Page 176 of Unsuitable

She nods. “Yeah. I think so. Are you?” Her eyes go to Damien’s body on the floor.

I can’t look.

“Yeah. Jesus, Ce, I’m sorry.” Trembling hands fumble at her binds, untying them.

“I’m sorry,” she counters. “I let him in. I didn’t know, Dais.”

“No. Stop now.” I take her face in my hands. “This wasn’t your fault.”

Tears fill her wide eyes, and my heart ruptures open.

“I thought he was…” Her lip trembles. “I thought he was gonna…and I couldn’t do anything.”

I get the ties on her wrist undone.

She throws her arms around me. “I couldn’t have handled it, Dais. If he’d…”

“Shh…it’s okay.” I smooth a hand over her hair. “It’s okay.” I ease out of her arms and untie her ankles.

She gets to her feet and hugs me again. Her body is shaking. Mine, too.

I’m afraid to turn around because I know, if I do, I’ll see Damien’s body again.

“Daisy.” Kas’s soft voice carries to me, turning me around.

I look at him, but my eyes instantly track to the body on the floor.

I killed a man.

My whole body starts to shake. “I killed him…Kas,” I whisper. “I shot him and—”

“No.” He grabs my upper arms again and lowers his head, so we’re at eye-level. Black eyes stare deep into mine. “You didn’t kill him, Daisy. Do you hear me? It was me that pulled that trigger. I was the one who shot Damien. Not you. Me.”

My head starts to shake. Tears fill my eyes at the enormity of what he’s saying. “No,” I choke out.

“Yes.”

“Please, Kas. I can’t—”

“Yes, you can, and you will. You’ll let me do this because there’s a kid out there who needs you. Jesse needs you.” He drives the point home with his eyes. “I killed Doyle. I’d come here to see you. Had heard your screams through the door and burst in to find Doyle trying to rape you. Cece was bound and gagged on the sofa. I lunged for Doyle. We fought. I managed to wrestle his gun off him. I got to my feet and pointed the gun at him, but he came for me again. So, I shot him. But he didn’t go down with that first bullet. He came again, so I pulled the trigger a second time, and he went down. All the time, you were on the floor, unmoving, in shock.”

“Kas, I can’t—”

“Yes, you can. And you will.” Releasing my arms, he takes my face in his hands. “You’ll do this because it’s the right thing to do. It’s the right thing for Jesse. God, I’m sorry I didn’t get here earlier. Jesus, Daisy, just coming in here and finding him and you—I could have lost you.” His eyes close, as though the pain of remembrance is too much for him to bear.

I lift a trembling hand and press it to his cheek.

He opens his eyes. The shine of tears in them nearly kills me.

He gently brushes his thumb over my swelling eye from where Damien hit me.

His eyes lower. Rage flares in his face as he takes in my half-naked state.

“Jesus.” The word is an agonized sound coming from him. “Did he?”

“No.”

“Thank God.” He pulls me into his arms.