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“Where are you taking me, Benicio?”
She rarely used his full name. Hardly anyone did. The few times that she had were when they were in bed together during a particularly salacious night, letting him have his way with her in ways he’d only ever dreamed of. It had been exhilarating and implicating sensual things to come.
But in the car, Ben felt like she was using it as a weapon. Her voice trembled slightly, a knife dragging through the center of his chest.
He clenched his jaw tight as he blasted through the highway.
“Ben!” she called out.
“I’m taking you to the airport,” he snarled at her. “You have a bounty on your head. I knew you wouldn’t go if I told you anything about it earlier.”
Liz faced him, and he sensed her heart picking up. Her blue wonders went wide in his peripheral vision, scouring the car like it possessed clues to the puzzle that was Ben’s emotions.
“A bounty?” she inquired, voice shaking. “What kind of bounty? Ben, I can’t just run away from all of this without you.”
She held back tears. He heard them. It made him want to split his brain in half, to kill himself before he destroyed her world.
“What kind of fucking bounty do you think?” he roared. “The one that wants you dead, Liz. So you have to fucking get out of here.”
He soared into the drop-off area, jumped out of the front seat, and ripped her bags out of the trunk. He had bought her a ticket while she was in the shower and showed her the screenshot on his phone.
She remained sitting in the passenger's seat as he leaned into the car.
“I’m sending you the ticket now,” he said, trying to rush her out. “Get on it pronto, and you should be okay.”
Liz stared at him, her charming blue pools filled with tears. She was probably annoyed, frustrated, confused, and hurt by the sudden revelation of information. She didn’t move or look at the phone as he held it up to her.
“Ben,” she said, lips quivering with sorrow. “What about us? What is going to happen to us if I get on that plane and fly right out of this city?”
Ben grunted, shoving his phone back into his pocket. He was going to hate himself for the rest of his life for what he was about to do. It made him feel like someone was slowly raking their nails down his spine, knowing he deserved it.
She had to despise him if he was going to get her to leave and never contact him again.
His tiger whimpered inside the chambers of his heart.
“There is no us, Liz,” he said sharply. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It was just fucking. I don’t know why you’re getting all sentimental about it.”
Her eyes were glued to his, though he tried not to meet them. They were lasers, searing into the depths of his soul, scanning for the truth he tried to muddy with mean words.
“You’re lying,” she murmured. “Because I’m not stupid, Benicio. I know you feel it too. I know you feel it because … I’m falling in love with you.”
Ben couldn’t take it anymore. He squeezed the passenger’s side door that he had been holding, and the metal started to bend from the power of his strength. His long, razor-sharp nails protruded from his fingertips, along with his dilated pupils narrowing into his natural, beastly form.
He leaned into her face, close enough for her to feel the spittle of his bellow, tapping into the fierce tiger to get his story across even more accurately.
“Don’t make me fucking do this, Liz. You and I, we are through. You need to get on that fucking plane before I rip you out of this car and throw you on it.”
Liz’s jaw dropped open, and the tears began to pour. Streams of red veins in her normally pristine irises popped out like lightning as she pushed him out of the way, snatching the bag from his claws with the strength of a thousand scorned hearts.
“Fuck you, Ben,” she said, then walked away frantically while weeping hysterically.
Ben let the tiger fade away. All but a single middle finger on his right hand. He pushed into his palm, carving a thin line into his skin. He winced as he watched her stomp inside, his mate and beloved, walking away from him for eternity.
The blood from the self-mutilation dripped onto the concrete. It was a monstrous act, but he was a monster. It was all he was ever going to deserve.
Chapter19
Liz
