She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. He’d brought in a camp chair and was now sitting across from her. He had a gun held loosely in one hand and a thermos in the other.
“Why did you bring me here?” she asked.
Rage tightened his features. “You’re the reason I was in jail. I want you to pay for what happened to me.”
“I didn’t put you in jail. The girl you assaulted did that.”
“I didn’t assault her. We were dating. You’re allowed to have sex with your girlfriend,” Daniel pointed out.
“Unless she says no,” Ava said.
“Women like to play games, even you. Don’t deny it.”
Games? She’d never thought of any relationship that way. “Most people are careful when they are falling in love, Daniel. Maybe she just needed some space to figure out her feelings.”
“I don’t give a fuck what she needed. I wouldn’t have been dating her if you hadn’t broke up with me and then filed that restraining order.” His voice rose on each word until he was shouting and standing over her. He kicked her, and when she cried out he smiled.
“You need to learn when to shut up.”
“Why? We’re not going to be together,” she said, which just made him kick her again. She needed to get him away from her. Her side ached, and she wasn’t sure he hadn’t broken her rib with that last kick.
“We are,” he promised her.
“What is it you want from me?” she asked. He looked like he might kick her again, so she brought her bound hands up to ward him off. “Make me understand it. I haven’t seen you in years. I thought you’d moved on.”
“I could never move on from you, Ava. You were my first love. Remember when we met on the quad? You spilled your raspberry tea on me and then laughed and promised to buy me a new shirt.”
It had been a warm, almost summery day when they’d been moving into their dorms. “I did. And I bought you one.”
“No woman had ever bought me a gift before.”
“That can’t be true. What about your mother?”
“Left before I could know her,” he said. “My dad said it was my fault. That if I hadn’t been such a pussy she would have stuck around.”
“That’s probably not true. Your dad sounds like—”
Leaning down, he hit her to shut her up. Her jaw ached as she pulled herself back as far as she could from him.
“Of course you’d take her side. Bitches never own their shit. My dad wasn’t all touchy-feely, but he was a real man. He raised me to be one, too.”
Her mind was hazy with pain and cold. She really had no idea what to say to calm him down but was determined to keep him talking as long as she could.
“You are definitely a man.”
“I know. I saw that wuss you dated after me.”
“Greg?”
“Yeah. What was he? Like a science major?”
“Astrophysicist. He was studying for his PhD.”
“Didn’t get it, did he?”
“No, he was killed in a car accident,” Ava said. Sweet, gentle Greg, who was the partner she hadn’t known she’d needed. He’d helped her heal from the toxic relationship she’d had with Daniel.
“Was it an accident?”
