I’ve never been more stunned than as I am at this moment.
The scene happens in slow motion, yet it’s so fast that I can’t keep up.
It’s like staring at the world through blurry lenses while riding a roller coaster.
Landon grunt, groans, then rolls onto his back, sporting a bloodied lip and a red jaw. However, he has the happiest, most genuine grin I’ve ever seen.
“Hi, mouse. Miss me?”
Mia continues glaring at him, and it looks anything but menacing, in view of her poufy dress, the ribbons intertwined in her hair like snakes, and her generally regal presence.
However, her kick was definitely painful considering the echoing sound. She flips him off and signs something to Jeremy. I don’t understand what she’s saying, but there’s a lot of energy behind it.
Mia strikes me as the type of person who simply can’t be defined by her disability, fashion sense, or spiky personality. It’s like she flows and flows, unable to put a halt to the flood of what’s inside her.
While she talks to the man who’s grabbing me from behind, a violent chill covers my skin as I glance back.
I’ve seen Jeremy exactly two times since he cruelly and indefinitely removed me from his life. Once when I drove by the cottage and saw him going inside.
The other time was when I allowed Ava to drag me to the fight club and watched him nearly be beaten to death by Killian.
It was one of those off-championship fights that happens every night, and it looked like he had a death wish.
I left before the fight was over.
Now, I regret looking at him, because nothing could’ve prepared me for being this close to him.
In a way, he hasn’t changed. He still has sharp, masculine features that drip with savage intensity and the build of a warlord who gets off on conquering lands and people.
His broad shoulders eat up the horizon, filling my vision with the dazzling strength of his presence.
The black T-shirt tightens around his biceps, and the tattoos ripple with each flex of his muscles. As if, like him, they’re on the edge.
My gaze flicks to where he’s touching me. My elbow.
That’s what he always grabs when he wants to put distance between us, when he treats me like nothing more than the object of his dirty fucks.
In fact, he’s only held my hand about twice.
The place where his flesh meets mine burns, flares, and gains a life of its own. And that has less to do with how his fingers dig into my skin and more to do with the fact that he’s touching me.
Those ash, cold-blooded eyes that should be mass-produced as weapons are concentrated on Mia’s signing. Not once has he looked at me or acknowledged me, but the weight of their attention can be felt through the absence of it.
Mia has finished signing and is now waiting for Jeremy’s reply with a hand on her hip.
“He’s all yours,” he tells her, obviously having understood her.
“Oh?” Landon jumps up to a standing position and straps his mask around his neck, appearing as cool as ever, short of the bruising and blood. “I’m going have to decline whatever deal you two have.”
He grabs my other hand. “Cecy and I have a date.”
No, we don’t.
But before I can say that, merciless fingers dig further into the flesh surrounding my elbow and I wince.
“The only date you’ll have is for a funeral.” Jeremy tugs hard, wrenching me from Landon, or more like, my childhood friend lets go at the last second.
“Necrophilia. Yum.” He grins with a suggestive lick of his lips. Mia lifts her leg to kick his crotch again, but he blocks her with a hand on her head, effectively immobilizing her in place. “Jesus fucking Christ, calm down, and stop acting like a rabid dog.”
That only makes her want to grab at him more as she struggles, punches, and kicks—mostly the air.
Lan effortlessly escapes her attempts at violence and stares at Jeremy with his provocative smile. “Let go of Cecily.”
“No.”
I pull my elbow free. “You have no right to touch me.”
He finally slides his gaze to me in the form of a glare. I glare right back.
Why does he get to act this way when he’s the one who ended us?
“What she said.” Lan tsks and shakes his head while Mia continues to struggle and exert herself for nothing. “How does it feel to be the second choice to me? In fact, you wouldn’t have even been on her list if you hadn’t stalked her.”
Jeremy strides over to him, but I jump between them. I know precisely what Landon is doing by making him jealous. He wants Jeremy to be with me again, but I won’t stand by and watch him claim ownership he doesn’t have.
I stare at Jeremy, even as my heart beats in my throat. “Stop it.”
“Step away.”
