Page 24 of Breathe Like Hell

“You’ll see.”

I glanced away from my glowing phone screen to glare at him for a second, then turned my focus back to Mila, tapping out a response to her long string of fragmented messages. Exhaustion clawed at my consciousness, threatening to pull me under, almost tempting me. It was strange to think that I’d woken up in Micah’s bed this morning, that he’d gotten mad at me earlier. Those things felt like they happened a million years ago.

“Can I see your phone?” I asked after a few minutes of quiet, my thoughts only accompanied by the rumble of the road under Mason’s tires. We pulled up to a red light and Mason grabbed his phone out of the cup holder, tilting the screen away from me, putting me on edge.

“Not right now. Why?”

“For music? Why not?”

He was quiet for a second as his thumbs moved over the screen. The traffic light switched to green, the light illuminating the angled planes of his face, deepening the shadows over his eyes.

“Okay.” He offered the device to me, staring at my face. “Now you can look through it.”

“Did you just delete something?” I asked incredulously.

“Yeah.”

“What the fuck?” I sat up straighter. Mason turned back to the road and began to accelerate through the intersection. “What did you delete?”

“Why would I tell you that, baby? Then it would’ve been pointless for me to delete anything.” We were picking up speed now, the hum of the engine spurring on all my bad thoughts.

I jammed my thumb on the button to roll the window down and threw Mason’s phone outside as hard as I could, watching it disappear somewhere among the ferns as we sped down the road. Wind funneled into the car through the open window, whipping my hair around, shoving exhilaration into my lungs.

“No need to delete anything now,” I shouted over the wind.

“You just threw my phone out the window?”

“Yes.”

Mason slammed on the brakes so hard I was thrown forward against my seatbelt, my wide eyes flicking rapidly to the side mirror to make sure we weren’t about to get rear ended. There were no other cars in sight, though. We jerked to a complete stop, my heart slamming on my sternum.

I looked at Mason.

“Go get it,” he said.

CHAPTER EIGHT

DAKOTA

“No.”

“Fine.” He turned the wheel, pulling slowly onto the shoulder, then turned the car off and got out. My pulse was wild now, fear trickling through my blood. He ripped my door open and reached into the car to unclip my seatbelt, then yanked me out, overpowering my resistance with an ease that scared me. “I’ll make you get it.”

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, dragging my feet when Mason tried to lead me, my heart still hammering from when he’d slammed on the brakes. “I thought you didn’t care about your phone.”

“I don’t.” He pulled me off balance and I stumbled forward a few steps before righting myself, resigning to walk next to him, gravel crunching under my boots. The nighttime air was cold on my face, wind seeping through my clothes and making me shiver. I moved closer to the edge of the road, the soles of my boots scuffing the white line.

“Then what?”

“Why are you walking so close to the road?” Mason grabbed me, putting me on the other side of him, safely away from any cars.

“Why are you making me search for your phone?”

“Micah is going to be pissed if he can’t get a hold of me when I have you.”

“He’s already pissed,” I said under my breath.

“I’m aware.”