We settled into our sleeping bags. Grayson was on his side, turned towards me, using his arm as a pillow. I wriggled around, trying to find a comfortable position, with no luck. Grayson was quietly watching me with a crooked smile.
“How are you so okay with sleeping on the hard ground?” I frowned at him. He looked perfectly at ease.
He shrugged his one shoulder. “I’m just not such a princess.”
“I wish you would stop calling me that.”
He reached up and rubbed a strand of my hair between his fingers. “Why? You’re beautiful and brave and kind and clever. And stubborn. And a spoiled little brat. And a real pain in my ass. Is that not a princess?”
I gaped at him. “I should have finished you off when I had the chance.” I stuck my nose in the air but regretted it immediately. That’s something a princess would do, wasn’t it?
The smugness fell from his lips. He slid his fingers across the cut on his neck. “Why didn’t you?”
I tried to keep my voice soft. I didn’t want him to feel insulted, but it was true. “I’m not like you. I’m not a killer.”
He watched me intently. “Not everyone gets to grow up in an ideal world like yours, Ava. Not everyone has had the luxury of walking through life unscathed with their morals intact.”
I didn’t know what to say. So, hedidhave a sad story that turned him into a monster. Was he trying to make excuses for what he’d done to them? “Is that why you killed the woman and child? Because life was too cruel to you?” I asked sardonically. I couldn’t keep the disdain from my tone. Then again, I wasn’t really trying.
Confusion marked his brow before it turned to anger. “Don’t talk about them,” he sneered and turned his back on me.
I wasn’t done. “Is that howIwill end up? On a photo in your fucking trophy drawer?” Gods, how had I forgotten how sick this man was?
“Stop,” he growled lowly, and my instincts screamed at me to listen. He was still turned away from me, but his body was shaking with anger.
No. I needed to remind myself. “How vile of a man are you to dothatto an innocent little girl? There was nothing left of her!”
He turned abruptly and grabbed me by the throat. “Shut your mouth.”
The disgust and anger overpowered my ability to feel fear. I drove the palm of my hand into his nose as hard as I could. I was done being manhandled.
He swore and let go of me, clutching his nose. There was blood leaking through his fingers.
Good.
“Don’tevertouch me like that again!” I wanted to get away from him. I moved to the door of the tent, but he put his arm around my torso and pulled me back.
“Ava, wait,” he protested, his voice muffled by his hand.
“Let go of me!” I would rather take my chances with those things out there, then stay in this suffocating tent with him.
Grayson pulled me back again and this time moved onto his haunches, so his body blocked the way out. “Fuck,” he cursed through his hand. The blood was trailing down his arm. He used his other hand to pull his shirt off, over his head. He pressed the shirt against his nose. “God, Ava!” he growled, tilting his head backwards. “No one has ever made me bleed this fucking much and lived. It’s the fourth goddamn time!”
“You deserved it every time,” I answered bitterly.
He looked down at me, studying me. “Yeah, maybe I did.” He smiled.
I looked away. He just had his hand around my throat, and now he was smiling at me again. Did he honestly expect me to smile back?
Grayson sighed. “I’m sorry, okay? Just… don’t talk about them.”
I eyed him. “Why? Did you suddenly develop a conscious?”
He dropped his head backwards again. It was more in defeat than trying to stop his nosebleed. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do that to them,” he murmured.
I gaped at him. “I don’t believe you.”
His face hardened. “Believe what you will.” He looked at the bunched-up shirt and tested to see if his nose was still bleeding. It had stopped.