“I said, stop it.”
“And I said to step the fuck away.”
My whole body shivers at the lash of his words. I haven’t heard the gruff timbre of his voice for so long, and now that I do, it’s fills me with a myriad of chaotic colors and twisted emotions.
“We’re out of here.” Lan is dragging a struggling and obviously angry Mia out of the storeroom. “Remember, Ces. You loved me first.”
I can sense the destructive energy in Jeremy before he acts on it. If he’s stroking his fingers, that stops. And he usually stops breathing for one fraction of a second before he chooses violence.
Despite being scared shitless of this part of him, I don’t think about it as I block his path again.
Jeremy slams into me, my head bumps into his chest, and he steps on my foot, but he swiftly pulls back and actually stops.
That destructive energy that I’m sure is always thirsty for blood slowly lulls, tucking itself beneath the surface of his apparent calm.
He flexes his palm and remains still, probably realizing that Landon is already out of reach.
When he speaks, his voice shimmers with thick tension and unveiled anger. “Are you hurt?”
I touch my forehead as if that will somehow camouflage the trembling in my chin. Why does he have to ask that when he was the one who ripped my heart open.
“No thanks to you.”
His hand reaches for me, and I go still for a second, waiting, imagining the impact of his flesh on mine.
He drops it back down as another presence appears at the doorway. Zayn. My colleague who’s also been volunteering at the shelter.
“I heard a commotion. Is everything okay?” he asks in a careful tone.
Jeremy’s savage attention slides to him and I can see that unbounded violent energy rearing its head. If I don’t defuse this situation, he’ll probably use poor Zayn as a punching bag and brutalize him. After all, he’s still on a high from the whole Landon encounter.
“It’s all good, Zayn,” I say calmly.
His gaze flits between me and Jeremy, a frown etched between his brows. “Are you sure—”
“Fuck off.” Jeremy’s lethal tone booms around us.
Zayn straightens and I nod with an awkward smile in a desperate attempt to defuse the situation.
“Let me know if you need anything,” my colleague says, then swiftly disappears out of sight.
I don’t blame him. No one wants to be in Jeremy’s orbit, especially when he’s enraged.
His harsh eyes fall back on me. “And who the fuck was that?”
“None of your business.”
“Cecily…don’t piss me off any further.”
“That statement should be directed at you! Why are you bothering me?”
“Why the fuck are you always in my way?”
“Why are you?”
“You’re fucking infuriating.”
“And you’re like a wild animal.”
“You didn’t seem to mind when I fucked you like an animal. In fact, you screamed and begged to be taken like my filthy little whore. But now that my mark has vanished from your flesh, you think you can let another man touch you?”
My starved body heats, but I force myself to remain calm. “Whether I let another man touch me, fuck me, take me like a filthy whore, or dirty me all up is none of your damn business. In fact, I might be tempted to take Lan up on his offer of taking me on a tour through the sex club.”
I won’t, and I really don’t know what’s come over me to speak like that, but I want revenge.
I want to hurt him for all the time he’s left me hanging.
He made me addicted to him and then forced me into the worst withdrawal.
And the best way to piss off a possessive man like Jeremy? Bring up other men. Especially Landon. He clearly has a beef with him.
“What did you just say?” he asks slowly, menacingly, and with enough tension to crumble a mountain.
“I said I’ll go to the club with Lan. Experiment a little and see what other men feel like. I’m sure they don’t all come with so much drama.”
One moment I’m standing there, and the next, he’s slamming me against the nearest wall with a tight grip on my neck.
The breath is knocked from my lungs for an entirely different reason.
I’m in a position where I’m overwhelmed by Jeremy’s power until it’s the only thing I inhale.
Until it’s the only beat that’s seeping into my lungs
“That was a rhetorical question, Cecily. You’re not supposed to fucking answer.”
My glare meets his fierce eyes.
I want to provoke him, anger him. I want him to feel an ounce of the pain he’s exerted on me.
“Why?” I strain. “You don’t like to imagine another man peeling my clothes off and sinking inside me while I moan for him?”
“Stop.”
