Page 86 of Kylie

“Screw their job,” she said, her voice raspy with what I could only assume was anger. “This is my life. I want him to pay for what he did.”

“He will,” I said.

Gage cleared his throat. “I promise⁠—”

“Don’t,” Kylie snapped. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Just don’t.”

Gage frowned as they squared off with one another. I’d never seen Kylie this livid about anything. Truth be told, it made sense. Martin Calloway had stolen her life, and if she wanted to exact her pound of flesh, she deserved to do so.

At least to my way of thinking.

Clearly Gage had other thoughts on the matter.

After a few terse seconds, Gage exhaled heavily. “What do you want to do, then?”

“I want to find him,” she said instantly.

“And once we do?” I prompted, feeling a little left out.

Kylie turned toward me while Gage continued to watch her. I waited along with him for a response, for something that would make sense. I thought for sure she was going to say she wanted him to spend the rest of his life in prison, or something equally justifying.

But what came out of my wife’s mouth told me she was long past seeking justice.

“I want that fucker to pay,” she seethed.

Yep. Justice was in the rearview at this point. And on the horizon … vengeance.

Gage

This woman who stood before me…

Looking at her, it was easy to see the old Kylie. The woman who had been full of light and love, happy most of the time. I could still see bits and pieces of that woman. But there was another. This one scared me. Not in the sense I feared she would harm anyone who didn’t deserve it, but I felt trepidation nonetheless.

Her wanting to harm someone was a problem. It didn’t matter that it was a specific person. Nor did it matter that he had hurt her in a heinous way. Vengeance was not something that came naturally to my wife. At least I hadn’t thought so.

When I looked at Kylie now, I saw … Travis.

“You can sit this one out,” she said, drawing my attention. That was when I realized she was talking to me.

I glanced at Travis. He was watching me, too.

“I’m not sittin’ on the sidelines,” I informed them both. “Not this time.”

“You can,” Kylie said, her tone softening somewhat. “It won’t hurt my feelings.”

I didn’t like that she was quick to put space between us. She was separating herself from me because I wasn’t jumping on the vengeance bandwagon. That was not something she would’ve ever done before.

She’s not the same woman she was before.

That little voice in my head had reminded me of that numerous times since last night. I was doing my best to remember that. Not only did she not look the same, my wife had been altered on the inside as well.

“What exactly are we talkin’ about?” I prompted, glancing between Kylie and Travis, not sure whether they’d had a lengthy discussion about this already. They had stayed in bed for nearly an hour longer than I had, so it was possible.

“He’s not sittin’ this one out,” Travis stated firmly, his full attention on Kylie.

She turned to Travis, cocked an eyebrow. “Good. So what do we have?”

“We have nothin’,” he told her. “Brantley and his team have been workin’ this.”