That snapped something in me. I ducked away from him. “Is that what this isabout?”
“What?” His foreheadgrooved.
“You’re trying to make me dropout?”
His eyes darkened, and he gave his head a littleshake.
“Why don’tyoudropout?”
His jaw clenched. “I’ve been working my entire life toward this, Ness. You only want this to piss meoff.”
“That’s not true,” I blurted out. But it wastrue.
So. Damn.True.
He crossed his arms in front of his blood-flecked torso. “You didn’t go against me because you hated the idea of having a Kolane incharge?”
Instead of answering him, I used the momentum of our quarrel to drive in my previous point. “See? We can’t date,Liam.”
He snorted but didn’t disagree with me. Then again, his bedroom door flewopen.
As he took us in, Matt’s eyebrows shot up. “Everything all right inhere?”
Liam glared at me. For someone whose dying wish had been to kiss me, he seemed overit.
“Yeah,” I mumbled, planting my gaze on the large oaf of a man standing in the doorway instead of on the infuriating one standing inches fromme.
Matt flicked his attention to Liam, who remained as still asglass.
“Can you take me home?” I askedMatt.
“Ofcourse.”
I started walking away when Liam’s voice made me halt. “Why do you want to lead this pack,Ness?”
My cheeks burned from being put on the spot. “I don’t have to explain my reasons toyou.”
“I just hope your reasons are noble, because these are good men. Men who deserve someone honest, with the pack’s interest atheart.”
I stared at Matt’s dirtyboots.
I swallowed over and over, but my saliva kept getting jammed up. Finally, I managed to wheeze out, “And they’ll have someone deserving ofthem.”
For the first time in a long time, I was speaking thetruth.
Because it wouldn’t beme.
I would make sure to lose the next test. I wasn’t sure how yet, but I was sure it would come to me. If I lost, Julian couldn’t hold that against me. Couldhe?
He probably could. He’d probably rescind his offer to speak to the PI. Or if he’d already spoken to him, he’d call him back. But it wouldn’t matter because Liam would already have heard it fromme.
After the next test, I’dconfess.
I’d confess it all and free myself of the debilitating guilt. And if that meant groveling for my life, then I would drop to my knees and grovel. My only hope was that Liam would show me the mercy his father had been incapable of showing mymother.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Ispentevery minute of the next three days with Evelyn. If these were to be my last hours on this earth, there was no one I wanted to spend them with more than Evelyn. Several times, she asked me what was wrong.Nothing.That was my answer.Nothingplus a cheerfulsmile.
