“You wouldn’t,” Romeo dropped the chain, and shot in Chad’s direction.The chain yanked at his throat hard enough he choked, folding in half.He fell, spit left his lips as his knees hit the ground.
“No,” Romeo shook his head.“I don’t ...you can’t have.”
“There was a witness.There was CCTV.I jumped.”
Romeo turned his back to Chad.His eyes burned.His chest felt like it was imploding.“We always said we’d go out together, but you tried to take yourself from me.How could you do that?How could you break your promise?”He touched the chain around his neck.He yanked.“You better hope this holds because I’ve never wanted to kill you more in my life, and if I get loose, I’m going to take my time.I’m going to make you feel pain like you’ve never felt before, like you’ve done to me.”
The door slammed.
Chad locked it behind himself and his footsteps pounded against concrete as he fled.
Chapter Ten
It took what felt likea day for the rage to settle in Romeo’s system.Every time he started to calm, he thought of Chad’s small smile and his almost coaxing voice.
Maybe you didn’t know me as well as you thought you did.
The anger blew up inside him.
He’d wanted to yell down that accusation, punish Chad for even suggesting it, but it rang true.
He hadn’t known about the sleeping pills in the car.
And he hadn’t even imagined Chad had been contemplating suicide.
Except he hadn’t just contemplated it.
He’d made an attempt, and it was only due to a witness that Chad was still alive.
Romeo wondered whether that was a cruelty within itself.If Josh had just told him over the phone Chad had died, he might have hurried to join him without getting his heart broken first.He shook his head.If Josh had told him that, he would’ve needed proof.He would’ve marched into that hospital not caring who saw him to see Chad’s cold lax body for himself.That would’ve broken his heart, too, regardless of whether it was Chad’s choice or not.His dead body would’ve destroyed Romeo, but this break to his heart he had to live with.
He wasn’t one for emotion, understanding or feeling them, but Chad had made him feel.He’d made Romeo love, and care, and he’d put Chad before the monstrous part of himself, pushing and squeezing his dark need to fit within the parameters he’d set because Chad meant everything to him.
But Chad had betrayed him.He’d betrayed Romeo’s love.
Chad was a liar, a god damn liar, and Romeo wanted to rip his throat out.
