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Before she can answer anything, I crash Duncan’s phone against his skull. Alex’s shriek is really just a background noise through the anger pounding in my head. Once, twice, three times before the object splits in my hand and he starts to lose consciousness.
“Hey, hey,” I slap him. “Stay awake.” His head rolls from side to side as he uses me to try and stand up. “We’re not done. You like playing games? Here’s your dare: Pay the fucking consequences of touching my girl.”
“Oh my God,” I hear Alex gasp. “Xi, stop.”
Grabbing Duncan by his t-shirt, I drag him through the bushes again while he gargles something that sounds likeplease, leave me alone. Alex runs after me and tries to grip my arm, but I shrug her off. She attempts to keep up with my pace as I drag the fucker to my car.
“What are you doing?” she panics. “Xi, please.” Her breathing accelerates as she jogs after me, “Don’t hurt him.”
“Too late.”
“Don’t hurt himany more. He could sue you.”
“Dead men can’t sue, cupcake.”
“What?” she squeaks. “No. No, no, no.”
I open the bed of my truck and throw him inside. He groans and tries to sit back up just as I close the tailgate. Alex is looking around us, checking if anyone is witnessing my current kidnapping.
“Stop this,” she hisses. “Taking matters into your own hands could get you in a lot of trouble. Prison being one of them.”
I flip around, grab her jaw tightly and bring her closer. “Listen to me,” I seethe. “I didn’t kill Chester because you said it was nothing. I don’t know who gave you these bruises, so I’m being good about it. I think, all in all, I’ve been pretty fucking lenient.” I take a deep breath, begging my brain not to flip a switch and kill everyone in my way. “But here and now, I’m swearing to God, Alex, that this piece of shit is not surviving the night.”
“You can’t do that!” she shouts at me. “You don’t take justice in your own hands on the south bank, Xi. I mean it.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing Duncan will be sentenced on the North Shore.”
I let her go and walk back to the front of my truck. She’s right next to me the moment I sit down, right in her place in the passenger seat.
“Don’t do this. Please, please, I don’t want blood on your hands. Not for me.”
I start the car and turn to her, adrenaline and fury running through my veins. “Alexandra,” I say softly.
In the dark of the night, her hazel eyes look black. All I can see is her fuchsia lipstick and her porcelain skin.
“I think I’m in love with you, baby,” I say before pulling away.
28
ALEXANDRA
ARSON – Chri$tian Gate$
I think I’m in love with you, baby.
My heart is racing quicker than Xi on the streets of the North Shore. How can he do this to me? How can he tell me the words I’ve been dying to hear while at the same time kidnapping a man?
He could have told me when we were together instead of lying. He could have told me when I found out instead of keeping me hostage in his room. He could have told me he loved me instead offorbiddingme to attend a party. God, I hate that he was right about this party, that he was right in trying to protect me.
“I wish you’d told me before,” I rasp. “Before…all of this.”
“I have.”
“No, you’ve not,” I fight back. “I’ve been waiting for those three words, Xi. I would have known if you’d said them. I would have remembered.”
“I have, Alex. You just didn’t listen.” His eyes dart to me, then back to the road. “Every time I showed up because you weren’t taking care of yourself, I was saying I love you. When I kept you away from NSC by not telling you I was part of it, I was telling you I love you. When I kicked you out of the warehouse so the Kings wouldn’t find out you’re my weakness, I said Iloveyou. I told you not to go to a party that could be unsafe for you, that was me saying I.Fucking. Love. You.” His teeth are clenched, his words strained, but I hear every single one of them.
My chest constricts as I remember Billie’s words.He’s overprotective, that’s how he loves. It’s annoying and confusing, but that’s the only way he knows how.
