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I caught his face between my hands and angled it toward mine, watching for any minute changes to his expression. “You’d really kill her?”
He didn’t look away, or blink, or show any emotion other than solemnity. “I won’t be separated from you again, mon coeur. I promise you, here and now, I’ll kill her or anyone else who tries to tear us apart.”
With that declaration, my bloodlust simmered. I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around his neck, breathing in the scent of his hair.
11
Leander
Go to Hell.
Lorelei’s parting words circled my brain, day after day. I had Annabel back and Lorelei was gone. The last link between us finally was severed. Or so I thought.
You’re sick. You know that right?
Twisting the black wedding band around my finger, I stared at the emptiness in front of me, seeing nothing but the look of betrayal on her face. The anger. Indignation. I hadn’t expected her to take the news well, but I was surprised how viscerally she reacted. To which part, I wasn’t quite sure — Bennett, or our marriage.
Bennett, because, well, he was Bennett? Because he was ahe? Because he threatened her femininity? No, not just threatened — thwarted it. That I would choose a “him” over her?
Or was it our marriage that she balked at? That I never professed my love to her during our brief togetherness, only to turn around and announce I was a married man? She knew how I felt about lying, and telling her that I loved her would have been the biggest lie of all. I never did, no matter how much I tried to convince myself that one day, possibly, I might, under the right circumstances.
You needserious, long-term help.
Pressing my hands against either side of my skull, I pushed in, trying to counteract the pain raging inside. It only worked for a moment. Then the vitriol was back, bringing with it a steady stabbing sensation in the center of my brain.
Beneath the pain, Lorelei’s voice hissed her condemnation at me. Gradually, it voice morphed into the sound of my nightmares — Irene’s voice. Lorelei’s words. Together, they were a blend of false concern and barely controlled rage.
Do you even know about the severity of his mental health? All of the disorders he has?
Had Lorelei really tried to turn my own husband against me? Did she think she could scare him off that easily?
And what if she had?
Do you think you can handle it when he has another breakdown?
Another breakdown, thus implying I’d already had one. I knew I had. She knew I had. Sadly, not all of my experiences whilst under her medical care were staged. Some of them were true — flashes of authenticity in an elaborate charade, when I was too weak or delirious to get control of myself.
But Bennett? Bennett didn’t know. Bennett didn’t know what happened during the time we were apart, that I’d lost my fucking mind without him. He didn’t know how utterly destroyed I’d been. And he didn’t need to know. Because if he knew, he might choose to leave. He might decide hecouldn’thandle another episode, or that he didn’twantto. That this life he thought he wanted was just too damn much.
I couldn’t bear losing him a second time. I’d barely survived the first.
So, I looked at my ring, trying to convince myself the voices were wrong. But it didn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t get them to cease their incessant harping. Lorelei. Irene. They both squatted inside my head, like a pair of poisonous toads.
I’d feel a hell of a lot better if that bitch was dead.
Of course, Bennett was right. Killing Lorelei solved a vast majority of my problems. It might not stop her from haunting me, but it would stop the very real possibility that she would go to the police and tell them everything she knew — about me, about Bennett, about all of it. She was a loose end that needed to be tied off immediately.
And yet…
Her only sin had been loving the unlovable, trying her damndest to heal what someone else had broken. I deserved her anger, even her hatred. But did she deserve to die becauseIlet her get too close? Because I used her, trying to fill a void in my life?
I picked up the phone and dialed Jake’s number.
“Nothing seems out of place,” he said as soon as he answered. “Work and home, like usual. Haven’t seen any police around. I was still able to log into Parkview’s system and she doesn’t have anything unusual in her schedule, either.”
“Come home, then.”
“Are you sure? I can stay another couple of days, make sure she doesn’t change her mind.”
