Perish: Book Three (bxb) ✔️

13. You weren't quiet around me.

August Luna

"August, go home."

I most certainly didn't want to do that, but if that was what he wanted, I'd do it.

Yeah, I was still a human who understood boundaries. Mostly. I was probably crossing a few in my desperate attempt to reach Kayax. He looked shocked to see me here, and I wondered why. Maybe I should have warned him that I didn't plan on giving up on him. He seemed like the kind of person who needed things to be said clearly.

I cleared my throat as I pushed myself back to my feet. "Do you want me to leave?"

Kayax didn't answer me, but those green eyes seared into mine as if he was carefully contemplating his words and what to say next. I thought I'd get an immediate 'yes' from him, but he seemed to struggle with getting it out of his mouth.

Was that progress? Was I making progress?

"Why are you really here?" He avoided my question altogether as he crossed my arms. "If you need me to forgive you, I'd hate to be the one to tell you this, but there is nothing to forgive. Now, go run wild with your guilt-free conscience. I have things to do."

Right, he... didn't know me very well, even if he somehow did know me well, too.

He was still missing very important parts of me. "That's... not why I'm here. I mean, yes, I want you to forgive me, but I'm not doing it to free any guilt I have. I won't lie to you, I feel heaps guilty, but that's not my goal."

Someone stepped off the elevator, and Kayax drew his head down before shooing me toward his apartment door. He quickly unlocked it with the keycard, and we rushed inside. Okay, noted. Kayax was very particular about his... wow, this apartment was small. Why did I expect something far... grander than this? Didn't he have, like, millions?

My eyes touched every surface, and it was pristinely cleaned, but it... lacked something. Personal effects. There was nothing personal about this apartment at all. Nothing jumped out at me and screamed, "Kayax!" It was all... greyscaled in here, and it did not give to the kind of person Kayax seemed to show through his clothes.

Maybe I was wrong, but I didn't know--something felt completely off about this place.

And for how rich Kayax was and the bit of clutter I saw littered through the apartment, I thought he'd get something bigger.

"Please stop putting your rich-boy judgment eyes all over my apartment."

I whipped around to face him as my mouth fell open. "Kayax, you're fucking rich, too. I'm just confused as to why you don't move up in apartment sizes if this one is too... small. There is clutter in places I feel makes you uncomfortable. Why not get a little bit bigger of an apartment with some storage space?"

Kayax stared at the counter, and it was then I realized that he was trying to come up with a lie, but when those green eyes lifted, I had a feeling he was about to tell me the truth. "Davis... embezzled most of my money, and when I thought he was giving me only ten percent, it turned out to be far, far less than that."

I came to an immediate rage-filled stand-still. "You're telling me that he--"

"Everything he gave me, I was expected to pay the staff, pay my utilities, and keep up with my appearances. After all of that was done, I... didn't have anything left, and that was with all the corners I had to cut to save money. I didn't know he was doing it to the extent he was."

"Your net worth is huge, Kayax. How could you ever think you were worth so little?"

Those pained and angry green eyes pinned me in place. "I'm super sorry I didn't have a father who loved me, August!" Shit, I said the wrong thing, and I swore on everything I loved that I didn't mean for that to happen. "He manipulated me because my education doesn't go past high school! I didn't even know what embezzlement meant until Salem told me! Then Brutus told me that it was worse than I thought! I didn't know!"