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He took a step back and raised his hands to show they weren’t on her. Lexie contemplated running away, running anywhere, but then she’d still be on the street alone, at night, with him. Her best bet was her car. So she stayed put.
“I want to talk to you,” he said. “About that stuff you said last night.”
Lexie didn’t move an inch, just eyed him like the predator he was.
“Did you mean it?” he asked after a few quiet moments.
She didn’t move. Didn’t speak.
“You really think I’m unlovable?” he asked. “You think I’m weak?”
“Of course, I meant it,” she snarled, unable to keep silent any longer. “So, you go ahead and do whatever it is you think you have to do, but I won’t take it back.” She stood tall. Proud. And waited.
Kyle looked away and for the first time, Lexie noted that the energy he was emitting in that moment was not anger. It wasn’t vengeance or dominance or even manipulation. It was pain. Whether she cared enough to notice it or not, he was hurting.
Well, she did notice, but she didn’t care. Not anymore.
Swallowing hard, he met her eyes and nodded sourly. “Alright then. Have a nice life.”
Lexie couldn’t have been more surprised or confused if he’d told her he’d taken up cake decorating as a hobby. When he made to walk away, she couldn’t help herself. She asked, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“You wanted me out of your life. Well, congratulations, you got your wish. I’m gone.”
“Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
He didn’t seem too distraught by the idea. In fact, he seemed to be waiting for her to show some kind of remorse about it. Like hell, she thought.
“You expect me to believe you’re just going to quietly go away?”
“I don’t care what you believe,” he said. “You’ve already made up your mind about me. No point trying to change it.”
“My mind was made up by everything you did. This is all your fault. Everything bad in my life was put there by you! It’s always you.”
His chin dipped at that. His eyes fixed to the pavement. “So I’ve been told.”
Lexie wasn’t sure what he meant by that, and she didn’t ask. She’d heard enough. “You can’t even leave without messing things up,” she shrieked, pointing across the road. “You just broke into my workplace and scared the shit out of me!”
“What—” He recoiled like she’d just told him she was an alien. “I didn’t break into anywhere. I’ve been right here, waiting for you.”
Now it was Lexie’s turn to draw back. “You’re saying you haven’t been in that building in the last five minutes? Kyle, I swear to god, if you’re lying to me—”
“I’m not lying,” he urged. “I knew you wouldn’t want to see me, and Wade sure wasn’t gonna let me in after what happened. This was the only way I could talk to you.”
Lexie’s eyes darted side to side. The night pressed in around her. “We need to leave,” she whispered. “Now.”
But it was too late for that. Before she could say another word, a dark figure melted out of the blackness behind Kyle’s shoulder and hit him with something hard. He dropped to the ground and in an instant, Lexie was face to face with a hooded assailant holding a tire iron.
She couldn’t see their face. Could only raise her trembling hands in a plea to not do the same to her. When they drew back, readying for another blow, Lexie braced herself. They swung. She cried out. But instead of connecting with her, the weapon clattered to the ground as her attacker was grabbed from below by a semi-conscious Kyle. Blood gushed from his skull, leaking down his neck and across his face, but still he held tight, beating the struggling villain with his fists.
“Run!” he shouted. “Lexie, get outta here!”
She spotted the tire iron a few yards away and sprang into action. In her haste to grab it, Lexie skidded along the gravel, skinning her knees. She didn’t even feel it. All she felt was the cold metal in her hand and the courage to rejoin the fight building in her chest. Her heart pounded like a war drum. She had never had to hurt another person before, never been forced to make that kind of decision. But as Kyle lost the upper hand, his strength rapidly waning, she knew it was now or never.
Lexie approached the struggling pair, ready to strike, but then the undeniable sound of a shotgun being cocked froze her in place.
Pain exploded in the back of her head, and everything went black.
