“You love that camera, don’t you?” he whispers, tracing my cheek with a trembling finger. “I watched you carry it everywhere. My sweet little artist.”
He doesn’t know Flynn gave it to me, and I’m not telling him. That camera means something; it’s a symbol, of him, us.
I squeeze my eyes shut. Tears slip free, hot and silent.
Flynn.
The sob breaks out of me before I can stop it, raw, ugly, tearing my chest in half.
He pulls back, grip tightening. “Why are you crying?”
I swallow the next sob, throat on fire. “Nothing,” I lie, voice small. “I’m… I’m scared.”
His arms crush me closer, almost tender. “Don’t be. We’ll live a happy life together.” A soft kiss to my temple. “Or die trying.”
Die trying.
The words echo, cold and final.
He stands, hauling me up with him like I’m weightless. His fingers close around my left hand, thumb brushing the ring.
“I can’t wait to be inside you,” he breathes, eyes glazing with hunger. “Make you moan like he did.”
He tugs at the ring.
“No—” The scream rips out of me. I yank back hard, cradling my hand to my chest. It’s Flynn’s ring. It’s us. “No, please—”
His face twists, love gone, only possession left. A dark, guttural laugh spills out.
He seizes my wrist again and wrenches. Bone grinds against bone; pain explodes white-hot up my arm. The ring slides off with a sickening pop of my knuckle.
I scream.
He pockets it like a trophy. “You will never see him again. You’re mine now. Forever.”
I kick him hard in the knee. He staggers half a step and I bolt for the door, lungs burning, screaming for anyone, for help, for Flynn—
His hand fists in my hair. My scalp tears. The world flips.
My head slams the floor, air punched from my lungs. Stars burst behind my eyes, and I feel the wetness on my hair.
He looms above me, chest heaving, smiling like the devil just won.
“I’ll fuck your corpse if I have to,” he says, soft as a lullaby. “Your choice, angel.”
I try to fight the heaviness in my eyes but I can’t—
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Flynn
Ipace the dark roadside like a caged wolf, boots grinding gravel. Declan leans against the SUV, thumbs flying over his screen. “Viviana’s losing her mind. Blames herself.”
“It’s on me. Only me.” The words come out gravelly and venom. Rage coils in my gut, hard and violent, but I leash it hard. Lose control now and she’s gone forever.
Kian’s head snaps up. “There.”
Headlights tear toward us. Kaden’s car fishtails to a stop in a cloud of dust. He’s out before the engine dies, blood seeping through the bandage on his side, face white with pain, but he walks like it doesn’t matter. His eyes mirror the pain I feel in my own. He shoves my phone into my hand.
