Our Finest Moment ✔️

47

LIANA

My heart hammers in my chest, to a point where it's almost painful. I grimace and hide my face behind a pillow, shivering as the sounds from the speakers all over the room fills the space around us, making me want to cry.

I hate scary movies.

More than that, I hate clowns. And this clown in particular is the worst of its kind.

Dorian chuckles to my left, and then he starts pulling on the pillow I'm holding in front of my face. "Come on," he urges, "it's not that scary. He's gone, now."

I huff at him. I throw a handful of popcorn at him, and hear him laugh, before I lower the pillow tentatively. He's right, the clown's gone. For now.

"I'm going to tell Colton you tortured me and hurt me tonight," I mutter before meeting his eyes.

"He'll kill me," he retorts, narrowing his eyes as if to dare me to do it.

"That's the point." I look away, just in time for the damn clown to reappear on the screen, saliva dripping from his red mouth as the most vile sound I've ever heard comes from his throat. "I hate this!" I yell, raising the pillow again.

"You're missing half the plot, Li." Dorian laughs at me, but he doesn't try to pry the pillow away any more. Instead, he inches closer and puts an arm around my shoulders, as if to comfort me. I think he's afraid I'll actually tell Colton he was mean to me.

I would never, unless he actually did something that hurt me. But even then, I wouldn't want him to experience whatever Colton would do to him.

Wiggling my ass further down into the leather couch, I huff my annoyance. Dorian came over to keep me company—and probably keep me safe as well—while Colton and Rina plan and plot some trap for Kenneth. The goal is to make him show up somewhere alone, and then Colton can do what he wants to make him pay for everything he's done.

I kind of want him to rot in prison, but I also want him to feel what it's like to be murdered. And broken. And torn to pieces, and then burnt.

It probably makes me a really bad person, but I'm surrounded by likeminded people now, who wouldn't balk at the sight of blood—or the sound of guns and screams, and the smell of death. So I won't either.

"Next time, I'm choosing the movie," I mutter, mostly to myself, because he has no choice but to listen to it.

"You better not choose some lame romcom," he retorts.

I huff at him. "I will now."

"God, you two are like annoying siblings," comes a voice from the open double doors. I look over and see Rina standing there with a raised brow, and then Colton appears behind her, his eyes darkened with stress and worry.

"Thank fuck for that," my husband comments as he brushes past her, towards the couch. He leans down behind it and presses a kiss to the top of my head, before removing Dorian's arm from around my shoulders. "You like this movie, baby?"

"No." I don't hesitate to tell the truth.

Colton shoots Dorian a look, and then he reaches for the remote. Dorian utters a sound of annoyance when the screen turns off, but he doesn't fight it. I bite back a chuckle, and then I turn sideways on the couch so I can look at my man. "How's the plan coming?" I ask, reaching up to stroke his cheek.

"Almost done," he replies. "When it's time, I want you at the beach house. You, my mother and Cory will go out there with Mark and a few of your dad's guys, and we'll handle things here."

I shake my head. "No, they can go, but I—"

"It's non-negotiable, Liana." His voice darkens more than it ever did when he was threatening my life. "You're going. I'm not risking your life."