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“No, that’s not—” I try to explain.
“Don’t lie to him, Kaia,” Blake cuts me off, managing to hoist himself up on one knee. “You got mixed up with a real winner here.” Blake smiles up at Remi, egging him on, blood staining his normally stark-white teeth.
I know what he’s doing. He’s trying to push Remi over the edge. Pushing people to their limits is Blake’s specialty, after all.
“Blake, shut up!”
“I’ll show you a fucking winner when I drag that ugly fucking face of yours down ten miles of concrete. You won’t be smiling anymore then, will you? Better yet, you probably won’t have any teeth left to smile with.” Remi seethes, everything about his demeanor screaming that not only will he do it, but that he’d enjoy it.
“That’s enough.” I wedge myself between Remi and Blake. “He isnotwho he says he is.” I insist, needing him to hear me. “Let me explain.”
“You’re gonna try to stand there and pretend like I didn’t just see you two kissing...” He dips his face down level with mine, a wild, unhinged look in his eyes.
When I don’t answer quickly enough, trying to find the right words, he continues.
“That’s what I thought.” A smile somewhere between sadistic and homicidal crosses his face.
“I broke things off months ago.” The words break free, too shrill to belong to me.
“Is this what you call breaking things off?”
“You don’t understand. I can explain.”
“You know what, I don’t think I want to hear what you have to say.” He gives me a full once-over like the sight of me makes him physically ill. “You are not at all who I thought you were.”
Words can’t even begin to describe what that look and his words do to me—like driving a dagger deep into my heart, I can quite literally feel the pain slide through my chest, stealing my breath.
“Do us both a favor and forget you know me.” One minute he’s in front of me, the next he’s halfway across the parking lot, moving so quickly I can barely track the movement.
“Remi, wait.” I try to go after him, but Blake’s hand closes around my hand, cutting off my ability to do so.
“Let go of me!” I scream, my insides shaking so violently it’s a wonder I’m able to stand still. “Why did you say you’re my fiancé when we both know you aren’t?” The second he’s upright, I’m in his face. “Why?” I shove at his chest.
“Because now you know how it feels to lose someone you love,” he says so eerily calm that I blink several times, not entirely sure I heard him right. And then he smiles. A smile that causes the hairs on the back of my neck to rise. “Hurts like hell, doesn’t it?” He wipes the blood from his mouth with the back of his sleeve, smearing the red sludge as he pushes past me.
I turn, my gaze catching the back end of Remi’s car as he speeds out of the parking lot. I have no idea how I missed him pulling in. Then again, I wasn’t exactly paying attention to what was going on around me in the moment.
I’m not sure how much he saw, but I don’t believe that he saw everything because if he did, he would have known I was telling the truth.
Glancing back at Blake, I don’t attempt to go after him, even if a year ago I would have. I would have run after him and begged for his forgiveness, even though he was in the wrong. I was weak and easily manipulated by him then, and somehow, that didn’t become clear until today. Because what he just said... What he just did. It shows me what I should have seen a very long time ago. How vindictive and selfish he really is.
I’m done pretending he was some great guy whose heart I broke. Because the reality is, he’s not a good guy. I’m not sure he ever was. He never cared about what I wanted. Ever. That was always our problem. It was always about him. Him showing up here is just further proof of that.
“Don’t come back ever again!” I scream to his back, which earns me no reaction, not that I expected it to. He achieved what he came here to do—scramble what little pieces of my life I’ve managed to put back together without him.
He made his point. He got the last laugh. In his eyes, he won.
But I’m done playing his game.
