“You made me go into her room with Heather. While she was asleep.” A cold shudder ran through my body. I didn’t like the way that made me feel – like a creepy stalker. That was why I told Faye, even though I disguised it as another part of her torture. She deserved to know the truth.
“It’s fine. I won’t ask you to do it again. From now on, consider yourself out of the loop.”
I shook my head. “Don’t be like that. I don’t want to be out. I just…”
“What?”Dorien barked. He sounded pissed as fuck, but I knew what lurked beneath that annoyance was fear. I’d never seen Dorien afraid before, not the way he’d been since we returned to Manderley.
He’s not the only one.
I rolled over, shoving my feet out of the bed and standing in front of him, bringing half the blankets with me. “I need to go to the woodshed.”
“We’re not done here.”
“We’re done.” I dropped to my knees and reached under the bed, dragging a case out into the light.
Dorien stiffened when he saw what I was holding. “You shouldn’t keep that in here. If she finds out—”
“What’s the worst she can do to me?”
Dorien smirked at that. He picked up a black t-shirt from my bureau and tossed it at my chest. “True. But be careful, you’re not the only one she has by the balls. I’m not sure I can protect you.”
I straightened up, my eyes meeting his, and an unspoken message passed between us. People heard Dorien in concert and read about what he got up to in the tabloids and thought they knew him. They saw the bad boy, the deviant, the one making a mockery of serious classical music. But I saw something different – the only person who had my back even when I fucked up again and again. The guy who never told me I wasn’t good enough. The friend who never put a price on his loyalty. “Thanks.”
I pulled on the shirt and some jeans, and slipped down the stairs, wincing as I stepped on a loose board and a loudCREAKechoed in the dim house. Downstairs, I padded through the servant’s hallway and across the kitchen. Faye’s scent clung to every surface, hidden behind the wafting Mexican spices she used liberally in her cooking.
That scent did things to my head. I couldn’t fuckingthink.
The case slapped against my leg as I stepped out into the frigid mountain air and hurried across the grass. Over the lawn, down the path, around the back of the woodshed to the locked door. I lied to Faye – Heather had the key to her old room. The one around my neck unlocked my secrets.
I unlocked the door and kicked it open, shuffling the heavy case inside and locking it behind me. I shone my phone’s flashlight around until I found what I was looking for – the small generator I set up out here to give me light and power. I flicked it on, and the low rumble sent a shiver of anticipation through me.
I unlatched the case. It swung open. My secret stared back at me, beautiful and deadly.
Images and sensations swirled in my mind – Faye’s face drawing toward me, those sexy lips parted ever so slightly, the feel of her skin shuddering beneath my touch – as I reached inside and drew it out.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dorien
Sunlight streamed through the high windows of the twelfth-floor studio, casting golden ripples across the cascade of Faye’s hair. She faced away from me, out at the toy city far below, the violin against her neck as she slashed the strings with the bow in her signature overwrought style. Today she played a haunting Bach piece that grabbed my heart and squeezed, so tight. Or maybe that was the reality of what I was about to do.
Faye finished the movement with a low, trembling note, stepping back and bowing to her imaginary audience. I clapped, the noise like gunshots in the vast, empty space.
“Dorien.” Faye whirled around. The grin on her face wavered when she saw my face. “What’s the matter?”
“I came to say goodbye.”
“What do you mean?” Her hair bounced on her shoulders. “You just got here. Class starts in fifteen minutes—”
“I mean, this is the last time we’ll see each other. Mom’s transferred me to another music school.”
“No, that sucks.” But her face brightened. “I know! I’ll ask Mom to transfer me too. I can’t stand Madame Usher, anyway. She doesn’t seem to like me much. I think she only puts up with me because of Dad—”
I shook my head. She didn’t get it.
Harden your heart.
“I don’t want you to transfer. I’m leavingbecauseof you. I don’t want to see you again.”
