Page 73 of Dark Notes, Volume Two

He clears his throat and nods.

“Got it.”

I grin at him and hand him his cash before patting him on the head.

“Good boy. Let’s do this.”

11

Chapter Fifty-One

MIA

There’s a knock at my door and I don’t ask who it is because I’m assuming it’s the meat delivery I placed. I open the door and stand stunned.

“No.” I say as I stare at Jett and the man beside him runs off like his life is in jeopardy.

I move to shut the door, but Jett sticks his free arm in the opening, stopping me from closing it.

He waltzes into my house as if I’ve invited him.

“No,” I say sternly as I back away from the doorway. “I said no. Get out.”

He sets down what appears to be eight dozen roses, which certainly seems a little extra. With a grin, he answers my unasked question.

“Ninety-Three roses. One for every day we were apart.”

That would be kind of sweet if it weren’t for the fact that I drove over twenty-five hundred miles to prevent ever seeing him again.

“Why are you here?” I ask with my hands on my hips, trying to show him exactly how annoyed I am by his presence.

“I love you.”

“Love?” I shout angrily.

“I don’t need love like yours Jett. If your love were a song, it’d be a dark, haunting melody-painful, toxic and cruel.”

He blanches at my words as if I physically hurt him, but it can’t possibly be worse than what he has done to me.

“You have to listen to me, Angel. Please let me make you understand.”

I shake my head as I move from the fireplace to the other side of the room near the patio doors.

“No. I don’t want to hear your words. The last ones I heard are fine. I saw you fucking her. I heard you say you love her. You called her Angel. That’s all I need to know Jett. I don’t love you. I feel nothing for you other than repulsion.”

His eyes fill with unshed tears, but it doesn’t make him leave. Instead he moves quickly to me, and I step back trying to avoid the inevitable, hitting the glass doors with nowhere to go. I’m stuck, and in his grasp as he lowers his head and stares at me with a smirk on his lips. The same ones that kissed me so many times. They made me feel safe and loved. I remind myself.

His love is an illusion. It’s not real.

He takes a few strands of my hair between his fingers and my breathing betrays me, letting him know the effect he still has on me is intense.

“Was this so I wouldn’t know who you are, Angel?”

I nod, unable to speak and he chuckles softly.

“Oh baby, that never would’ve worked.”

His gaze moves down my body, slowly, intentionally.