Page 52 of Savage Salvation

“You never had me. You just fucked me, then fucked me over. Good job.” As I turn, Gage’s hand clasps around my elbow, hauling me to him. My free hand comes up, slapping across his face. “There’s only one thing I got right. You are worse than Ryan. By far. He never pretended. He never asked me to trust him then lied to me about the one thing he knew meant the world to me.”

“Walter has a PI looking into it.” Gage looks to Isaac then back at me as he strains to get the words out. “But I know he was telling the truth about the letter. It was their tool to control you. Let me find out why they needed that control.”

I heard his words. But I can’t accept them. “I don’t care why they did. The only thing I care about is the one thing that’s kept me going for the last eight years. And now it’s nothing but a fucking lie.”

“Kinsley, please. There’s a reason for all of this. Let me find out what it is so we can fight it together. Because there has to be something that made Danielle dangle a fake fucking letter over your head.”

When Gage attempts to reach for me, I jerk my hand out of his grasp. “I don’t give a shit why Danielle’s kept me around. Screw her for insisting I graduate from that stupid academy. Fuck her for always telling me how much I was costing them and what a burden I am. It’s all been for nothing … attending Sacred Creed, the torment, catching hell from people, including you, who made my life miserable. It was all for nothing.”

“Couldn’t have been that miserable since you screwed him,” Isaac says, causing me to look at him.

“That’s right. I fucked him after everything he did to me yet didn’t want you to touch me. So, take a moment to think about that, then get the fuck out of my sight.” I turn my attention back to Gage. “I can’t do this anymore. Any of it.”

I rush past him, and thankfully he doesn’t chase me. Because where I’m heading, there’s no coming back from.

* * *

The fuel splashes against the paint, and even when I feel it splash on me I don’t stop. Turning the gas can up, I make sure every drop is poured on the car that Ryan won. The same car that is parked in the front of the Wagoners’ house. Fuck little Mr. Precious. All the times she gave him exactly what he wanted, let him have exactly what he asked for, then made me feel like a charity case, and the entire time, they were controlling me for God knows what reason with my mom’s memory. My mom had to have trusted Danielle or she wouldn’t have left me in her care.

I hear someone behind me, glancing over my shoulder, I’m not surprised to see Gage. He stands about five feet behind me as I go back to pouring the gasoline on his former vehicle. “You’re not gonna stop me, so don’t try.”

“Wasn’t planning on it.”

The words cause me to pause for a second as I ask, “Then why are you here?”

He comes a few steps closer. “To protect you. I’m here to make sure they don’t hurt you again.”

“But you do.”

“Yes. As much as I try not to, I end up hurting you. But I promise you, I’ll be here, right beside you, ready to help you burn the world down if that’s what will make you happy.”

“Nothing will make me happy.” I say the words I feared. I fear at the end of this I will never truly be happy.

“Maybe not today, but one day. One day it’ll all be over, and we’ll find out it was worth the pain. It has to be.” His voice is strained as he takes a step behind me his arms wrapping around me, his mouth next to my ear. “We have to be enough. Because if we’re not, nothing ever will be.”

I stand with the fumes burning my nose, my eyes welling with tears, which just adds to my anger. Grabbing the road flare, I twist the cap off, and swipe the striker across the tip. Sparks fly, but it doesn’t ignite. I do it twice more until the flame burns bright, the flare meant to send off a distress signal couldn’t be more appropriate right now. I toss the flare the few feet to the car where it bounces against the hood, the fuel immediately catching fire. I take a few steps back and watch flames engulf the car, the heat of the blaze on my face. Gage’s hands clasp my biceps, hauling me back farther away from the fire, but he releases me once the heat isn’t so intense where we stand.

“Why that one? For the bet. Why this car?”

“Because I bought it to piss off my dad. And it was great at first, then it turned into something else that reminded me how much of my decisions he controlled. And I wanted to use it to control the other person I despised. But that plan went up in flames. Literally.”

We stand for a few seconds, maybe minutes, I’m not sure, as we watch the flames until the front door of the house swings open, Danielle appearing in the doorway, her eyes wide with disbelief.

She screams back into the house before darting across the driveway, her eyes on the car. Steve appears in the doorway then disappears back into the house. And then the one I was hoping for finally appears—Ryan darts out of the house, circling around his car. “My car. You crazy bitch.”

He moves to charge at me, but Gage steps in front of me. “Think really hard because I swear to you, you’ll end up in that inferno if you touch her.”

Steve runs out the house, fire extinguisher in hand, as he aims it at the car, attempting to douse the flames.

“I’m calling the authorities,” Danielle shrieks, her hand coming up to her forehead in the dramatic drama queen act that she’s honed.

Gage looks to Ryan. “Call them. I’ve been itching to tell them a few things.”

“I know what you did to my son. The only reason you’re not behind bars is because he pleaded with me to not press charges. Because he knows you’d just break out and make his life miserable, just like Kinsley does.” Danielle keeps a hand on her hip, glaring at me.

“Like I do?” I laugh, looking at the deceitful wench and her spawn. “Tell her about our Valentine’s date, Ryan. Tell her exactly how much I made your life miserable.”

Ryan’s anger ceases, replaced by a panic. He instantly turns to Danielle as she looks at him with sheer horror. Ryan shouts, “No, you don’t understand.”