The Moth and the Flame (When Rivals Play #2) - B.B. Reid Page 0,22
you’ve fallen, but you’re smart enough to know you can’t ignore it forever.”
“My mistake. I must have forgotten to mention that she’s my best friend.” After two years, I knew I was beginning to sound like a broken record and that soon, my ears would be bleeding. In the beginning, I wanted Lou to the point of distraction, but the closer we grew, the better I was able to exorcise those thoughts from my mind.
Mostly.
I knew I wasn’t completely cured, and now that the bandage was beginning to peel, I wondered how long it would be before my heart was an open wound again. It was nothing compared to the pain Lou would feel when she eventually discovered the truth about me.
I was a monster, after all.
She didn’t approve of my fealty to Exiled, and her feelings have only grown in the time since she’d convinced herself that some good still resided inside of me. If she only knew that Fox, Exiled’s leader, wasn’t the one to recruit me, but that it was me doing the corrupting all along.
Three years after my mother’s death, I signed along the dotted line and accepted a life that was mine to inherit from the moment I took my first breath.
“If only everyone had a best friend who becomes as rabid and bloodthirsty as you do if someone so much as blinks at them wrong,” Kendra mused. “It’s hard not to feel slighted. We were friends longer, but you call Lou your best friend.”
I could only shrug in response. Some friendships became threadbare, holding on for as long as they could, while others never stopped pushing for a stronger foundation. Lou challenged me to be a better person. Kendra only reminded me that I wasn’t.
Noticing my nonchalance, Kendra smiled and tilted her head. “It’s no wonder Lou sunk her teeth in you so deep you couldn’t possibly walk away without leaving a piece of yourself behind.”
I frowned and chose to focus on the part that didn’t threaten my sanity or make my heart beat out of control. “You don’t think I’d kill for you?”
She gave me a look that said she was on to me. “Maybe, if it was the right thing to do, but you’d not only kill for her—you’d die for her and wouldn’t think twice about it.”
I felt exposed as I stared back at Kendra while fighting to conceal my guilt. It was as if she’d run her finger under every line of my conscience, reading me as easily as an open book. Somewhere along the way, I’d made a vow. I wouldn’t take life and forfeit my soul. Not without exhausting all options. Not for Fox and not for the men I called my brothers.
But for Lou?
I’d gladly leave it wrapped with a shiny red bow at hell’s door.
“You shouldn’t romanticize,” I advised as I headed for the door. I needed to get out of there fast before I did something stupid like begging Kendra for advice on how to make Lou mine. “I’d hate to break your heart.”
I already had one foot out the door, eager for a quick escape, when I heard her mumble, “It’s not my heart you should be worried about.”
My grip on the doorknob tightened until I threatened to rip it off completely.
“It’s always a pleasure,” I threw over my shoulder before slamming the door behind me. As Kendra’s cackles trailed me down the hall, I began to understand how men could be driven to violence in her presence. She never fucking let up.
Downstairs, I headed for the kitchen, following the enticing smells permeating the air. Most of the girls were able to fend for themselves and were pretty decent cooks, but there was only one who could create something this mouthwatering.
I stepped inside the modernized kitchen and found Irma hovering over the flattop stove. Her dark hair was in a messy bun high on her head, and the strands that escaped stuck to her sweaty nape. The stylish red frames perched on her thin nose were mostly fogged from the heat, making me wonder how she could see what she was doing.
“You’re just in time,” she said without looking up from whatever she was sautéing. “I fixed you a plate.”
Ignoring the plate of steaming roasted chicken, rice, and carrots waiting for me on the island, I walked over to the stove and kissed her flour-dusted cheek.
“Don’t toy with me, young man. You’ll give this old woman hope.”