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Not Mel’s kiss. Hers feels like oil slipping over my skin, needles stabbing at my eyes, cement filling my veins. Where Wilder’s touch feels deliciously wrong, Mel’s is rotten. A foul stench that clings to your clothes no matter how many times you wash them.
Her hands begin to roam, first down my spine, then along the curve of my ass. My whole body stiffens when her fingers linger, before her palms slide around to my front, moving over my ribs. Her hands brush the sides of my breasts, and it’s only then that I realize what she’s doing—searching me.
I make a mental note to thank Wilder for his clever thinking—even if I still believe he went about it the wrong way.
When Mel finally pulls away, she beams at me—a wide, easy smile that is so at odds with the chaos swirling within me. Her eyes drop as she entangles her hand around mine, and the creepy-ass smile drops from her face, something far scarier replacing it. “What’s this?” she barks. “That’s new.” She lifts my arm, her spare hand fingering Kai’s bracelet.
Her eyes flash to mine. “Who bought you this?”
“Tell her it was Hadley,” Kai urgently barks in my ear.
Gaping at her with concern, I stutter, “H-Hadley.”
Before I can protest, she rips it from my wrist with a sharp sting and a furious snarl. “I’m the only one allowed to give you presents.”
Pain slices across my chest at the loss. Not because of the tracker in it but because Kai put time and effort into finding one that he knew I would love when he could have given me any old bracelet. It was just one of many ways in which he showed he cared, even while trying to put distance between us and questioning his self-worth.
Clasping it in her hand, she closely inspects the thin metal chain and each of the charms. When her eyes shadow over, I know she’s spotted the tracker.
“I-Is everything alright?” I ask after a tense moment of silence.
Her hand shakes with fury as she tightens it around the bracelet, before stuffing it into her pocket and pasting on a too-wide grin. “Everything’s fine. Come, sit.” Grabbing my hand again, she leads me over to a booth at the side of the room, only letting go so I can slide in opposite her.
I’m lost for words, sick to my stomach and unable to speak, but thankfully she seems content to simply gaze at me. Her eyes roam over my face, and for a moment I worry that she’ll be able to read the truth written there.
"You look good," she says instead, with that smile that once seemed friendly but now just gives me the creeps. It would appear that her anger from a moment ago has been forgotten as another bout of whiplash has my head reeling. "I was worried that they’d hurt you when you stopped letting them touch you." It comes and goes in a split second, but I catch it—the Mel from the bunker. Her eyes harden, and her expression turns menacing before she wipes the slate clean. "Especially that psychotic one."
“Pot calling the kettle black,” Wilder grumbles in my ear.
If it wasn’t all so terrifying, I’d laugh at the irony. I guess it takes one to know one.
I search her face, trying to work out how to play this before deciding just to be myself—to forget about everything that has happened between us these last few months and behave the way I always have around Mel.
“I don’t know what’s going on anymore, Mel,” I say, not lying. “What’s the plan here?”
She reaches across the table and clasps my hand in hers. "Don’t worry, baby. I have it all worked out. I’m sorry it all unfolded like this. It wasn’t what I wanted." Her hand tightens to the point of pain, and her expression again darkens. "Ifhehadn’t interfered, then none of this would have happened."
It takes effort to suppress my shiver, and I deliberately don’t let my thoughts drift to what might have happened if Kai hadn’t barged into my apartment that day. Instead, I attempt a placating smile. “It hardly matters. We found our way back to each other in the end.”
She likes that response, a feral gleam lighting the dark blue depths of her eyes. "I knew once I explained everything to you, you’d understand. You see now, that you were never supposed to be with any of them?"
“I do,” I state emphatically, nodding my head and ignoring the taste of ash on my tongue. “I’m so sorry. I should have realized sooner. I don’t know how I didn’t see it before.”
Her thumb brushes back and forth across my cheek while she holds my gaze before her eyes fall to take in my outfit. "You looked so tempting today, baby." She bites her lower lip seductively, and it takes everything in me to bat my lashes and keep up the facade. "Like a present all wrapped up for me to enjoy. It was so difficult to stay away from you."
Once more, her demeanor changes faster than the snap of fingers, and I’m once again confronted by the Mel from the bunker. “He hasn’t heeded my warnings,” she says darkly. “Mr. Savior Complex thinks you’re a damsel in distress who needs saving.” She laughs at her own joke—one I don’t find remotely funny.
I don’t even know how to react to that. Thankfully, the mention of Kai has her glancing at her watch. She frowns. “He’ll know you aren’t at the house by now.”
“So what do we do?” I ask, my voice squeaking with anxiety. “Run?”
Even though I know the guys won’t let that happen, and even if I did have to play along with her and escape right now, they’d track us down in no time. Still, the thought is terrifying. Fleeing with Mel is the absolute last thing I want to do.
“Two minutes away,” Kai whispers urgently in my ear. “Try and stall her.”
I have to swallow back my sigh of relief when she shakes her head. "No. He won’t simply let you run away. If we run, he’ll chase. The only way to offload someone like that is to take them out at the knees."
A dizziness sweeps through me as terror digs its cold claws into my skin. It doesn’t take a genius to know that when someone unhinged says something like that, they most likely mean murder. Mel’s already proven herself to be ruthless. She pretended to befriendswith Richard and had no issues murdering him, so zero remorse will be offered to Kai.
