Beneath the Dust (Force of Nature #4) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,67
mansion was about the safest place I could be. He deserved a break from the shitshow. It was easy to forget how diligent he’d been since our arrival. He was so often overshadowed by the others.
I sent a quick text to Drake, politely demanding his presence at the mansion, and waited for him to respond. If he was at the warlock bunker, I didn’t think I’d hear back soon. Somehow I doubted they had reception in there.
After twenty minutes of solitude in my room awaiting a reply, I started to get twitchy. It was too quiet. Too serene. Too unfamiliar. I got up and headed for the door. I opened it just as Kat walked by.
“Hey, you got a second?” I asked. Before she could say no, I grabbed her arm and hauled her in. Then I kicked the door shut and locked it, as if that could hold her.
“This can’t be good,” she said, eyeing the door.
“It isn’t.”
“Listen, if you’re planning to slut-shame me, don’t waste your breath. You made your point in the media room.”
She tried to leave, but I blocked the door. If she wanted to go, she’d have to go through me. Our friendship was about to be put to the test.
“This has nothing to do with slut-shaming, Kat. I hardly think I have the higher moral ground on that subject since I’m screwing two guys.” She quirked her brow at me, but I didn’t take the bait. “This has everything to do with why you did what you did, and don’t give me that ‘lone wolf’ shit. I know you do what you want—you always have, even when Jensen was alive—but you never set out to intentionally hurt others. Not like this. It’s not who you are.”
“Isn’t it?” she countered, stepping closer. Her eyes were wild and full of anger, but I knew it wasn’t for me. “Isn’t that exactly who I am? Kat the crazy bitch with her middle finger in the air? Kat who doesn’t give a fuck what anyone thinks about what—or who—she does?”
“No. That’s the Kat you are when you’re hurting—”
“Hurting? Who says I’m hurting?”
“Your actions do.”
She leaned in closer, her eyes glowing from within. “You think I fucked Liam because I’m hurting? Wrong. I fucked Liam to make a point.”
“What point?"
“Brunton needed to see—”
“See what? That you don’t like him? Don’t have feelings for him?”
“That I don’t care—”
“Then why bother with the theatrics at all, Kat? Just tell him to fuck off.”
“That wasn’t working—”
“Because you did a shit job of selling it! And do you know why? Because it’s not how you feel, and we both know it!”
“I don’t want Brunton,” she growled.
“Clearly,” I replied, irritation leaking into my tone. “Should I go get Knox and have you say that in front of him? See how quickly his bullshit meter goes off?”
She slammed her fist into the wall beside me, then stormed back toward the center of my room. She tugged her short hair as she paced from the bed to the bathroom, wearing a path in my wool rug. Whatever had driven her to do what she’d done was bubbling to the surface, and she was fighting tooth and nail to stuff it back down again.
“Kat,” I said, my voice softer than before, “is this about feeling like you’re betraying Jensen—”
“Don’t bring him into this!” she said, snapping her wide eyes to meet mine. “Jensen is dead.”
I dared a step closer. “I know he is. I miss him. We all do. But he’s gone and you’re not and running away from that fact will never change it.”
“I’m not running from shit!” she yelled. “I’m here, aren’t I? In the house he brought me into? In the life I adopted because of him?”
“You are—that’s not what I meant—”
“Do you have any idea what my life was like before I met him?” she asked, tears welling in her eyes before she swiped them away with angry hands. “It was hell, Piper. Hell. You of all people should be able to understand that.” She paused for a minute to calm her ragged breathing. “I was young when I came to the city—when I met Jensen. He gave me a safe space to grow into the wolf I am today—to evolve past the broken, beaten creature he’d discovered on the streets of SoHo. I am who I am because of him…”
I walked until I stood only inches away from her and took her hands in mine.