shall see.” He tossed a coy look over one shoulder. He was a mere ten feet away. Close enough that the scent of patchouli mixed with wood smoke touched her senses. His cold gaze slid over her once again. “Now that you have matured, you remind me of your mother. You have her enticing confidence and those severe, unforgiving eyes.”
“And you haven’t changed. Still a babbling bore.”
His lip curled. “What makes you believe my interest is in you? Winston Lane is rife with mental anguish.” His sharp teeth flashed. “Just the sort of snack I relish.”
“Oh, yes, this absurd notion that you have the rights to my child’s soul.” Bitterness filled her mouth, but she wouldn’t let it show.
“Not absurd. Your husband signed it away quite handily.”
Poppy kept her eyes on Isley but made no further moves. “Do not pretend for a moment that your endgame isn’t to bedevil me. Otherwise, you would not have sent that charming telegram.”
“And here you are.” Again, he grinned. “Running in to rescue another family member not worth saving.”
It proved too hard to keep her voice neutral. “Leave Winston out of this, and let us settle this once and for all.”
“No. He made the bargain. He has to work his way out of it.”
“He made that bargain because of me!” Don’t fight him. Not yet. But she could not stop from taking a step closer to him.
“Yes,” snapped Isley. “He did. And you get to suffer in the knowledge that your acquaintance with the solid, upstanding Winston Lane wrought his downfall.”
“Bastard.”
“No! I am the past that has returned to haunt you,” he said with sudden vigor. “I will watch you stumble, watch you fight, see you witness your man die and your happiness fade.” In a flash, he was right before her, not as the young girl, but as Winston.
Hatred burned in those winter blue eyes that appeared just like Winston’s. Not Win, she told herself. His scarred visage twisted with the violence of his anger. “You will feel what I felt as you hunted me those fourteen years ago. Feel the same fury as I did when forced underground by an ignorant girl in the midst of a tantrum.”
He leaned closer, his chest almost touching hers. “I will see you pay. And then I will take your child.”
Poppy struck, a hard punch to the windpipe. Isley gagged, his forehead hitting her shoulder as he hunched forward from the hit. Poppy spun, grabbing his wrist and, in the same moment, slammed her elbow into the back of his. His arm hyper extended, and then the bone snapped at the joint. Isley screeched. His return hit caught her in the sternum. Poppy flew back, hitting the floor so hard that her brain seemed to slosh about in her skull as she slid several feet.
It was that jar to the body that set her thinking sanely once again. She could not afford such physicality. Not now. Isley stalked forward, rage igniting over his flesh in preternatural orange flames, his one arm flopping at his side, and looking so much like Winston that her heart turned over in her chest. She scrambled to her feet and grabbed one of the crowbars that hung on the wall.
Isley halted a step. His eyes gleamed as he laughed. “And what do you plan to do with that, Poppy Ann?” The grin grew evil, an abomination on Win’s face. “Pray I don’t get a hold of it and crack your arm the way you did mine.”
Poppy adjusted her grip. “Hurts, does it? Good.”
He was on her in the next breath. His fist caught her on the side of her head, and black spots burst over her vision. Not Win, he’s not Win. Poppy swung at the face she’d loved for so long, but Isley caught her, slamming her to the iron floor, then pressing his weight against her so that she could not kick out. His knees crushed down on her arms, keeping her from truly touching him as he grabbed her throat and bore down on her windpipe. She convulsed against the cold floor. The black spots before her eyes grew larger.
“I could crush your throat with one squeeze,” he whispered.
Win’s face stared at her, so cold, so detached. It might be the last thing she’d see. That it was not truly Win but a sick facsimile had rage surging through her limbs. She glared up at him.
“Go on,” she ground out. “Kill me as you did my mother.”