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"Is it something to do with the Cantil?" Blaine questioned, not caring about Caspar’s surprised expression at his knowledge of her, since he wasn’t present either time that she had revealed her involvement with the Cantil to the others. "Did your plans not work out the way you'd like them to? Is that why you're throwing a tantrum?"
"Don't speak about it so casually!" she hissed through clenched teeth. "All of them know, but it's not something for you to just shout from the rooftops. Also, I'm not a whiny child that throws tantrums when things don't go my way. You wouldn't be joking about this either if you knew..."
"I'll be the judge of that," Blaine murmured. He leaned his elbow on the counter and rested his chin on his fist. "Now, tell me all about your troubles."
"No. Telling you anything would be absolutely infuriating. You'd only twist my words and make things worse like you were willing to do when you saw my tattoo," she argued.
"I wasn't expecting you to be so open about it," he murmured as he looked away from her to Caspar. "How did she tell you?"
Caspar rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I've known for a little while. She helped me out of a situation, and she had to explain a lot of it to me. She told everyone else at dinner last night, which you missed."
"Hmm. Very unexpected," he said.
"What is? That I wanted to share a part of myself with them? I wasn’t given much of a choice, with that Vulture on my back. It was either I explain it on my own, or someone would have been hurt because they’d be walking around with no knowledge," she snapped.
"I wouldn't have told them. Even if I was allowed to," he stated.
She groaned, running her fingers through her hair before she squeezed it at the root. “Of course, you wouldn’t have. You just roll your eyes and have all the perfect answers always to what to do in these situations.”
Just then, the door leading to the garage opened and Renly stepped through. He looked like he'd been through war and back. His white dress shirt was un-tucked from his black slacks at an odd angle and his sleeve was awkwardly pushed up on one side and not the other. The expression he wore wasn't any better either. He was pale, and his eyes were wide as if he was physically unable to close them in fear of what he'd see if he blinked.
He didn't even look at the trio standing in the kitchen as he started to slip his shoes off next to the door. Mykie glanced at the other two boys, who were watching Renly in confused silence, sensing the depressing mood that was coming from Renly in waves.
"Renly…” Mykie said in a cautious tone.
"My father is dead," he said in a harsh tone as his head whipped up to look at Mykie. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"
"I know what you were probably told, but I'm sure you don't know everything." She spoke in a calm tone as she started to approach him, but he unexpectedly rushed her, making her take a few urgent steps backward until her midback hit the island counter.
"Oh? So, youweren'tthere when my father was murdered? Itwasn'twhen you were supposed to be in a meeting with him? Youaren'ton camera, flicking a knife around in the elevator? This isn’t your jacket, with my dad’s blood on it?” he said, punctuating his words by slamming her jacket down beside her on the counter.
She paled. She didn’t even realize she dropped it when she collapsed, and how it must have touched the puddle that was surrounding Earl. Damn it!
“Please, Mykie, tell me what I don't know," he hissed, tears dripping down his pale cheeks. She didn't dare reach her hand up to brush them off in fear of being pushed away.
"You don't know what happened on the top floor," she said, shaking her head.
"That's because the cameras are dead up there now. They were shot and ripped down. Last time I checked, you had a pretty decent aim," he snapped.
"You seriously think I did it?" she asked, flabbergasted. "What reason would I have to kill your father?"
"I don't know, Mykie. You were really angry with him for not accepting Chance’s offer. Caspar told me about your nickname in the Cantil, and I know what she’d do when she didn't get her way. It's not hard to put two and two together," he spat.
"Wh... What?" she sputtered, looking from the two boys who were standing back and back to Renly. "Do you actually think I'm capable of doing that to you? Putting aside my job, I would never try and hurt you like that."
She looked up at Renly desperately, trying to make him understand. "You believe me, don't you?"
"I don't know what to believe right now," he whispered, his voice expressing just how broken he was at the moment.
"What do you want me to do? What can I do for you?" she asked. "Even if you don't believe me, please, let me be there for you."
"I..." he swallowed and closed his eyes tightly. "I want you to leave. I don't want you here right now. Not when you might have..."
Her heart clenched in her chest. She wanted to stand there and argue for him to look at her and believe her words, but she knew that it wasn't going to help. Nothing she was saying would break through to him until he wanted to hear it. Right now, there wasn't a better explanation than her, and he wouldn't want to hear her passing the blame to someone else. Especially when the blame came right back around to her anyway, since they killed him for Mykie not listening.
"All right," she said quietly.
"Renly, come on. You can't seriously think she did it," Caspar protested. "No matter her job, she has some compassion. Why would she do that to any of us?"
