She paused. “If you come over, we won’t get any packing done.” Her laugh was void of humor.
“What’s wrong, baby? Are you having second thoughts?”
“No. Don’t be ridiculous. I was only teasing when I said I was going to think about it. I want nothing but to go with you, Laius. Listen, how about I just pack my essentials while you go talk to your son and we can send for the rest of my things later?”
Okay, maybe I was worried for nothing. She wasn’t having second thoughts, and I was being an idiot. I just never felt like this about anyone, never wanted any woman as much as I wanted Jo. To want something that much meant to be scared shitless to lose it, and I’d forsaken fear a long time ago to become the man I was. My love for her was changing me, and it scared me even more. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll pick you up around midnight.”
“Laius, I…” Her voice wavered.
“Hold that thought until I see you. I want to be looking in your eyes when you say it. I want you to be looking in mine when I say it. And I want to say it first. But for now…me too, baby.”
Her breath rustled, and she sounded like she was holding her tears. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Baby, is there something else you want to tell me?” I couldn’t help that fucking feeling that something was wrong.
“Just that Fort is looking at me funny like I were some sort of alien.”
“Ain’t no alien but a witch like Prez says. You put a magic spell on my bro,” Fort said.
I snorted. “All right, get your ass over here and give me that letter. Jo, do your thing, and I’ll see you in a few hours.”
I texted Molar, telling him the plan had changed. Fort wouldn’t be the only one coming home tonight.
CHAPTER 30
Jo
“The whole point of my going to the school was to take Fort away from the area and you can leave without being seen. What are you still doing here?” I asked Tirone, who was still in my apartment, sitting in a corner in the dark like a creep.
“Staying at my girl’s place for the night. You used to be happy when I did. You couldn’t fall asleep without me, Jo. You told me I scared away the nightmares.”
“Until you turned into one.”
He inhaled deeply as he rose from the chair. I flipped on the light switch and flinched when he came closer. “Are you literally scared of me?” he asked in disbelief.
“I want you to leave, Ty.”
“Why are you still mad at me? Why can you not see that I only left to protect you and came back as soon as it was safe to be by your side again?”
You put a gun in my vagina and threatened to kill the one person that made me happy.“You came back for you not for me. You only reappeared in my life when you saw me being happy with someone else. You couldn’t stand it because you’re sick.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You’re not happy with him. Any feelings you have for this man comes from your anger at me. Once it’s gone, you’ll see I’m the only one you love. The only one that can make you truly happy, not give you the illusion of it.”
“If I told you I was no longer mad at you because I genuinely don’t care about your abandonment anymore, if I told you my feelings for Furore were real and so was the happiness I only felt with him, would you change your mind and let me go?”
He placed his palms on either side of my face, and my stomach tied in a knot of bile. His thumbs stroked my cheeks as he bent and laid a kiss on my neck. I shuddered at the touch I used to melt under yet now made my skin crawl. Then he looked at me with a smirk. “Never, little faerie.”
My eyes squeezed shut as pain seared me. Was this my destiny? A lifetime of punishment and pain and fear just for falling for the one person I should never have had?
“Did you do as I said?” he asked, the dark notes in his voice evident.
“I told him I was going away with him tonight and sent Fort away. Furore will be here at midnight, where he’d wait for me only to find out I was long gone.” I fought my tears. “Then he’d see that note you made me write that told him you and I got back together.”
“Good girl.”
My skin crawled at the two words I loved the most. I didn’t want to hear it from him ever again. Only from Furore. My eyes roamed at the boxes I hadn’t either unpacked or finished packing since the time I was about to leave the city. Only now there were fully packed. “What did you do?”
“Surprise,” he sang.
