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I narrow my eyes at him. “Would you do the same with Amethyst? Would you just ‘let her be’?”
“This isn’t about her.” His jaw tics. “I wouldn’t have been able to do what you did. I’m too fucking selfish.”
“Yeah, I thought I was too,” I mumble, closing my eyes as I tilt my head back.
Our conversation is cut short as one of the girls slips into the room. Her perky tits bounce freely as she walks toward us in a pair of black stilettos and a matching lace thong. Her long blonde hair brushes the strap above her ass as she saunters through the room. She bends over, showing me her ass as she drops a bag onto the table in front of Courtland. “We’re almost out. Do you think that you could make another drop tomorrow?”
Courtland picks up the bag and unzips it as he pulls out a stack of bills. He quickly leafs through them, not bothering to look up at her. “Is it all in here because you know how I feel about counting shit.”
“Nope, it’s all there.” She glances over at me, her eyes scanning my body from head to toe with a sultry look in her eyes. “How are you doing? You came here last time with Court, didn’t you?”
I stare back at her, narrowing my eyes as I nod.
Courtland zips up the bag and tucks it under his arm as he pulls out his phone. He quickly dials a number before holding it up to his ear. He lifts a finger, holding it up to me as he turns his back on us, talking in a hushed voice.
The girl saunters closer to me, gently pressing her palm against my chest before dragging her bright red nail along my sternum. “You look like you have a lot on your mind right now. What if I could help you forget about whatever is fucking with your head—even if only for a few minutes?”
“I’m good,” I growl at her, pushing her hand away from my chest. My tone is terse and harsh, my body rigid under her seductive stare. It has no effect on me, but I have an effect on her. She sees me as a challenge and she’s not backing down that easily.
“Come on, baby.” She smiles, swaying her hips as she reaches for my waist. “I promise that you won’t even remember her name.”
I wrap my hands around her wrists and jerk her hands away from me before dropping them like she’s on fire. “I said that I’m fucking good.”
“Hey, Candy,” Courtland interjects, narrowing his eyes at me as he tucks his phone back into his front pocket. He places a hand on her shoulder. “He’s not up for any fun tonight. I’ll be back tomorrow with some more shit.” He keeps his eyes on me, his gaze cold. “Alone.”
Candy rolls her eyes at me, before turning around to smile sweetly at Courtland. “Thanks, babe. I’ll be in after eight, so stop by anytime after that.”
Courtland glances down at her, smiling back as he leans forward and kisses her on the cheek. “Go make those fuckers wish they were taking you home tonight.”
“Hey, maybe one of them will get lucky.” She winks at him. She gives me the middle finger before sashaying back out of the room.
I glance over at Courtland. “Either you drive me past her house or I’m going there after you drop me back off at Linc’s.”
His chest rises as he sighs deeply. “We will drive past, but we’re not fucking stopping. Got it?”
I swallow hard over the knives in my throat as the anxiety suddenly floods me. Keeping his gaze, I give him a curt nod.
“And after this, you let it go, Kill,” he says, his voice low, but there’s nothing mean about his words. They’re laced with concern and sadness. “You gotta let her go.”
“I know,” I agree, feeling the knife twist deeper in my heart as it pounds erratically in my chest. “I’ll let her go after I know that she’s okay.”
* * *
I recitethe code from memory as Courtland punches it into the keypad at the front gate. Raina must not have been able to get this one changed because the gate effortlessly slides open, letting us into the neighborhood. My stomach churns as we drive down the familiar streets. It feels like a lifetime ago since I was here, since things were actually somewhat together in my life.
It feels like a fucking lifetime ago since I saw her.
We drive past Hudson’s house and I notice his car parked in the driveway, but the house is dark. I wonder if he’s heard from Ainsley at all since she got home. I didn’t think about it at the time, but they were best friends and he was just another thing that I took from her in life. They weren’t able to keep in contact while we were in the city.
The guilt comes out of nowhere, but it doesn’t even fucking matter at this point. There’s nothing that I can do to change what happened then and what’s happening now. All I can do is hope for the best for Ainsley.
My stomach is in my throat as we pull up in front of the Sinclair’s massive house. Courtland kills the lights on his car as we approach it, slowing down his car as we creep by. The entire house is dark, with just the lights that Raina has throughout the house as nightlights illuminating a few of the rooms.
As we move closer to the driveway, I crane my neck, looking for Ainsley’s bedroom window which looks out over the garage. You can’t see it directly from the street, but more from an angle, as the window faces the side of the house. My heart pounds rapidly in my chest, beating viciously in its cage as I strain my eyes, looking for any fucking sign of her.
It’s as if she knows that I’m looking for her.
A dim light glows from inside her window, and I watch as the panes are slowly lifted up. My breath catches in my throat and my heart skips a fucking beat. Ainsley stares out through the glass as she lifts the window up enough for her to sit on the ledge. A flicker of a flame illuminates her face and a thick cloud of smoke billows from the window.
