Page 26 of Half-Blood


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In those heady, first days of finding our way back together again, Dylan had been really good to me. I realized later it was all part of his game. He wanted to be loved and admired at all times by everybody, and especially by me. He said he hated the idea that I might not trust him anymore. Back then, when he first followed me to Atlanta, he did anything he could to get back in my good graces, even coming by on Saturday mornings to help me with the yard work. It was only later that I started to be scared of him again.

I opened my eyes and looked directly into those Arctic blue ones of Will Logan’s. Not for the first time, I noticed how thick and luxurious his eyelashes were. I randomly wondered if he disliked how they looked, especially paired with those lush lips of his. Together they made him beautiful, and I wondered if he knew.

Finally, he took away his hand and my arm tingled where he’d been touching it. “Tell me about your relationship with Dylan, Jace. Tell me everything.”

“He was my boyfriend for a while in New York when we were both living there. We broke up…”

“After you both got arrested, and he went to the hospital.”

“I told you. All that was a…terrible misunderstanding.”

“Did he live with you?”

“Dylan had moved in with me a few weeks before—before the trouble.”

“I’ve seen the police report.” He glanced down at his notes. “Your neighbors called 911 to report a violent altercation in the hallways. They told the operator that it sounded like someone was being killed. Luckily officers were in the building on an unrelated case and came running. When officers arrived on the scene, there were two men out in the hallway, fighting a third—in other words, Malone and an unknown man versus…you.” He glanced down at the notes again. “Officers said the unknown subject had you cornered, had his hand drawn back to strike you, and you were already bloody. Malone was standing there watching, with a big grin on his face.”

There was a long pause and then I blew out a breath and nodded. “Yeah, that happened.”

“Which part of that was misunderstood then?”

I clenched my fists in my lap and glared back at him. “Dylan was on some kind of drugs. There’s no other explanation. He loved me; he wouldn’t have tried to hurt me. He won’t talk about that night, but I know that’s what it must have been. Isawhim.”

“Is that right? What exactly did you see?’

The memory of that night flashed in my mind for a moment—lighting up my memories like they’d been sprayed with fluorescent paint, radiating, pulsing a lurid light in the dark. He had scared me with his intensity, his frenzied rage and his inconsolable grief and disbelief when I said I was leaving him.

“Look, I walked in and found him with that guy. I’d never seen the man before, but they were…they were…”Having sex. Why couldn’t I just say it?Dylan was beneath him, totally naked, and he had his head thrown back in what looked like ecstasy. The man was on top of him, still fully dressed, but bending over his groin to…to suck his damn cock—why couldn’t I just say the damn words?

“I remember yelling something at them,” I continued. “I was so furious.”

“And then what?”

Memories of that night flooded back, memories I’d tried so hard to forget. They made me shudder. What I’d seen then couldn’t have been real. I had to have been hallucinating. “I-I don’t know exactly. That’s where my memories get all mixed up—jumbled in my mind.”

“Tell me everything,” Logan said softly. “From the beginning. No more lies. No more explanations or trying to make it all make sense. Just say it. Tell me exactly what you remember.”

I took a deep breath. “I had suspected Dylan was seeing someone else for a couple of weeks before that night. I thought it was maybe some guy he’d met in a bar. I’d even seen him once. Dylan showed him to me when we out for an evening and we’d been fighting. He even taunted me by saying the man was just his type. He was really good looking, tall, dark and handsome, you know? Much bigger and more muscular than I could ever be. Dylan just laughed about it later and said he’d been kidding. But I’d seen the way that man looked at him. The intensity of it, like there was nobody else in the room.

“At first, Dylan blamed his absences on late rehearsals and then he just didn’t show up for a few of our dates or even call or text to tell me why, even though we were pretty much living together all the time at that point. He stopped even bothering to make a good excuse and he spent a few nights away from home. I knew then he was cheating on me. That night, before I left work, I called him and told him I wanted to talk to him about us. And he’d laughed. Fucking laughed like it was all some big joke. He told me when I came home, we’d talk. I was ready to have it out with him once and for all, but when I got there, I could hear noises from the bedroom, like the TV was on really low, but there were soft moaning sounds too. So I opened the door and went in. The room was dark except for the flickering light from the television.

‘Dylan? Are you here?’”

Logan broke in. “Wait a minute. He brought the v…this guy toyourapartment?”

“Yes. Dylan sat up when he heard me, and I could see he was naked, his beautiful body gleaming in the lamplight that was spilling over him from beside the bedside and lighting up the scene. He’d been lying on his back on the bed with his head thrown back like he was in ecstasy while this guy was sucking his cock. It was the same man with the dark hair. He was totally dressed, and he turned and looked at me over his shoulder as I opened the door and he-he smiled at me. It was the most evil smile I think I’d ever seen. It still gives me the chills. Dylan stared at me, and he looked shocked, his mouth hanging open in surprise. He had a huge red mark on the side of his throat where the man had been sucking his neck, and his eyes looked dazed. Like he was drugged.”

I had just stared back at the two of them, completely at a loss for words, my heart splintering into shards of glass, cutting me to the quick. I had suspected, of course, but at the same time, I had wanted desperately to believe Dylan’s lies and half-truths. To believe that he still loved me as much as I loved him. On the way over, I had been looking forward to seeing him. I had been willing to be persuaded that it was all in my mind. That he cared only for me. That he still loved only me.

I sighed and kept going, trying to get it all out. “I was shaking so hard my knees were knocking together. I wanted to scream at them. To call Dylan names and tear at my clothes and rush to the bed to beat him. Beat both of them! Of course, I did none of those things. I turned around and walked out of the bedroom, moving slowly, like an old man. Dylan caught me before I made it to the door and grabbed my arm.

‘Where the fuck do you think you’re going?

‘Let me go, Dylan,’ I said. ‘For God’s sake. Please.’

‘No. What’s your problem?’

‘What’s myproblem?’

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