The last of my delusions about Oliver crumbled that very second. The facade burst, and all that was left was shrapnel.
“I haven’t been waiting,” I muttered. How could I have been so blind?
He laughed. “I have messages proving the opposite. ‘I dream of you often.’ Isn’t that what you recently wrote me?”
Jamie’s face fell, and it made me want to shrivel up and die.What have I done?
“No,” I rasped in a voice I didn’t recognize as my own.
Oliver took a step toward me and opened his arms. “I’m finally here. You’ve been waiting for this moment for years, beautiful. I’m yours at last.”
I took a step back. “I heard everything you said.”
“I can explain,” he purred, making my gut churn.
“No, you can’t,” I grit out and forced myself to meet his eyes. I wanted to see him,reallysee him. See past the cruelly handsome face, and the emerald eyes that had haunted my dreams for so long. I needed to face him so that I could finally accept all the things I’d been so wrong about.
I knew the moment he started to feel uncomfortable, the moment he unconsciously sensed what I was doing, but I kept staring into the depths of his dark pupils until I finally saw the man he’d been all along.
The man I thought he was didn’t exist. It was a carefully crafted mask. Behind the mask, there was nothing but a terrifying, vampiric darkness.
He opened his mouth to say something, but I moved my attention away from him. The chains had snapped. There was nothing tying me to him anymore.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to Jamie, who was looking at me from below his lashes, his face carved into a broken frown.
Brushing past Oliver, I pulled open the front door and escaped into the evening.
19
JAMIE
My chest constrictedas I watched Ivy leave. Everything inside of me itched to chase after her, but I knew I had to put this situation with Oliver to rest, once and for all. My fingers tightened around the edge of the kitchen counter at my back as I waited for my unwelcome guest to face me again.
He was looking at the open door, his neck and jaw tense. I couldn’t see his expression from where I stood, but I knew he was riled up. The long stare down that had passed between him and Ivy would be forever etched into my memory, because I knew she finally understood. The illusion had disintegrated. And there was nothing Oliver was more afraid of than having people see him for what he really was.
She didn’t know it, but with that poignant silence, she’d dealt him a heavy blow, far more deadly than any words could be.
My old bandmate kicked the door closed. The slam reverberated through the house, and he twisted around. “She’ll be begging me to take her back within the hour.”
I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest.
He sneered at my silence and cracked his neck. Seeing him this rattled was absurdly satisfying.
“You think you’ve won?” he asked. “Got my money and got my girl?”
“She was never your girl,” I told him, keeping my voice level. He wanted to rile me up, to make me lose control, but I was determined not to let him.
“Is that what she’s told you?” He smiled coldly, his expression implying some secret knowledge. “Ivy’s a good liar. I’ve always liked that about her.”
I crossed my legs, trying to distract myself from the heart palpitations in my chest. Why hadn’t I asked Ivy about her relationship with Oliver earlier? I had been so sure that whatever happened between them was history. Had I deceived myself because I was afraid to find out the truth?
“You know,” Oliver said, interrupting the thoughts running through my head. “I get it. I get why she came to you. You were a connection to me, and she’s been so desperate to see me again,” he said, furrowing his brow in mocking pity. “Hate to say it, but she was probably imagining me every time you were with her.”
Don’t let him get inside your head.
It took every ounce of my self-control not to pummel his face in with my bare hands. I could do it. I was stronger than him now, not to mention far more sober, but I knew that was exactly what he wanted me to do. I’d never get the truth about Ivy from him. I could only get that from her. “If you try to contact her again, I’ll break every single bone inside your body.”
A vein in Oliver’s temple pulsed hard enough for me to notice. “You’re nothing, Jamie. Remember that. You’re fucking nothing without me. Here.” He reached into an inner pocket of his leather jacket, pulled out a bottle of Stolichnaya vodka, and slammed it down on the counter. “My gift to you. Let’s see how long this perfect little life of yours will last now that you no longer have to focus on winning your court battle against me.”
