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Let's give Kayla a face. I love Emma Roberts and her few cute roles but let's face it, she's made to portray bitchy characters, lol. The moment I created Kayla in my head I immediately had Emma Roberts in my mind.

Watching the blood drip from Kyle's cheek after Happy sliced the man's skin with his knife was satisfying but not satisfying enough for Happy. And neither for James. But that was enough to make the younger man spill the tea.

With his hands tied behind the chair and trembling with fear, Kyle formed the first few words, which gushed out of him like water from a stream, making the two not so happy looking men roll their eyes at the overdramatic reaction although they hadn't even put much pressure on him yet.

“I⸺I'm sorry that I drugged her. It's just..I had no other choice, you know? But I didn't rape her, I just touched her a little and I'm sorry for that, I know that wasn't right”, he sniffled between his hysterical sounding words.

“You did what?”, James growled lowly, leaned down and rubbed his finger into the open wound on Kyle's cheek, stretching the skin out to make it even more painful for him when he heard the guy say he touched his Cassie.

No one was allowed to touch his little sister without her permission. Hell, she wasn't even in the state to defend herself, which made things even worse and more disgusting.

“She didn't tell you?” His voice was barely a whisper when his eyes widened, already regretting his decision to speak up and confess.

“No, she didn't”, Happy rasped dangerously calm and took a step forward, leaning down just like James so he was at eye level with the man who hurt his woman, his eyes gleaming murderously. “What did you do to her?”

“We want to know. And we want it detailed”, James ordered, already knowing torturing would be much more fun after finding out the details. “If you leave out a detail, belive us, it's not going to end well for you. But first, before you tell us what your perverted ass did, you're gonna tell us why you did it.”

“N⸺no, please don't make me. She'll make sure I'm gonna end up in jail and never see my kids again”, the man begged, the first tears rolling down his cheeks while he tried to free himself from the rope around his wrists. “Please, I can't lose them!”

Happy and James shared a brief look, a smirk forming on both their faces since they now had leverage against Kyle. Maybe it wasn't the fine way to use the man's kids but it seemed like they actually meant something to Kyle.

“She will make sure you're gonna end up in jail? Who?”, Happy inquired urgently.

“And what does she have on you?”, James added and waggled his eyebrows. “You better talk to us, buddy. This is the only chance for you to get out alive.”

Kyle erupted in yelps and wails, having a full breakdown in front of the two men. All the guilt he felt towards Cassie broke in on him and he wanted nothing more than to apologize and turn back time to undo things.

“My neighbor, Kayla Benson is her name, hired me to drug your sister so I can do some horrible shit to her. I told her how crazy that was, that I would never do this to a woman but⸺” He couldn't finish the sentence, his loud sobs filled the small living room they were in.

Even more tears streamed down his cheeks, snot made it's way out of his nose and for a moment the two men were sure Kyle would choke on his own overdramatic crying. This wasn't some fake shit Kyle pulled, the breakdown was real.

But for Happy and James that didn't matter. It didn't fucking matter how sorry that guy was for touching Cassie inappropriately, it's not like it changed anything. And yes, it could've been worse, Cassie could've been raped by him. Thank God it didn't happen⸺ but something happened and that was enough already.

The SAA watched James from the corner of his eye as he stood there petrified, not able to move or say something. The moment Kayla's name fell, something in James' eyes changed. There was no emotion left in them. They were nothing but cold and empty.

“Take care of him, finish him. I don't give a shit about his children, they're better off without him anyway”, was all James said before he made it's way to the door, leaving a panting and squirming Kyle with the Tacoma Killer.

“Hey!” Happy grabbed his best friend's arm and stared at him intensely before James could leave. “Don't do anything stupid. If you kill her, do it smart. Understand?”

He was James' sponsor once, that guy meant something to him. They weren't just best friends, they were like brothers and he wouldn't let him run into his misery over a woman like Kayla.

“Yeah, got it.” James snatched his arm away and stormed out of the house. A few screams could be heard, but these were soon muffled. Probably because Happy took care of that.

The oldest Connor stroded towards Kayla's house that was right next to Kyle's house and let himself in through the backdoor. The fact he only had to push the door open angered him. After being married to a Son James hoped his ex would be more careful and make sure her doors were always locked, especially during the night and with a kid, their kid, in the house.

The house was dark, only a narrow ray of light could be seen in the hallway that came from the back room of the house. That must be Kayla's room. When Kayla moved out of his house and into this one, he had helped with Lily's room, that's why he knew where his daughter's room was. One more door in the hallway was open leading into the bathroom. So, the one with the lights on had to be Kayla's.

An weird sense of calmness flowed through his body as he pushed the door open with his foot and leaned against the doorframe, his hands clasped in front of him as he watched Kayla's neck almost break from snapping her head too hard into his direction.

Startled, she stared at him and rose from the small chair in front of her dressing table, rubbing the back of her neck with a painful look on hee face.

“How did you get in here?!”, she snarled, clutching the sides of the dressing table so hard the skin over her knuckles turned white.

“Oh, that was easy.” Shrugging nonchalantly, he closed the gap between them by taking a few more steps towards his ex wife. Well, technically, she was still his wife. “Should I be worried about Lily? I was hoping she would be safe with her mother. Apparently she isn't. Maybe I should talk to my lawyer, ask if that wouldn't be a reason to get sole custody.”

“The role of a moralizer doesn't suit you, asshole”, the blonde spat. “Now get the fuck out before I call the Cops on you. You're not allowed to be here unless it's your turn to pick up Lily.”

“All tough, huh?”, James chuckled darkly as her shaky breath hit his face. He saw the horror in her eyes, she was never able to hide how she really felt, which made it easy for him to see through her. “I would be more careful if I were you and I would think carefully about how you talk to me.”

The blonde scoffed in offense and tried to push him away from her, yet she failed miserably. James was probably twice her weight and didn't move an inch when she tried to push him.

Instead, he buried his hand in her blonde hair and jerked her head back, covering her mouth with his other hand when she started screaming. His nostrils flared as he tried to control himself.

Happy's words kept repeating themselves in his head. He had to be smart. If he would just kill her now, everyone would immediately suspect that it had been him. No one would give him custody for his own daughter if they thought he was the one who killed Kayla, rightly so.

“You know, you make it really difficult for me not to kill you right in this moment because I really want to”, he let out a bitter, pained laugh and besides the anger and the hate he felt for her, he also felt a lot of pain. It fucking hurt him that he wanted to see the woman, for whom he would have done anything in the past, dead.

“I gave you everything. A house, a kid, I've always been faithful and I've worked my god damn ass off for you. And what do I get? Fuckin' nothing, not even a thank you. The cheating, your betrayal⸺ that was just disgusting. But what you did now went too far. Cassie didn't do shit to you and you would've let that guy rape her only to hurt me!”

Her whining pushed through the hand that was over her mouth. It was harder for her to breathe as his hand covered her nose as well, but luckily not completely.

Her eyes widened when she heard what he was saying and threw her hands around in panic, leaving a few scratches on his neck and face. She knew he could kill her without much force and she feared he would do it without batting an eyelid now that he knew what she wanted to do to Cassie. Once again it showed how badly she actually knew her husband.

She didn't notice that this caused him great torment and pain himself. No matter how much he hated her right now, killing her would break him. Yet he would still do it if it wouldn't draw so much attention on him.

Kayla lashed out and reflexively punched him in the face, briefly throwing him off balance. Seizing the moment, she got her gun from one of the drawers of her dressing table and aimed it at James.

She studied her husband for a moment with both her hands on the gun, her index finger resting over the trigger. “Your family was always causing trouble. You spent so much time with Cassie after she lost her job that you didn't have time for me. Then you kept talking about bringing Benny to Tacoma, who's just as fucked up as Cassie. And then you wanted him to live with us. The two of them were never, and never will be, good role models for Lily. I'll make sure that I can leave Charming soon and finally start over. With Lily. And if you stand in my way, I'll just have to make sure you'll disappear.”

“You wanna kill me?” James licked the blood off his lips that came from Kayla's punch. If she actually killed him, then so be it. He wouldn't fight it. At least that way he didn't have to watch Kayla win again in court and take his daughter away from him altogether. He stood in front of her, shoulders broad and straightened, gripped her wrist and pressed the gun to his chest. “Go on, do it.”

Now that she had full power over James, her hands started shaking. She hated herself for not having the strength, the courage, to pull the trigger. If she could just do it everything would be over, Lily would be hers only. But she couldn't, not after looking him in the eyes and see the vulnerability in them. That didn't mean she still had feelings left for him or would go all soft. No, definitely not. She still had a Plan B to get rid of him without putting a bullet in his body.

With a whimper, she dropped the gun and slumped on her bed, her legs now pulled tight to her body, knowing very well that he would probably kill her now. So, she needed to put on a little show with some extra drama to get him all soft for her.

“Just don't let Lily find me, please. I don't want her to find me dead on the floor”, she sniffled while she stared at the wall on the other side of the room, letting out her best heart-wrenching sob.

“I'm not stupid”, James huffed, running a hand over his exhausted looking face.

Lily was the main reason he couldn't just kill Kayla. Even though she was still a toddler, Lily was old enough by now to get all confused if her mother would be gone from one moment to the other. Thinking about his baby girl laying in her bed next door, probably having a nice dream while sleeping peacefully made him smile for a second.

“James please”, the blonde pleaded, slowly getting back up and walk over to her ex husband. Her shaking fingers ghosted over his cheek ever so slightly while she gave him her best puppy eyes. “I loved you, I really did and honestly, I still do. What I did to Cassie wasn't okay. I was just scared, you know?”

“Scared of what? If this is an apology than it's a really bad one, Kayla.” James raised a brow at her, waiting for an answer, an explanation. He hated that he inwardly got soft for her already. With her puppy eyes and the perfectly faked sniffling she already managed to keep him in their marriage longer than it should've been.

“Let me fix this, baby. Look, I made a mistake but does that make me a bad person?”, she purred as she looked up into his eyes, a sweet, innocent smile crossed her face.

“What the fuck, Kayla? It makes you a horrible person”, he spat as pushed her off of him, a little harder than he wanted and pointed with his finger in her face. “You could've ruined Cassie's life with your stupid plan!”

The blonde fell backwards and tripped over her own feet, lost balance and landed on the carpet only a moment later. With a loud scoff she stood up again and ran a hand through her hair.

“Fuck you, James”, she spat right back at him and slapped him across the face. “Get out of my house, now!”

With a quick move he grabbed her wrist after she slapped him and pulled her against him, his grip firm and painful around her wirst.

“You're not in the position anymore to tell me what to do”, he whispered threateningly, a somewhat calm smile forming on his lips. “Now that I know what a psychotic bitch you really are I don't feel good about leaving Lily in your care. I'll pick her up on Saturday morning. I want her ready and her stuff packed, waiting on the doorstep or next time I won't hesitate to pull the trigger, darlin'.”

Kayla froze in her spot, not even complaining about the firm grip around her wrist. She knew he was pissed off enough now to turn off all his feelings he had left for her and kill her without batting an eye.

“Get out”, was all she could get out in a whisper, venom dripping from her voice as she spoke.

“See you in two days”, he told her in a chilling tone. “Oh, and don't try to run away, I'll have a prospect outside.”

With that and a smile, he let go of her wrist and casually walked down the hallway, trying to be as quiet as possible since he didn't want to wake up his daughter. Nevertheless, he peeked through the open crack of the door leading to her room to make sure they didn't wake her up.

Once he was outside and on his way back to the neighbor's house to help Happy clean up the mess, he texted a prospect the address and told him to keep an eye on the house for the next few hours.