“You don’t have the best taste in men.” He gestured to himself. “Are you that surprised?”
I blinked some tears away, not understanding why they were there. His words sank in. “He wascareless,and you hanged him for that?”
“He wasn’t disclosing his sexually transmitted diseases to his partners. But I’ll be very clear here.” He stepped aside and I could see him from the light again. There was nothing on his face. His same dead eyes. He was a statue, a pretty, empty, and murderous statue. “If his diseased dick had gotten anywhere near you, I would’ve hangedeveryonehe loved.”
A rattling began inside of me, but I couldn’t face whatever this was.
I fled.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Blake
I got as far as the main floor, which was where Palma found me, launching herself at me. Her face was bright. Her eyes were glazed. Her hair was sweaty. She was having a glorious time. I looked for Levi but didn’t see him. She wound her arms around my neck, squeezing me tight to her. “Hi. Where’d you go? How are you?Holy Shit! Who was the Hottie you Were Grinding With?” The smell of alcohol blanketed me from her breath, and I cringed, more from the question than from her screaming in my ear.
Before I could respond, Marshall came over and tapped me on the shoulder. Heath was behind him, his arm thrown around the shoulders of another guy. His brother was also there frowning at Heath.
Marshall was saying, “We’re going to head out. Some of us were thinking about getting food—”
Palma lurched forward. “Yes! I’m hungrrryyyyy. Can we get food and then go to bedddd?” She hiccupped before laughing. “Oops. Sorry.”
Marshall frowned at me. “What do you want to do?”
Well, right now I wanted to breathe. Palma was squeezing the life out of me, but I croaked, “Home. Bed please.”
“Gotcha.”
The music suddenly went up a whole decibel, and a wave of people swarmed past us, so Marshall leaned closer, yelling in my ear, “There’s a diner a block over. We could get food there and take it back to the house.”
I moved my head up and down to save my energy. That sounded like a good plan.
I looked around but didn’t see the girl he’d been flirting with earlier. “Where’s your friend?”
He gave me a weird look. “Who?”
I gestured to where he’d been standing at the bar. “The girl you were talking to before. You seemed into her.”
“Oh!” He shrugged, ducking his head a little. “She took off with her friends. I think she had her eye on someone else.” He gave me another assessing look. “You good? You look sober-ish.”
I gave him a thumbs-up.
Some relief fleeted across his face. Alerting Palma on the arm, he knelt down and patted his back. He didn’t say anything, but she knew what to do. With a squeal, she climbed on, and now she was the koala bear in the situation.
No.
I mentally reprimanded myself for thinking of Creighton.
If his diseased dick had gotten anywhere near you, I would’ve hangedeveryonehe loved.
I could not be with Creighton.
I couldn’t be with someone like that. Other feelings were coming up. I shoved them all down because none of it mattered. The whole gate had lifted for Creighton, and the want and need and other feelings were still there. They were potent. Knowing someone was capable of and perpetuated cold-blooded murder needed to be a lust-destroyer.
I needed to shut it down.
Following everyone as we left the warehouse, another shiver wracked through me, this one heating me again, and I hated that.
Tears suddenly pricked at my eyes.
