Tilly picked up her plate before Roxie could grab it and began moving toward the sink. Roxie didn’t try to stop her.
“Take the hallway to the left, and there’s one in the third door on the right,” Tilly said, already distracted with her cleanup.
“Thank you again,” Roxie said. It was time for her to step back out of this fake world she’d been brought into the night before.
When Roxie stepped into the large room, she immediately spotted the phone on a desk. She began moving toward it when Kian’s deep voice stopped her in her tracks.
“What do you need a phone for?” he asked.
She whipped around and found him sitting back in a comfortable chair, his laptop resting on his thighs, a cup of coffee in his hand.
“I need a cab,” she told him, defiance dripping from her tongue. She turned away from him and grabbed the phone, hoping to make the call quickly and be on her way.
She’d barely begun dialing information when Kian’s hand reached out, disconnecting the call and grabbing her arm. She was instantly angry with him.
“I need to figure out what Lily and I are going to do next,” she snapped.
“That’s for both of us to decide,” he told her, his voice equally firm.
“I’m not ready for this discussion,” she said. She backed away.
“Whether you’re ready or not, it’s something that has to happen.”
He was right. She knew he was right, but that didn’t make any of this any easier. All she was thinking of right now was escape.
He sighed after a few moments, and she waited to see what would come next.
“I called in some favors, and your sister’s place is clean and ready for you to go there,” he told her.
“With Lily,” she said. It wasn’t a question. If she kept her resolve firm, then maybe he would leave her alone.
He glared at her, but then his shoulders drooped. “For now,” he told her.
She didn’t want to ask for any further explanations. She felt as if he had way too much power as long as they were in his house. If she got away from him, then maybe he’d forget he was a father. Okay, that was a ridiculous thought, but still . . . she could hope for that, at least. She reached for the phone.
“What in the hell are you doing?” he snapped.
“I need a cab,” she said as if he were stupid.
“Anywhere you’re going, I’ll take you,” he insisted, his eyes narrowing in that way she remembered so well. When Kian made up his mind, the chances of changing it were slim to none. But she’d changed a lot as well since she’d last been with him, and he couldn’t so easily run over her and get his way.
“No,” she said, deciding she didn’t need to explain herself.
He raised an eyebrow, the corner of his lip turning up just the slightest bit in a way that made his face entirely too appealing. She forced her warm feelings for him down as she glared even harder.
“You can stop pretending you didn’t enjoy our time together last night and act like a mature adult, or you can continue to sulk and glare,” he said with too much mockery in his tone. “But either way, I will be taking you and my daughter to the house.”
The steel in his tone was something she didn’t remember, but she could see how he’d changed with those words more than anything else she’d witnessed from him in the past ten hours or so. Her entire being wanted to submit to him. Because of that, her spine stiffened even more.
“Screw you,” she told him, before swinging around and walking away from him. Hell with it, she’d collect Lily and walk to the house, even if she didn’t know how far away it was or in what direction.
A low growl from behind her was her only warning before Kian grabbed her, spinning her around so quickly she almost lost her balance. There was no chance of her falling, though, because he tugged her against him, locking her in his tight embrace.
“Damn you,” he said. He didn’t give her a chance to reply before his head descended and his lips locked onto her, taking away her breath and her anger as she instantly was lost in the familiarity of his touch.
His body was hard, and she realized she couldn’t fight him. He was too much for her, consumed her so easily, it made her lose all concept of reality. It was just as it had been before she’d run off. Only that thought made her able to pull away from him.
He allowed her to go. She had no doubt it wasn’t her strength that had gotten her away. They were both breathing heavily as she took a few unsteady steps. She couldn’t look him in the eyes now.
Finally, she heard him sigh as he moved over to his desk and pulled keys out.
“Let’s get your things together,” he said. There wasn’t any emotion in his tone now to tell her what he was thinking or feeling. Suddenly she was incredibly sad. This wasn’t what she wanted. The problem, though, was she didn’t know what she did want.
She decided to quit fighting him. It just wasn’t worth it. Some battles could be won, and others were lost before they’d even begun. She had a feeling this was the latter.
The next hour was emotional as she gathered Lily, trying to explain why they were leaving this luxurious place to go back to a house that held haunted memories for the child. Was she truly so selfish she’d risk Lily’s happiness over her own? Roxie didn’t know. She just knew that she had to think, and she couldn’t do that as long as Kian was in a room with her.
By the time they left the house, Kian had stopped trying to speak to her, and they drove in silence. For this moment, Roxie couldn’t even begin to think about the fact that Lily was Kian’s daughter. It was too much of a reality she didn’t want to explore.
That would be saved in her brain until later, until she could properly process what all of that meant. For now, she wanted nothing more than to figure out what she and Lily were going to do now that the immediate danger was over.
She could keep telling herself that tomorrow would be a new day, and important decisions could be made then. As long as she did that, she could choose her own reality. It was working for her . . . for now.
Chapter Eight
It was always a surreal moment when you found yourself standing beneath a hastily set-up tent with rain coming down on the other side of it and people beside you whispering words of comfort you aren’t able to process in your fuzzy brain.
Roxie wasn’t focusing on the closed box in front of her. No. That wasn’t her sister inside there. It was just a body, an empty vessel that had once held the spirit of her sister, a woman Roxie had been too selfish to get to know.
The preacher spoke words of praise of Pamela as a strong woman who loved her daughter, who’d overcome great odds to be a person others were proud of. Roxie didn’t look away from the drops of water falling on the other side of the preacher’s head.
When she squinted just right, she could slow down the motion and watch individual drops drip from the canvas and hit the ground. If only the preacher would shut up, she might be able to hear the splash.
Why wouldn’t people just be quiet? Enough had been said already.
“Are you okay?” Kian asked.
She heard his words, but even those wouldn’t process in her brain. She held Lily in her arms, clutching her tightly as she continued staring at the drops of rain. She could feel Kian’s presence, knew his hand was touching her, but she felt so disconnected. This was a dream, wasn’t it? It had to be. There was no possibility that she was at a funeral for her sister—for her beautiful niece’s mother. No. It wasn’t even in the realm of possibility.