Chapter 8
GARRET
There is something about Rose I can’t figure out. She occupies my thoughts every waking moment, even when all I want to do is ruin her—break her into pieces so I can create the perfect version of her. But I can’t, because she is beautiful the way she is. Lies and all.
What if I ruin the look in her eyes that she reserves only for me? The tremble in her hands when I’m near her. The look that battles between lust and hate.
I sit outside her door, listening, hoping that my name slips from her lips. But it doesn’t. It’s always “stop,” followed by the sadness in her cries—cries that fill my soul.
I’m fucked up. I know I am, and it’s no secret. I’m a killer, and I enjoy pain.
I was ordered to kill her—an order given when a Prey knows too much. She’s a liability, but I can’t.
John still doesn’t know the real reason for my visit. All he knows is that the Order sent me to meet her. They know we’ve talked on campus. There are cameras, and I don’t care if they saw me come all over her hands. They’ve seen worse.
But I couldn’t help myself. I want to degrade her, show her how my hate spills from my cock for wanting her the way I do. Even if I can’t fuck her because she’ll ruin me if I did.
“Where are you taking me?” she asks in a fragile voice pulling me from my thoughts
I wish I could tell that I’m going to kill her and be done with it, but I can’t. Not yet.
I had a spot picked out near the abandoned house the consortium uses for its victims. The others don’t know the Order wants her dead. Not Valen, the twins, Reid, Azriel, Melody, Veronica, Gia, or Jess. They’re not supposed to. All they know is she’s on her own until she graduates, but what they don’t know is that they signed her death warrant.
“Wherever I want,” I say instead.
She looks away, staring at the dark-tinted window. The silence is thick with tension, unlit, waiting for the right spark. I’m not sure what I’m even doing being this close to her.
All I know is that I couldn’t leave her there with him. The way he looks at her disgusts me. It’s like the sharp end of a knife slicing my skin open.
I pull into the famous diner where all the sons of Kenyan have taken their wives. Except she isn’t going to be anyone’s wife. Ever.
“You didn’t have to offer,” she says suddenly. “I couldn’t have stayed.”
“You like the attention John gives you?” She glances at me with sadness and hate in her eyes every time his name is mentioned, and I don’t know why she doesn’t leave. Why she accepts the way he treats her for money. Why she told the biggest lie to the only people who could protect her.
And I hate her for it.
“Let’s go.” I get out, not waiting for her answer. It’s probably just another lie, and I don’t want another reason to kill her.
Walking up the steps, I turn around, waiting for her to get out of the car. I’m not chivalrous. I surprised myself when I opened her door to begin with. I wait a few seconds while she contemplates getting out of the car. I press the unlock button on the key fob, hoping she gets the hint from the clicking sound. A few guys from Ohio State Walk up in their letterman jackets right when she steps out of the car.
The guys stop whatever they were saying, and one of them mutters, “Damn,” staring at the car. But when she straightens her faded sweater, trying to cover the sliver of skin on her small waist because it’s a size too small, outlining the generous amount of breasts underneath, I notice it’s not my Rolls Spectre they’re looking at, as I’m used to, but her.
The feeling of possessiveness when another man looks at her drives me insane when it shouldn’t. The way their greedy gaze slides over every curve, thinking of all the ways they could fuck her. The way these assholes are doing now. The way Luke did when he asked her to my party. What I had to do to Luke’s face when he said he was going to fuck her. Why I marked her with my cum and warned her not to go.
The one wearing a fucking cowboy hat steps forward and says, “Hi.” I recognize him. He’s this year’s new quarterback for Ohio State from Texas. She smiles awkwardly, and annoyance settles in the pit of my stomach. “Nice car.”
What a loser.
“It’s not mine,” she says truthfully.
“Ahh… boyfriend,” he says, fishing for the truth. She shakes her head. I watch in slow motion as his eyes light up like she gave him the greatest gift in the world. Her voice and an opening to keep talking to her. Stealing her eyes, her voice, and her time when they weren’t his. “I’m?—”
“In the way,” I interrupt him scornfully. He looks up, and so do his stupid friends. I watch his expression turn to shock when he recognizes me. “What’s up, Garret?” he says nervously, looking between me and Rose. “Could you move? I’m kind of hungry.” I open the door wider, forcefully holding it open, arching my brow at Rose to hurry the fuck up before I stab him in the eyes, break his fucking hands, and cut out his tongue. Rose doesn’t argue and moves like it started to rain.
Dorathy smiles when she places the menus on the table, her matchmaking eyes shifting between me and Rose. “I haven’t seen you here in a while, handsome,” she smiles. “Who’s the pretty lady?”
Rose grins awkwardly, not knowing what to say, and I’m pissed at the way the asshole keeps looking this way. If it weren’t for Dorathy, I would have walked over there. I grab the menu and scan it like I don’t know what I want. “Her name is Rose.”
“Hi, Rose,” Dorathy says brightly. “I’m Dorathy.”
Rose smiles, and my chest tightens at how gorgeous she is when her lips stretch, showing her white teeth. One is slightly shifted, and I want the imprint of her bite on my skin. “It’s nice to meet you, Dorathy,” she replies gently. Dorathy looks at me with pride in her eyes. “She’s gorgeous, Garret.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” I point out.
“Well, I guess some other guy will be lucky to have her then.”
Rose looks down at the menu. We both know that isn’t going to happen for very different reasons. I place my order. Dorathy patiently waits for Rose. Rose bites the corner of her lip. It’s so innocent. I’m not sure she knows she does it. She looks at Dorothy like she’s summoning the courage to speak. “Can I have a glass of water and fries? The small basket, please?”
I frown, scanning the menu and finding the small basket of fries where Dorothy created a value menu. A small basket of fries is $2.95. What the fuck? “She’ll have the special, Dorothy,” I order. “Burger, large fry, and a strawberry milkshake.”
Dorothy smiles, ignoring Rose’s panicked expression. “There we go,” she says, taking the menus. When Dorothy is out of earshot, something flashes in Rose’s eyes. “Why did you do that?”
“Because you’re too skinny, and you need to eat.”
“Why the fuck do you care?” she says, as if I offended her.
“Hmm… I like this side of you so much better. You should let out whatever the fuck is keeping you from speaking up. I know there’s a wildfire inside waiting to be lit.”
She rolls her eyes.
“And you’re the fucking match, right?”
“Is that what you want, Rose?” I lean close. “You want me to be your match?”
Her pupils go wide. Her brown eyes are so rich, I would pay anything to drown in them.
Her straight hair frames her face, so pretty and delicate. I bet my hands would leave dents a flat iron couldn’t straighten.
“Why are you doing this?” she asks, looking around the red-and-white decorated diner like she’s never been to one.
“I don’t know what you mean. I was hungry and bored with useless people. Don’t read too much into it. I said I would make sure you ate, and unlike you, I keep my promises.”
“Like you did to your girlfriend, Cassie,” she says sardonically. I smile when I see jealousy the spark of jealousy in her eyes. “I thought we talked about this. I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“But you told your mother…”
“I said I kept my promises. I never said I didn’t lie.”
“What promise is that?”
I lean back. “Well, that depends.”
“On?” she presses, trying to sound tough.
“What I want,” I say truthfully.
“What do you want?” she asks, curiously, but I can tell deep down she’s afraid of the answer.
Her eyes tell me what her words can’t. She’s afraid I want her. That I would break the wall we’ve built between us. A wall we couldn’t break because we weren’t sure if we would survive once we crossed it, but I have to kill her.
And then there’s the part of me that can’t end her without me in it.