Remembering the way she snaps back at Cass when the latter insults her, or the way she spit in my face when I ducked her, I half-expect her to give me an angry retort. Instead, she asks, “How did you know?”
“Hmm?”
“How did you know that I like Nancy Drew?”
At that, my anger melts somewhat. I inch closer to her and breathe, “I know a whole lot of things about you, cricket.” Then I pull back again, continuing a bit more harshly, “But one thing Idon’tknow is why Ray Campbell pissed you off enough that you decided to make a fool of yourself in front of the whole school.”
“Why do you care, anyway?” she questions, keeping her arms folded and staring at me rebelliously.
I click my tongue in annoyance. “I care because you’remine, Piper. And if I have to lock you up in my room and never let you see the light of day again just so you stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong, and—”
I interrupt myself as she squirms in my lap, and I realize my words are having the opposite effect on her than I’d meant for them to have. And suddenly, I’m not entirely unbothered either.
My cock is hard again, uncomfortably so because of the way I’ve been denying myself today. I’m tempted to take her up on her offer to pleasure me, but I’m worried I won’t be able to control myself. I don’t want to hurt her.
Forcing my mind back to the urgent matter at hand, I clasp her wrists so hard she gasps.
“Well? I’m waiting.”
“Why do you care so muchnow?” she insists, apparently set on winning this battle of wills. “What message did you receive that made you carenow? You’re bringing up something fromfour days ago for the first time. That means something just happened. But what?”
I glance at my phone lying on the mattress. If she doesn’t believe that I have it in me to kill a man, she sure as fuck won’t believe the threatening text message that Ray Campbell just sent me, and which I deleted out of anger as soon as I’d read it.
Your shot hit Dad’s artery and he nearly bled out. Fuck you. Your girl is dead.
It’s just as impossible for me to understand Ray as it is for me to understand Piper. It’s like they both have a death wish.
Doesn’t Ray realize what I’m capable of? Does he have no sense of self-preservation? The idiot just wrote his own suicide note, because he’s clearlyaskingto die.
“You’re going to tell me,” I threaten Piper, “or I’m going to find you between classes, push you over a desk, and punish you so hard that—”
“Well then, I’m definitely not telling you.”
Goddammit, I want to wring her neck. She’s still taking the whole thing as a joke, still inexplicably refusing to answer my question.
I push her off me and stand up abruptly.
“Where are you going?” she gasps.
“Since you won’t tell me, I’m getting my answer from him. I’m leaving.”
“L-leaving?” She repeats the word in a shaky voice that tells me she’s giving it a meaning that I didn’t intend. But at least I’m getting to her, I decide, as she jumps up and timidly touches my arm. “Please don’t leave me, Quill.”
I grit my teeth to keep myself from reassuring her. “Well, go on, Piper. Tell me what happened. Okay?”
She nods quickly. “Please… please promise you won’t hurt him.”
“I’m not promising that,” I growl. “I already told you I’m goingto kill him.”
“Right.” My words actually seem to reassure her, as if she doesn’t believe for a second I’m capable of such a thing. “It’s nothing, really. He was bullying me.”
My anger melts just as suddenly as it appeared. I take a step closer to her, wrapping my arms around her waist. “He has no right to bully you. No one does.”
“Well, that’s never stopped you,” she points out, even as she sighs, clearly relieved to be back in my arms.
“That’s different,” I breathe in her ear. “You belong to me. I’m allowed to do what I want to you.”
“Well, I didn’t belong to you for the three years you spent bullying me.”
