Page 40 of Branded Betrayal

Still woozy, I grab onto the mahogany banister and wander upstairs. The scent of Blaze’s cologne wafts under my nose as I step toward his old bedroom. It cloys my senses, making me think things I shouldn’t.

I hate him. Hate him.

And if he were here, I’d tell him so.

I push open his door a crack, just to peek inside. It hasn’t changed. Same dark-blue walls, same baseball posters on the walls, same sports trophies lining the bookshelves because Blaze never had much interest in books.

I tiptoe inside, my feet creaking as I step across the scuffed floorboards. Stopping at his dresser, I spot metal dog tags. As I peer at the tiny letters, my brows furrow.

Liam Townsend.

Why does Blaze have these? Shouldn’t Liam have them?

“What are you doing here?”

I yelp, dropping the chains. They clatter on the top of the dresser, and Blaze reaches past me to scoop them up. He opens the top drawer and drops them inside before slamming it shut.

“Who’s Liam Townsend?” I ask.

“Leave it alone, Savannah.” Blaze’s eyes ice over.

I toss my hands into the air. “Right. ’Cause you’re a vault, right? Can’t ever say what you feel or answer a question honestly. I should’ve known better than to ask.” With a huff, I push past him. “I need to go.”

My hand on the doorknob, I turn back to face him. The bitter taste of anger dances on my tongue. Screw that. I’m not going anywhere. Not until he hears what I want to say, what I’ve been aching to say for so long.

“You’re a coward, you know that? You walked away when things got real.”

“You have no idea what I’ve done to keep you safe.” His voice is flat, empty, void of any emotion at all.

That pisses me off even more.

“Keep me safe.” I scoff. “What a joke. Why are you back here, Blaze? You couldn’t wait to leave me before.”

And you left me with so much more than a broken heart.

My pulse spikes, my mind tripping back to that night in Denver years ago. The crippling pain that sent me to the emergency room. And the blood. So much blood.

I pull open the door when he doesn’t respond, my breaths coming in short, sharp gasps. I clutch the railing, trying to pull myself together.

He doesn’t even bother to come after me.

A deep sigh deflates my chest.

Because he doesn’t care. And deep down, I know he never really did.

Chapter Fourteen

Blaze

Her words pop between my ears like bullets.

“You couldn’t wait to leave me before.”

I press my fingertips to my temples, but it doesn’t do shit to block the words out. All I hear is her voice looping through my mind like a broken record. The ache of “what if” presses into me like a knife being plunged into my chest.

The front door slams shut a minute after Savannah storms out of my room.

I rake a hand through my hair. It’s better this way. She needs to hate me, to stay far away from me. And it kills me to hurt her by pretending I don’t care because I do. I care so fucking much. Always have.