As Dust Dances (Play On 2)

Just as I’d felt protected knowing that Killian had Welsh threatened so he couldn’t hurt me anymore, I was okay with him doing the same to protect Autumn, Autumn who was better than the two of us combined. She deserved to be protected from the darker parts of human nature.

“I know you’ll take care of it. That’s why I came straight to you.”

Our gazes locked and for a moment, the anger mirrored in our expressions changed to something more complicated, deeper—something that drew us together even as we stood with the entire office between us.

Affinity.

He and I were so alike in so many ways.

I guess I hadn’t realized quite so much until that moment.

“Thank you,” his voice was hoarse, “for telling me.”

I had to clear my throat of the emotion bubbling up out of me. “Well,” I dropped my gaze as I turned to open the door, “I care about Autumn.”

THE NEXT MORNING I WAS pulled out of sleep by a loud banging noise.

It took me a minute to realize someone was banging on my apartment door. Groaning, stumbling out of bed, I pulled on the silk robe Autumn had bought me and yanked open my bedroom door, forgetting in my sleeplike state about the fragility of my wrist.

“Fuck,” I hissed, rubbing it gently.

The banging continued.

“Who is it?!” I yelled, beyond irritated.

“Skylar, open the door!” Autumn called.

Worry yanked me out of my fog and I hurried down the hall. Autumn had obviously opened the door with her key but couldn’t get past the security chain.

As soon as I removed it, she shoved open the door and I had to skitter out of the way. She blew past me, thundering down the hall. I shut the apartment door and followed her into the living area.

“What’s up?” I asked tentatively, because I was beginning to think Killian had told her about my suspicions.

She whirled, her lovely auburn hair spiraling around her before settling flawlessly across her shoulders. Seriously, how did it do that?

“You told him,” she huffed, drawing me out of my sleepy thoughts.

“Huh?” I pretended ignorance.

“Skylar, this isn’t a game.”

I tensed. “What happened?”

“What you must have known would happen. He interrogated me, I can’t lie to him, and so he tracked down Darren and got into a bloody fight.”

Worry shot through me. “Is he okay?”

“No, Killian beat the shit out of him.”

“I’m not talking about Darren,” I cried. “I couldn’t care less if your manhandling, stalkery ex-boyfriend got what was coming to him. Is Killian okay?”

“My brother is fine. A neighbor called the police but Darren, surprise, surprise, refused to press charges.” She crossed her arms over her chest and studied me like she’d never seen me before. “You guessed correctly, okay. Darren became controlling. He slapped me during an argument and when I tried to leave, he wouldn’t let go of my arm. I screamed bloody murder and he let me go. He lives in a flat with thin walls apparently. He tried to apologize but obviously, I broke up with him. He was calling me constantly and he was saying things that were . . . unsettling.”

“Stalker-like things?”

“Yes. But . . . I knew if I told Killian, he’d do this and worse. That’s why I didn’t tell him and even though I knew you knew something was up, I never would’ve thought you’d team up with Killian, let alone be okay with him going after Darren.”

“You told me yourself that Killian has gone after anyone who has hurt you in the past.”

“Yes, usually by going after their career or giving them a stern, threatening, wordy warning by using his father’s connection to the criminal bloody underworld. But no one has ever physically hurt me before until now, and I knew he’d react physically in return. And that’s not okay. And I can’t believe you encouraged it! That’s not justice, Skylar. It’s revenge!”

I scowled at her in disbelief. “And all the other stuff he’s done to protect you isn’t an eye for an eye? Of course it is, Autumn. Just because he didn’t use his fists doesn’t mean it wasn’t revenge. There are no gray areas with revenge. And you know what, I don’t see him putting the fear of God into a guy who hit you and was set on harassing you as revenge. It was a threat, and it’s one that will save you from living in fear from some nutjob. So, yeah, I’m okay with that.”

She deflated a little but I winced at the look in her eye. At the pity. “Shelley at the label told me about the ‘police’ sketch. And I know that boy who attacked you ended up in hospital. I can only imagine that Killian’s dad had something to do with it. He hates his father but he wields the man like a bloody battle-ax whenever it suits him. How can you be okay with that?”

I flushed, knowing deep down that she was right to question me, but angry that she would. “Because that ‘boy’ followed me until he had me all alone, broke my wrist, and held me to the ground with every intention of raping me. I fought back but if that boy who was with him hadn’t stepped in, he would have raped me. I wouldn’t have been able to stop him on my own. The way Darren made you feel frightened and powerless . . . imagine that and then magnify it by a million.”

Tears gleamed in her eyes before she dropped her gaze.

“I left the States when they told me they’d run out of leads in my mother’s murder. The guys who did it weren’t a couple of idiots off the streets. They were organized, masked gunmen, after a painting I wish I’d never bought, and they left no trace of themselves. Like ghosts. The only lead we had was that painting, and it’s never shown up in the public art world. So I have to live with the fact that I’ll likely never get justice for my mom and Bryan. And that kind of anger does something to a person. What Jonathan Welsh did to me only compounded it. I don’t want that to ever happen to you.”

Her eyes flew up to mine and her tears slipped free.

“You befriended me, no questions asked. I wasn’t some project of your brother’s you needed to help with. You wanted to help me. And you have, Autumn. I spent eighteen months disappearing because it was easier to be invisible than to face all the shit that had happened. But you helped bring me back. And it’s hard and it’s every day, but I am healing.” I let out a shaky breath. “You’re important to me. I would do anything to help Killian make sure that life never changes you the way it has changed me and the way it has changed him. Anything. Even if that makes me a bad guy.”

She nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks as she walked toward me. “You’re not a bad guy, Skylar. Neither is my brother. You’re both just . . .” Her lips trembled and more tears spilled down her face. “You’re both lost. And me too. But it’s a different kind of lost. I’ll find my way, I know I will. But I’m scared for you and Killian. I’m scared that what you both need is each other, and you’re going to mess up so badly, you’ll be worse off than ever.”

I listened to her heels clack on the floorboards as she walked away. I heard the front door close behind her.

Only then did I let my own tears fall.

* * *

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN a car with someone and the silence between you is so excruciatingly awkward, an image of opening the door and throwing yourself out of the moving vehicle plays over and over in your head?

If so, you’ll know exactly how I was feeling as Killian drove us through Glasgow to a place unknown. He’d called and asked me to have lunch with him. He said, “We need to talk.”

That could’ve meant anything, so I was feeling a little nervous as I got into his car. We shared a hello and then I saw the bruising on his knuckles as he drove away.

“That must’ve been a helluva punch,” I observed.

“Believe me, I wanted to do worse.” His bruised hand clenched around the steering wheel.

“Autumn actually didn’t tell me what the extent of the damage was.”

“Swollen eye, broken nose. Nothing he won’t recover from.”

“Your sister said someone called the cops. How did you get Darren to drop charges against you?”