Kohen starts walking closer. The corner of my mouth curls up into a smile when he lowers himself down where King just departed. I’m thankful that Kauis doesn’t break the moment with his ridiculous questions. I’ll do what I have to do—for Bear. For Cartier because it’s for Kyrin. But that’s it. I’m not looking for a new family, despite Kauis’s cute speech.
Kohen’s hands are on my cheek, and I breathe out a deep sigh. “How’d you know?”
Kohen looks so much like King, only better. Real, raw. Destructive and sinister. Much like how Dove is beside Perse. With dark moss-green eyes and thick lashes he smudges underneath with dark kohl-shaded liner, intensifying his stare. His attire is different, too, but not in a way that looks dorky, and more in a way that shows just how many fucks he gives about everyone.
Zero, by the way.
“I could smell her on you.”
“Oh?” I tease, smirking at him. He pulls me close until our noses touch and my lips are near his. “Can you smell her better now?” I search his eyes even though they’re so close I can’t make out the color. “Bet you can,” I say, looking down at his lips.
His mouth curves up into a dark smile. “Can I watch next time?”
I slide back to put some distance between us. One that says sure, why not? In fact, I’m almost certain I’d let you join. But before the words can leave my mouth, a hand is around the front of my throat, yanking my head backward until I’m looking up at Kyrin who’s behind me.
Kyrin glares at Kohen. “You sure as fuck like playing with my trigger finger, Ko.”
Kohen’s mouth curves awfully similar to the Joker’s. “What can I say, you all make it too easy.”
“We need a plan. Brothers can meet me in the tent in two hours. I need to fuck my wife,” Kauis announces, standing from the sofa and making his way through the entrance. Kyrin releases my throat, rounding the coffee table and taking the spot that Kohen was on. He watches everyone move out of the sitting room, leaving Keaton, Killian, and Sass here with Eli. Once everyone is out of earshot, he pins me with a stare. I swear his eyes dilate. “You’re not going in there with her. We don’t even know what she’s capable of.”
I snicker, crossing my leg over my other. “I do, and I’m not fragile, Kyrin. I can fight off ten guys with my eyes closed.”
“Yeah?” He clenches his jaw. “You can’t fight a bullet, though, Lilith, and I’m pretty sure that’s what she intends to do.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head and watching Eli as he lowers himself onto the single sofa in the corner of the room. He hasn’t said a word since Benny called, as if he’s calculating what he’s going to do next, or watching too closely… “She isn’t going to do that. That woman had more chances than anyone to kill me. If that was what she wanted to do, I would have been dead years ago.”
“Shit changes, Lil.” Eli finally breaks his silence. “People change with circumstance. You being alive back then wouldn’t have been a problem. You being alive now, for her, could be a problem.” All the times that I was at her disposal. My life has been in her hands on more than one occasion, how could I not see who she was all along? What bothers me the most about learning who she is, is that she knew what they were doing to us. To all the people they trafficked, yet she did nothing. She watched as they raped us and classified it as training. As much as Kosta and Kij are to blame for everything, she needs to suffer, too.
“Since Kohen is off processing the fact Dove is still alive, I’m going to ask the question that no one else seems to ask.” Keaton’s voice filters through my thoughts of revenge. “Was there a method to your madness, a reason why you killed who you did?”
“Yes,” I answer honestly, because there’s no reason hiding it now. “Dove didn’t want blood on her hands. She’s not the girl you’re all probably assuming she is, thanks to Perse’s narrative. She dealt the cards, picked our victim, and I got to play a game of revenge. If she didn’t want to deal the cards, she stuck to men who deserved it. Rape, murder—she always found a reason, and being in Patience, it wasn’t all that hard to find vile targets.”
“So you hate men?” Keaton asks, not in a way of anger, but more understanding if I did.
“I own two of them, so I’m going to say no…” I roll my eyes, reaching forward into Kyrin’s pocket for his cigarettes. I need one. I bring it to my lips and light the end, inhaling and exhaling. “The men who we picked, Dove knew them. She knew them all.” My eyelashes flutter, no doubt my skin paling.