“I’ll beg him to go faster, harder. I’ll say his name, too. Actually, I’ll moan it.”
“Shut the fuck up.” He pulls me forward by his grip on my neck, then slams me back again. “You don’t seem to understand this, so let me clarify it for you. Any dick that comes near you will be cut off and you’ll bathe in its blood. I might have given you space, but I still own your ass. And cunt. And mouth. Everything about you belongs to me. You belong to me. But if you’re in the mood to test that, by all means, do. I will maim as many motherfuckers in front of you as you wish until you have your fill.”
He means it.
I know he does.
Jeremy has never made a promise and not kept it.
And this helplessness, the feeling of being too caught in his web while he only has a sense of ownership over me makes me feel like a trapped animal.
“Is that why you sent those guys to the hospital, shipped my professor to another country, and even dealt with Jonah? Because I’m yours? An extension of your stupid ego and a projection of your twisted desires?”
“I did all that because no one gets to hurt you.”
“Only you can?”
He tightens his grip. “Only I can.”
My eyes burn, but I refuse to let the tears loose. I refuse to show him just how much of an effect his words have on me.
“What do you want from me, Jeremy? You already let me go.”
“But you didn’t go.”
“Huh?”
He releases me, but only after he strokes the spot where his fingers pressed.
“Annika disappeared.”
My chest constricts, more about the topic than the abrupt subject change.
“What?”
He gives me a side-eye that could bring the devil to his knees. “Don’t fuck with me, Cecily. You were the last person she saw after your impromptu visit to New York. At first, I wanted to believe the two incidents were unrelated, but it turns out, you went on a private jet and returned on a commercial flight. Which means my sister left with your companion on that private jet. You all but shot yourself in the foot when you had Glyndon slip me that note today. Because A, Killian nearly killed me for it, thinking she was passing me notes; and B, she’s a shit spy and confessed everything when Kill started turning into an insufferable being. My question is, why would you let me know that?”
Blimey.
I should’ve considered Glyn’s personality and her tight bond with Killian.
Releasing a sigh, I tell him the truth. “I didn’t want you or your parents worried or thinking she ran away or something.”
“Why do you not want us worried?”
“Unlike what you said about me, I’m not heartless. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” A somber shadow covers his face before he tucks it away and asks in a colder tone, “Where is she? Where did he take her?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know or you don’t want to say?”
“I really don’t.” But I have a hunch. There’s only one faraway place where Creighton could remain off everyone’s radar and use his grandfather’s jet for it.
“You’re a terrible liar, Cecily. You never look me in the eye when you tell a lie.”
My gaze snaps to his when I realize I’ve been staring at my feet.
Instead of anger or blame, I find dejection. Disappointment, maybe.
And I don’t know why that tugs on my heartstrings until they bleed and overflow in my chest.
“I thought you didn’t want to hurt anyone,” he says with masked anger. “Do you have any idea how much this is hurting my parents? My mother thinks Annika did something to herself.”
“You…can set their minds at ease.”
“That will only happen if they see her again.”
“I can’t. If I do, you or your dad will hurt Creigh.”
“That motherfucker—” He stops and inhales deeply. “That slimy fucker has dug his own grave. Don’t make it deeper.”
“That’s not very encouraging.” I grab his hand that’s balled in a fist. It’s the first time I’ve done it, despite wanting to for a long time.
I slowly peel it open, and only after some tension leaves his body do I speak softly. “I know you think badly of Creigh because of what he’s done, and I understand that. I understand that Anni is your only sibling and someone you consider to be under your protection. You love her, and have cared for her since she was born, so you feel the need to shield her whenever someone comes close, but you need to understand that she’s old enough to make her own decisions now. You also need to understand that Creigh and I were raised together. He’s like my brother, and I also feel the need to protect him.”
“Do you share a parent?”
“Uh, no?”
“Then he’s not your fucking brother.” He purses his lips. “I’m asking you nicely for the last time, Cecily. Where did he take her?”
I shake my head.
“Very well. You leave me no choice but to use the not-so-nice way.”
I shriek as he picks me up and carries me in his arms.
