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Bingo. He mirrored my gesture. Shape-shifting demon that he was, he dropped his arms by his sides, too, weakening his voice. I swallowed, breathing visibly, before I pushed out, “I’ve done perfectly well. She’s been happy with me. I think you’ve done worse.”
“I’ve done everything that needs doing. Made the hard decisions, where you can’t.”
I was quiet for a second before I put my hands in my pockets, signaling smallness this time, timidity. “Why do there have to be things like this? The… hard things where we have to sacrifice what makes us happy. She’s been perfectly happy with me.”
“You don’t know the first thing about what she’s really like. You don’t know the… the times we had together. The years.”
“The years that have led to something like this?”
He kept following my movements, and by now, he wasn’t looking at me either—had looked to the window frame next to me, his hands in his pockets in an awkward, uncomfortable posture like mine. “You couldn’t know. It’s been a long time. Longer than you’ve been a part of anything.”
I murmured something inaudible. He gave me an inquisitive look.
“What was that?”
“Do you want me to say it?”
He shifted awkwardly. Got him tied up in his own net—the awkwardness he’d mirrored me into, the change in dynamic, forcing him to answer a question honestly—he was without the supports for what he was supposed to do, what he was supposed to put on, and he’d gotten himself deeper into this uncomfortable rut, until now he looked like he wanted to itch his own skin off. “Just say it already,” he said.
“I told you to go fuck yourself,” I said, looking up into his eyes, and he flinched backwards. “You think I’m going to leave Miami because of this?”
“I—” he started, but he stopped talking when I cut him off this time.
“You’ve read enough about me to know that I’m going to hunt you to the ends of the earth,” I said. “And I’m going to turn everyone you know against you. And you know I will, don’t you?”
“What are you—”
I stepped forward, and he took a step backwards, but I wasn’t letting him have any control over this interaction—I grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him back towards me, leaning in, and he leaned back away. “You’ve known all along,” I said. “That’s why you had to control Cameron the way you did. Why you had to sway her with pretty promises to get her to marry you. Why you have to keep her to a fraction of who she actually is. Because you know you’re just a hollow shell of a man, and anybody with any character can twist people away from you—”
“What the hell are you talking about?” He pushed my hand away from him, and I went with it, pretending I’d been waiting for him to do it, because that was when I walked to the side, circling him, my shoes clicking on the hardwood as he turned with a wild look in his eyes, following me.
“Shut the fuck up, Kevin. You know what I’m talking about. Asking stupid fucking questions won’t shake me. I’m not here for a discussion, I’m here to tell you something you need to know. You’re being shortsighted with Cameron, and you know it. You can bring her back now, but I’ve already gotten to her. She’s already seen outside of your prison walls.”
“I’m not—”
“Shut up,” I snapped, flicking my hand in front of his face so he flinched, losing his sentence with it. “You can close her back up in a cage if you want, but she’ll always be looking to escape. And you know you can’t make her want to stay. And it eats at you, doesn’t it, Kevin? It haunts you like a fucking nightmare.” I stopped circling him with his back to the wall now, and when I lurched in towards him, he backed up, hitting the wall—the reversal of the position earlier, and all the power I’d portrayed in the dynamic, now in my hands. His eyes flicked everywhere but mine. “And you read about me, Kevin. You read about how I can sway anyone, on anything, and you know about what will happen if you force Cameron away from me now. That’s why you’re so keen on seeing me out of Miami, isn’t it, Kevin? Because you know Cameron in your hands is going to be a ticking time bomb—knowing I will always be there, hunting down everywhere you go. Everyone you talk to will turn against you. Every deal you make will blow up in your face. And that whole time, Cameron will be there watching me, and you’ll know she wants me, not you. Never you. Because—” I put my hand in his face, pointing, and he leaned away, pupils dilated now. “Because you know, don’t you? You know she’s never loved you. Not once. Not for one second. And that’s what haunts you the most—knowing that you love her and she has never, can never, will never love you. And why you have to be everyone but yourself.”
“Get the fuck out of my face,” he snapped, pushing my hand away. This was good, now—finally saw it in his eyes, the desperate flare of fear, flashing out into anger.
“Sure,” I said, stepping back, and it pulled the floor out from under him—he watched me with wild eyes, scanning, flicking over the room. “I’ll stay out of your face. I’ll stay well out of your way—you’ll never even see me. But you’ll know I’m there, and every time something turns against you, you’ll know what’s happened. You’ll know who’s the bad luck charm haunting your life. And you’ll know Cameron knows where I am all the damn time. And you know, Kevin?” I stood taller, putting my chin up. “I hope you rot in the hell you’ve created. I hope every day haunts you. So go ahead and play your hand with Cameron and her brand. And get comfortable, because this game is going to keep going until you let her go.”
“I’m not afraid of you,” he growled, but his face told a different story. I laughed.
“You’ve always been a slippery liar. But you can never convince yourself. Goodbye, Kevin. Remember, you can get out of this whenever you want to. You know what you have to do.”
He clenched his fists tighter, a wild look on his expression—flaring red—should maybe have been concerned that maybe he’d throw a punch, that he’d actually just get hands-on and try to get rid of the problem at the source. Should have brought Ruth after all.
But even if he wanted to try, he didn’t get a chance, because—as much as everything fit exactly into whatever little semblance of a plan I had right now, one thing went wildly beyond anywhere I could have planned it, because the door unlatched and swung open, and I whirled with my heart in my mouth to where Cameron stood in the doorway, the low violet dusk light behind her casting her in silhouette, leaning against the doorframe with her hand in her pocket.
“Cam? Baby—” Kevin started, but she held a hand up.
“My name is Cameron. Say it properly. I’ve already contacted the divorce attorney anyway, so let’s skip to the good part, shall we?”
My stomach dropped, turning back on her. “Cameron—what? You’re… are you okay?”
She smiled at me in that way that made my chest flutter, no matter the situation—even this damn one here, now, where I couldn’t work out up from down, heads from tails. “More than okay, hearing you lay into the guy like that.”
Kevin took a step towards us, anger flashing in his eyes, but he was broken—I’d already worn him down to the point where everything was desperation. “What the hell are you talking about? Are you seriously telling me you’re going to sacrifice the whole brand, your whole life, just for this girl?”
