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“Don’t say a word about this,” I add.
We briefly exchange looks. She knows this isn’t a game. This is serious.
She’d better accept this one chance before it’s too late.
“So you’re actually gonna let me leave?” she asks. “Just like that?”
From the corner of my eyes, I spot her glancing at my fists and the fingers that ripped her innocence away. And for a moment, I wish I could tear out my own stupid, bleeding heart.
“OUT!” I bark.
It’s enough to shake terror into her, and she immediately rushes off. She slams open the door and hurries out the cabin, rushing down the wooden steps with Michael’s keen eyes on her back.
I didn’t want to scream, but I had to. For her sake. For mine.
When she’s gone, Michael turns his head toward me and raises his brows.
“Do I need to follow her?”
If he even tries, I swear to God, I’ll kill him right there on the spot.
I smash my lips together and hold up the phone.
He smiles. It’s a tepid, distasteful smile that makes me want to rip it off his face.
But at least he won’t try anything on her now.
I already did that.
Like the beast I am, I tore right through her soul.
But better it be me … than him.
Monica
Without thinking, without even looking, I run straight back through the woods on my bare feet to my cabin. When I’m inside, I slam the door shut and push myself up against it, breathing out loud. My hair is stuck to my face, sweat dripping down as I struggle to maintain my composure.
What just happened was evil and nothing I would have ever expected from Cole Travis. And from the way he looked at me when he was done, I almost feel as though he didn’t either.
And all that just for some stupid picture.
A picture he holds over my head, in case I talk.
Fuck.
I wish I’d never went to look, wish I never even cared about someone yelling, wish I never saw them do drugs and flush them down the toilet.
Fuck!
I punch the door behind me and sink down against the wood, tears forming in my eyes.
“Fucking asshole!” I yell. “Why the fuck did you have to do that?”
I don’t know why I’m talking to him when he isn’t even here, but I have to let it out somehow. I should’ve known when he told me to believe my friends. This is why he wanted me to hate him. Why he was such a bully.
He saw the weakness in me and used it for his own gain … to my demise.
And it pisses me off.
I should’ve kicked him in the balls when I had the chance. I should have sucker-punched him in the nose for trying to pull that shit on me.
Instead, I stood frozen to the floor, and I let him touch me like I was some kind of doll to play with.
Grinding my teeth, I look down at myself, wondering what the hell I was thinking when I let him do all those things to me. He keeps claiming my mouth and my body as though I’ve always belonged to him.
But I’m not some toy he can play with. And he’ll regret ever taking that picture.
“Monica?” Mel sits up in her bed, her eyes barely open. “What happened?”
Shit. She was sleeping already. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Where were you?” she mutters, completely out of it.
“Um … on my way back …” I tuck my hair behind my ear. “I had to make an extra bathroom stop.”
“Oh …” she replies sleepily. Then she frowns. “Why are you wearing a men’s shirt?”
My eyes widen as I look down at my clothes and realize what I’m wearing. Shit.
I quickly get up from the floor, take it off, and throw it in the trash.
“Whoa,” Mel says. “Let your freak flag fly I guess.”
I snag a new pajama from my suitcase and put it on, staring at the shirt in the trash can.
I want to light it on fire.
“Did … something happen?” she asks, clutching her duvet.
“Boys …” I growl.
She throws off her duvet. “Did Cole do something again?”
I lower my eyes and ball my fists. I don’t fucking care what he does anymore. I’m not a weak, pathetic little girl, despite whatever he thinks. I’ve been through far more than he’ll ever be capable of giving me. So if he wants a war, he can fucking get one.
Mel slips out of her bed and approaches me while I keep staring at that shirt, thinking about all the things I’m going to do to get even with Cole fucking Travis and his band members. Or should I say gang?
Mel places a hand on my shoulder, pulling me from my thoughts. “Are you okay? If you need me to call someone—”
“I’m fine,” I reply, maybe a little too direct, judging from the look on her face. I smile gently. “Thank you.”
