Rise of a Queen (Kingdom Duet 2)

“You’re aroused, not uncomfortable. You think I can’t tell the difference?”

Damn him and how observant he is.

I take in a deep breath, but it comes out chopped and broken — just like the whole chaos in my chest.

Being cornered is one of the feelings I loathe the most. I’ve fought so hard to escape my father’s shadow, but I’ve never managed to.

Even though Jonathan has threatened everything precious to me, there’s a vile need to tell him everything. To just spill it out and…be out there for the first time in my life.

I know it’s dangerous and that it’ll probably come back and bite me in the butt, but I’m so exhausted. My body is full of bruises, cuts, and a healed scar that still hurts.

It could be due to the physical pain, the lack of sleep, or both, but I murmur, “Ever since the first day I came here, I’ve been receiving messages from Alicia.”

“What type of messages?”

“Recordings on flash drives. It seemed like her will to me. At the beginning, she said that if I got them, it meant she was dead. Then she went on to tell me that someone wanted to kill her. She also said that our mother told her to cut all connection with me. In the last message, she was crying and told me…”

“What?” I expect him to squeeze my throat for good measure, but his fingers loosen until he’s almost caressing me.

“She…she said you were poisoning her. You were trying to kill her.”

I expect him to deny it, to tell me I’m wrong, but he continues studying me with that calculative gaze of his. I wait for his words with bated breath, but they never come out.

“So?” I whisper.

His face is covered in that blankness that I can’t get past, no matter how much time I spend with him. “Where are those recordings?”

“In my car.”

“Where in your car?”

“In my glove box.” I’m bemused. “Why is that the main point here?”

He pushes off me, and the skin where his fingers were wrapped around my neck is suddenly hollow and desolate.

The fact that he stopped touching me so suddenly feels wrong. Why does it feel so wrong?

I try not to focus on that as I follow his movements and sit on the edge of the bed beside him. Jonathan places a phone to his ear. “Moses. Search the glove box in Aurora’s car and bring me the flash drives in there.”

Why would he need them?

Wait… “Are you going to get rid of the evidence?”

Jonathan hangs up but keeps his phone in his hand. His expression is still that bland one, but something about it bothers me. The emotions he’s hiding behi

nd his façade seem wrong. “There’s no evidence, because that nonsense didn’t happen.”

“Alicia said you poisoned her in order to kill her.” I probably shouldn’t be accusing him this openly, but it’s out there now, so I might as well hear his take on it.

“I want to hear it for myself.”

“More like you want to destroy the evidence.”

“If I wanted to kill Alicia, I would’ve done it right after she gave birth to Aiden. I wouldn’t have waited until eight years later.”

“Why would you even want to kill her? She was the softest person alive.”

“She was, and that softness ruined her.” The warmth in his tone takes me aback. It’s the first time he’s actually talked about Alicia without his usual impersonal touch.