She quickly sits up straight and flattens her trembling fingers across her eyelids to rub them away. Not a single drop falls.
Damn. So close.
“I’ll fucking deny it, bitch. Don’t think I won’t gaslight the fuck out of you, too.” Her voice is tight, and I can tell she’s struggling to compose herself.
The ache in my chest hasn’t eased completely, but it’s enough to force a grin.
In the four years I’ve known her, she’s never cried. She claims it’s because her sins have clogged her tear ducts, which I don’t doubt in the slightest.
Her hands drop to her lap, and we stare at one another silently until we both can’t help but let out a soft laugh.
She sniffs, then points a finger in my face, forcing a serious expression on her own. “It’s not your fault. I refuse to let you win that argument. But I understand why you feel that way, and I understand why you would feel responsible should anything bad happen to Roxi.”
I drop my gaze, my smile fading as I fiddle with my fingers and bite back the urge to argue further.
We both know I don’t believe her, so it’s useless fighting about it, anyway.
“If I stay, he might come after me,” I say softly before lifting my gaze back to Sable’s.
Several emotions flit across her stare, and I know she’s struggling to maintain her composure again, though this time, she might be fighting back her own murderous tendencies rather than tears.
She looks down at her hands for a moment, a crease forming between her pinched brows. When she returns her attention to me, sorrow deepens the lines around her mouth.
“Which is why you should leave,” she whispers, her voice cracking at the end.
I know that’s what she wants, even if it’ll break our hearts. At least it means I’m alive, with a heart thatcanbreak.
I tighten my lips and nod. “I’ll think about it, yeah?”
She nods, too, but worry seeps into the fine lines around her eyes.
She looks like she’s aged ten years in the span of a single conversation.
Sighing, she picks up the bowl oftemblequeand hands it to me.
“Eat, bitch. I made it extra sweet, just for you.”
I grin. “You love me.”
She smiles back, but it’s grim.
“More than life.”
She knows I’m running out of time to make a decision, but regardless of what I choose, she also knows her time with me may be limited, even if I stay.
CHAPTER 9
DREAD
“Isaw you at Craig’s party, but we talked for a total of thirty seconds before you ran off. I was hoping to give this to you then, but I didn’t get much of a chance. So, uh, here you go.”
The girl hands me a piece of paper, glancing up at me through her eyelashes shyly while biting her bottom lip.
I bet she thinks it’s sexy. It only makes her look like a child, and that’s the quickest way to make my dick shrivel back up into my body.
Not to mention she’s a redhead, not blonde.
Craig’s party was a little over two weeks ago, though, so I have zero recollection of talking to her.
