“You have to text your lover, don’t you?” he snaps. “Why did you even agree to come out here if you need him so much? Were you really going to hook up with him behind my back, right here at the manor?”
I gape at him for a moment. “What?” I finally demand, shaking my head. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Oh, come on,” Kit scoffs. “You keep pulling back from me when I’m trying to connect, as if someone has your heartalready. You’re so confident in bed now, so you’ve obviously had experience.”
“Excuse me?” I shout, my voice roaring out of my throat. “I haven’t fucked anyone since you. After my night with you, I was too fucking scared to!”
Kit sighs. “Look, Lexa, I saw you, okay?”
“What? Saw me when?”
“In town, yesterday,” he says slowly. “I was coming to find you after the meeting, and I saw you go down that side alley. There was a guy following you.”
“What?” I choke on the word, my chest locked up tight. “What are you saying?”
“I knew it,” he grumbles, shaking his head. “I can tell by your face you already know. Just tell me the truth.”
“Kit,” I whisper, my voice dying in my throat. I step forward and grab his upper arms, forcing him to look at me. “Are you serious that you actually saw someone following me?”
“Yes,” he says. “I saw it, Lexa. You don’t have to lie anymore.”
A horrible feeling rises through my guts and up into my chest. It’s a sick, twisted bubble of tension, with claws of absolute terror that start to rake at my throat as I struggle to breathe.
“Was he tall and wiry, with black hair pulled back into a ponytail?”
“So you do know him,” Kit says bitterly. “That was definitely the guy.”
“No,” I moan, clinging to Kit as tears pour down my cheeks. “Oh my fucking God, no. He found me… he fucking found me!”
Confusion clouds Kit’s eyes as he watches my face. He doesn’t say anything, but I can tell by the shock on his face that this wasn’t the reaction he was expecting.
“Kit,” I say, wiping tears from my cheeks. “That wasn’t my lover, you goddamn fucking fool. It was myfather.”
Chapter 22 - Kit
Her father?
“I thought your father was dead?” I snap, saying the first words that come into my mind.
Lexa grips my arms tighter, looking up into my face with tear-filled eyes. “Mom told people that. She thought we were far enough away that he could never find us, but he did. He’s a monster. Mom got me away from him. I didn’t remember much about it. But then—”
She crumples in my arms, as if all the strength has been sucked out of her body. I get my arms around her before she can fall and try to hold her up so I can walk her back to the house. After a few steps with her sagging in my arms, I give up and just hold her, cuddling her close to my chest.
What the fuck is going on?
All the questions and suspicions I had before have been replaced by new ones. I’m so confused, I can’t think straight, and now I’m truly worried about Lexa.
She’s completely still in my arms, her eyes open but dull, fixed on nothing. Her fingers twitch a little, but other than that, she just lies limply against my chest.
I’m still not convinced that she’s only ever been with me. There had to have been someone else at that time.
But I’ve definitely got more important things to worry about at the moment.
By the time we return to the house, Lexa has begun to make small, whimpery sounds, and she’s still melted against my chest as if there is no strength left in her. I hurry into the study and breathe a sigh of relief when I see that Susan has left a trayof cake, cookies, and tea. There’s even a bottle of black-label brandy and a warm fire crackling in the hearth.
I put Lexa down on one of the huge, soft couches, wrapping her in a blanket. I pour a tiny nip of brandy and put the glass in her hand, forcing her fingers to tighten around it.
“Drink this,” I say, pushing it towards her lips.
