She remains silent and unable to meet my eyes until she hears a bullet click into the chamber. She looks at Jabali with a pleading expression.
He shakes the gun in warning. “What are you waiting for? Confess your sins to your best friend and your brother and then beg for their forgiveness.”
Her gaze flutters between the gun and Jabali. “Why? It’s only going to hurt her.”
His head rears back, and he purses his lips. He flails his arms around in a grandiose show of amusement. “Nowyou care about her feelings?” He stomps one foot. “Now?”
“Of course I do. She’s my friend,” Kenzie insists.
He makes a tsking sound. “Did you care on the night I left Lila’s bed and found you leaning on my car door? When you told me I should be with a real woman instead of your pathetic fatfriend?”
Her betrayal sinks its sharp teeth into my gut.
I don’t know which part is making me more nauseated. The reminder that he had once been in my bed, or the fact that Kenzie could be so cruel.
There’s more than one monster in the room with Reed and me.
Pooling tears skew my vision, stinging my eyes and the back of my throat. I bite my tongue and dig my fingertips into my palm to fight them off. I’d rather focus on physical pain than her treachery.
She doesn’t get any tears from me.
In fact, she gets nothing from me.
Reed notices my reaction and drifts his bound hands covertly toward my outer thigh. I catch his gaze, letting the love in his expression ward off what remained of the deluge.
Apparently, Carpaccio isn’t done throwing Kenzie’s sadistic side in my face. He continues berating her, clearly for my benefit and his own amusement. “Tell me, Kenzie. Did you care about your best friend when you dropped your panties for me faster than a hooker and spread those bony legs? When you let me fuck you raw while Lila slept in the next room?”
Gag.
Reed snaps, finally losing his cool. “Enough! Knock it the fuck off,” he bellows. “We get the fucking point. Is this why you brought us here? To humiliate Lila? Haven’t you hurt her enough, you sick fuck?”
Jabali’s grin only spreads wider. He takes pleasure in Reed’s outburst, proving once more how this is all fun and games for a psychopath like him.
The gun-wielding madman slithers off the stool and saunters over to me. He folds over slightly, bringing his face in line with mine. “Can you forgive me for being unfaithful?”
“Go to hell,” I hiss through gritted teeth.
Languidly, he drags the tip of the gun along my cheek, running it over my chin and down my throat. “I wouldn’t have strayed if you were capable of giving me what I needed.” The gun fondles the curve of my breast. “But you were too pure and innocent. I knew you’d never willingly mark cards for us. Your slutty friend presented me with an easy alternative.”
“Get away from her,” Reed snarls, his chest puffing.
I remain still, unwilling to let this monster get a rise out of me. That’s exactly what he wants.
“Lila, from the first time I saw you, I had to have you. I broke all my rules for you. Did you know that?”
“What do you mean?” I ask before I can stop myself from prolonging this horrific conversation.
“You were the only one I worked over myself. I wouldn’t let any of my men near you. In all the casinos I cased, you were the only one I needed to claim. And it seems the man beside you knows how special you are.”
“Am I supposed to be flattered?”
Instead of answering me, he turns his soulless eyes on Reed. “Lila’s a good fuck, isn’t she?”
Reed shifts to the edge of the couch, angling his body like he’s readying himself to pounce on Caravan. “Don’t you fucking dare talk about her like that.”
“Oh, did you not get a taste yet? I thought for sure you’d have wet your dick in my sloppy seconds by now. Does she not want you?”
I attempt to steady Reed. “He’s doing this on purpose.”
