. “Why don’t you tell me why the fuck you stabbed him, and I won’t put a bullet through you?”

“Why don’t you tell me what you’re hiding from me, and I won’t give you the same treatment as your brother?” I reach for his hand, digging my nails into his skin.

He hisses, pulling out the gun and pressing the cool metal to my temple, even as the pressure around my neck eases. “The stabbing, Skyla. Now.”

“He cornered me at a café and told me to leave you and go back with him.”

Joshua smirks and keeps the gun to my head. He leans in, his face hovering inches from mine as he braces himself with his forearm against the wall. “You like me that much?”

“No. I hate him that much. Stabbing Logan had nothing to do with you.” I put my hands on his chest, trying to push him back a step, but he doesn’t budge.

The gun presses against my head, making my heart race.

He drops it after another long moment.

He is going to kill me one day.

Maybe I’ll kill him first.

But I know I won’t because the thought makes my chest tighten.

Still, I take out the knife before he knows what’s happening, putting the flat of the blade against his neck’s pulsing vein. “Hold a gun to my fucking head again, Joshua, and see what happens. You might be used to women you can push around, but not anymore.”

He swallows hard, lust at war with irritation in the look he gives me.

The air around us seems to spark with electricity and for a moment, neither of us moves.

Then his hand surges to mine, grabbing my wrist and jerking it away from his neck and high above my head.

Joshua slams my wrist into the wall hard, but I keep my grip on the knife. “You want to try that shit again?”

“I will if you don’t tell me what you’re hiding from me.”

He digs two fingers into my pressure point, pain surging through me until I have no choice but to drop the knife.

It clatters to the floor, and he kicks it away.

“You want to talk about secrets, we can talk about secrets.”

I clamp my mouth shut, glaring at him.

As much as I want to know what the hell Logan was talking about, I have too much to lose if he forces me to talk. Including him.

The staring competition lasts for a beat longer before he drops my hand and takes a step back.

“I’ll handle Logan.”

“And what about the things he says you’re hiding from me?”

“What about them?” Joshua’s tone is devoid of emotion as he sees straight through me. “This isn’t a relationship, but you’re acting like it is. You have no right to any part of my life, and you’d do well to remember that.”

The pain that hits my chest takes me by surprise, and my eyes prickle, but I don’t let him know how much what he said affects me.

Without another word, he storms out of the house, the door slamming behind him, shaking the wall and leaving me with a sick feeling in my stomach.

Why did his words cut so deep into me?

I don’t know what the hell he’s hiding from me.

But then again, he has no idea what I’m hiding from him.

If he did, he would never look at me again. And I’m starting to think I would have a hard time surviving that.