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I lifted off my seat as much as I could. “No—”
“Trace taught me this,” Theo said through his teeth as he slammed the break, torqued the wheel, and put us into a spin.
“Theo!”
The sheer terror in my scream had him fumbling, slipping out of the carefully crafted spin, and we wobbled, jerked, the brakes squealing as he tried to regain control.
Cassie. Trees. Fear. Sweat. Blood.
“My sister died from this!”
The sounds the car gave off were shrill, worse than my screams, a thousand tons more powerful than my fear, and we skidded off the road and into the brush.
We came to a stop. Didn’t hit anything. Theo turned the key and the only sound louder than my gasps was the coolingtic-tic-ticof the engine.
“Scarlet.”
I kept staring ahead, eyes so wide and dry they hurt, but there was no care left, no idea that I’d survived. I was dead, like my sister. I was going to feel pain, like Cassie did. All I had to do was wait.
“Scarlet.Look at me. You’re okay. Hey.” Hands searched for mine. Theo swore when he noticed the blood, but he pulled them together, cupped them with his own. “You’re all right. You’re safe.”
“N-no. Not safe. Not with you.”
“Sweetheart, take a look at me. See my eyes. Come on. Turn. I’m not going to force you.”
My neck felt stiff, like scrap from the car had lodged itself into my cervical spine. If I did as he asked, the bones would fracture. I’d be paralyzed. I’d die here in an English village that had no name because I didn’t have the foresight to ask what the place where my life ended would be called.
“Nothing’s going to hurt you. The car’s off. No one’s here but you and me.”
Carefully, I moved so he was in my vision. It was painful to think that eyes so pure and blue could be owned by such a sinner.
“Good girl. Now breathe with me. Nice and slow.” He pulled in a long breath and let it out, timing his to mine, and eventually, timing mine to his. “In … out. There you go.”
He squeezed my hands before raising one of his to cup my cheek. My spine bowed, relaxed.
“Nice and easy.”
My lower lip trembled. “How could you?” I whispered. “How could you do that?”
Theo’s lashes rose above the blue. “I’m sorry.”
“How could you notremember?” My voice broke. His beautiful, marred face smeared under my tears. I pulled away from him.
He leaned back. “I remember.”
“I’d told you everything.” I wrapped my arms around my body. “Gave you all of me, including my most precious memories. And my worst nightmare. You used it against me.”
“I remember,” he repeated, harsher. “Your sister was in the passenger seat. Her boyfriend was driving. You were in the car with them.”
My lips shook, and I pressed them tight.
“I wouldn’t undermine you that way. It was only to scare you, to continue this stupid joust of ours where we keep wanting to one-up the other. I wasn’t thinking. It was never, at any point, something so fucked up as to make you relive what happened to your twin.”
I said nothing.
“Tell me you believe me,” he said. His hand lifted like he was going to touch me again, but he dropped it back to his thighs.
I shook my head. “I knew the Sax from two years ago. I don’t know you now. How you got that scar, none of it.” I looked up. “For what it’s worth, you haven’t become a better man. You’re worse.”
