AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh fuck,” he mouths, and I hear his voice despite the distance and the noise.
“Shit. Jesus,” his familiar timbre says over my shoulder. Rebel, not Rogue. Standing behind me, seeing what I’m seeing. Did he want this? Did he know? Is he that cruel? He hates me, obviously. But I thought we’d come to an uneasy truce.
I cover my mouth as a sob rips from my lips.
Rogue shoves away from the wall, tears away from the girl. He gives her a look. Confusion maybe? She gives him a smile. Vindication. A job well done.
I’m not questioning whether Alec was here tonight. In the club. Or whether he set this up. He did. I know he did.
“Ivy.” My name is said by three. In three tones, but with the same urgency.
Rogue falls over his feet to get to me. Stumbles into a table. Glasses roll. One shatters. Thick pint glass shards on the wooden floor. “Fuck. Ivy. Fuck.”
I spin and almost collide with Dizzy in my haste. “I want to leave.”
“Okay,” Dizzy says.
“Don’t leave,” Rebel says. Reaches for me. “Just wait. Let’s talk about this.”
“I can’t.” Anger licks like red hot flames at my insides. Under that, pain wells. It pounds at my heart. Hurts like it might not ever stop. Even if I wanted to pretend this was all Alec’s doing, I couldn’t stay right now.
“Please, Ivy.” He pleads with those eyes so similar to Rogue’s. His grasp on my bicep is tight and firm.
“You knew,” I bite out. He had to. He told me not to come tonight, and I didn’t, because I trusted him to have his brother’s back. I trusted him despite the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. I try to wrench my arm free. “You wanted this.”
“I didn’t.” He lets go of me carefully. Like he expects I might bite at any moment. “We were watching him.”
I want to laugh, but it comes out strangled as I dart for the stairs.
I’m all the way down them and halfway to the exit before I’m grabbed from behind. Two strong arms wrap around my middle and haul me off my feet. They engulf me and pull me against a rock-hard chest that smells like the safest, sexiest place on earth. Or it used to. I can smell her on him. Something floral and sweet and wrong.
“Put me down,” I hiss at him as I struggle against his embrace. “Let go of me.”
“Baby, please. List…en.” His lips are at my ear. His words are slurred.
And I hate it. Hate that I love the way it feels. Hate that he still has the taste of that girl on his breath. I twist in his arms. Smack at his chest. “Let me go. I don’t want to talk to you. I don’t want to listen. You were kissing someone else.”
He’s bigger, stronger. He keeps me pinned. He groans when I land a slap to his cheek. “I knew I’d fuck it up. Can’t be loved…fuck, can’t be. Not me.”
“You did.” I’m crying. Angry, bitter tears. “You did fuck it up. So just let me go home. I want to go home.”
“You want to run away,” he snarls. His hazy, unfocused eyes are hard too. His brow hugs his eyes like it takes all of his concentration to continue this conversation. “You’ve been running this whole time. You haven’t stopped. You’ll never stop, will you?”
“You kissed another girl.” I spit the words at him. I’m angry and hurt and I want him to hurt too.
“I fu…argh, I fucked up.” He buries his face in my hair. No matter how hard I push he doesn’t let me go. “I fucked up so bad, baby.”
He pauses, and I hold my breath, waiting. What for? For him to explain all this away? How is that even possible?
“Just answer one question,” he says, sounding almost lucid. “Please.”
“What?” My heart pounds so loud it could be the bass track for the song that’s playing.
“Who is T-Swift, baby? Who is he?”
“N-no one. It’s no one.” It doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change what happened tonight. How could he possibly have come to the conclusion that T-Swift is a he?
“You’re lying to me,” he says. “Or you’re lying to yourself. Every damn day. Who is he? Who are you seeing behind my back? You talk in your sleep, you know? Cry for help. Beg for forgiveness. It’s how I know that you’re not really with me. You’re not mine. I love you, but you’re already gone. You never stop running. You run in your sleep. Away from me. To him maybe? Or just away.”
