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“Who did you contact?”
“Elle. She’s the only person I talked to and I didn’t tell her anything.”
“You really expect me to believe that?”
“Yes!” she snaps loudly. “Yes, I do expect you to believe that, because it’s the truth. I contacted her last week! If I’d told her anything at all, the cops would have swarmed this place days ago.”
I narrow my eyes. “If the conversations were totally innocent, then why did you delete them?”
“Self-preservation,” she throws at me. “I knew you’d fly off the handle.Like you’re doing right now.”
“Then why’d you do it at all?”
“Because she’s myfriend, Uri. She’s my best friend and she’s getting married tomorrow and I won’t be there.” A sob escapes her lips but she keeps going. “I won’t be at my best friend’s wedding because I’m trapped here withyou. I owed her an explanation at the very least. So yeah, I broke your rules and I contacted her and you’re damn lucky I did, too, because she was on the verge of contacting the police and filling out a missing person’s report!”
Her chest rises and falls heavily as she waits for me to break the pregnant silence.
I storm forward and push her up against the wall. This time, it’s different though. I’m not gentle and I’m not trying to be. I want her to know I mean business. I want her to know that I’m dangerous.
Her eyes are huge as my hand wraps around her throat. “You don’t have a right to privacy in my territory,” I snarl. “You don’t have a right to anything here.”
“Y-you’re… hurting… me.”
Her voice is small and trembling but still, I don’t remove my hand. Her eyes are filled with tears but she never removes them from my face. Somewhere, in the midst of those deep cerulean eyes, I can see that I’ve taken things too far. I’ve crossed a line that I might never be able to come back from.
And when I see the shock give way to fear, that’s when I know I’m right.
All the rage inside me shrivels. The animal inside me backs down.
But it’s too late. It’s too damn late.
I drop my hand and step back. She grabs her throat as though she’s worried I’ve ripped it right off. She stares at me with wide, accusing eyes.
And I see myself reflected in them. Not a brother or apakhanor a righteous man protecting the ones he loves.
Just a desperate coward who’s losing control.
57
ALYSSA
The slam of the basement door feels like a gunshot.
I slide down to the ground as the sobs come in, deep and guttural and drenched with desperation. I pull my legs up, rest my head on my knees, and cry until I’ve expelled what feels like all the water in my body.
I need to get out of here. I need to get the hell out of here.
It’s the only thing I can hear past my own sobs. My neck is raw where he touched me. It feels as though he singed off the first layer of skin and now, I’m exposed and vulnerable. That’s how the rest of me feels, too. The slightest wind would bowl me right over.
I didn’t think I’d ever be here, like this. Sure, Uri is dangerous and powerful and sometimes aggressive. But he would never hurtme. He would never threatenme.He would never do anything to makemefeel unsafe.
Except he just did.
So there goes that unearned confidence, crumbling to dust. And in the wake of it, what do I have? Nothing. No choices, that’s for sure.
I have to do this. Not just for me.
“For you, too,” I whisper, pushing my legs away from my chest so that I can look down at my still-flat belly.
