“I never understood why you hated me so much. Before you even knew me.”
“You were always showing me up.”
“I was just being who I was. It’s not my fault I had fifteen more years of training than you did. Maybe if you weren’t such an utter dick to me, I might have had a chance to tell you how impressive it was how quickly you picked up on it all. Even while refusing my help.
“But, no. You had to be small and petty and jealous. And you know what, that would have been fine if you were younger. Or for just a few weeks, I knew how bad it was growing up with your mother. But you were almost an adult acting like a petulant child. And you only got worse over time.
“You’re lucky you lasted as long as you did. If I told my father any one of those things you said or did to me, he would have had you packed up and on your mom’s doorstep before you could try to come up with an excuse. So you can thank me for the months of stability and attention you got because I didn’t sell you out.
“And if you want someone to blame for how things turned out, all you have to do is look in a mirror. You have no one to blame but yourself for being shitty to me, for almost getting me raped, for forcing my father to choose between us.”
“He chose wrong.”
“No, he didn’t. You weren’tsafeto have around. You were everything my father had been training me to protect myself against. He made the only choice he could.”
“He could have given me another chance.”
“You had a lot of chances to stop being shitty to me, Lance. It’s your own fault that you didn’t take any of them.”
“I was a kid still.”
“And I wasn’t? I wasn’t an innocent fifteen-year-old trapped in a bedroom with an older boy who wanted to hurt me? The youth card doesn’t work when it comes to shit like that, Lance.”
“I didn’t know.”
“You knew enough to hold the door.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“I begged you to open it.”
“I don’t… I don’t remember that.”
“Well, I did. I remembered it enough to have nightmares for a year. To be terrified of every boy or man I came across. So you can’t waltz in here years later playing the fucking victim. That’s not how this works.
“And now,now, you not only made me your victim once, but twice.” I paused, exhaling hard. “How long have you been stalking me?”
“Stalking is a strong word.”
“When you’ve been following me and trying to murder me? No, it’s not.”
“I’ve kept an eye on both of you for years.”
“That’s really fucking creepy, Lance.” How many times when I got that little prickle at the back of my neck that made me feel like I wasn’t alone, or that someone was watching me, was actually him? “So, why did you shoot up my place if your endgame was to kidnap me for some ridiculous childhood revenge?”
“I wanted to kill you then. But when you came out, I got another idea.”
“How’d you find me at the safe house?”
“I had a tracker on your car.”
“No, you didn’t. I had it checked.”
“Not recently. But back when you bought the safe house, I did. Figured that was where you went. Didn’t know you’d havethat biker with you. I guess it worked out for me that he was so fucking inept.”
A movement behind him had me straightening. The smile that tugged at my lips had Lance frowning.
“Not that fucking inept,” Caymen said before tackling Lance to the ground.
