Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
Silas
My nails dig into the desk so violently it cracks through the wood as I find her sitting there right in front of me.
The girl who fucking dared to walk into me ...
The girl who called me a shortie ...
Is the girl who fucking stole from me.
“Wait, we don’t know if it’s her yet,” Max mutters.
“Who else could it be?” I grit.
It can’t be a coincidence she’s wearing only one hearing aid.
Rage quietly takes over every atom of my body as I stare at her, wondering when she’ll feel the burn of my gaze. If she even realizes I know who she is and what she’s done.
I wait, and wait, watching the clock tick away on the wall while she listens to the professor speak. But after she’s filled her notebook with scribbles, she tucks it back into her bag and turns her head to a girl sitting next to her on the benches … and I clearly spot the empty ear.
Fuck yes.
All this time, I thought I was searching for a guy, and now it turns out to be a fucking girl.
A wild smirk forms on my face.
The wait seems eternal, but it’s worth it because the moment she slowly turns in her seat and looks my way, I can see the blood drain from her face.
Yes.
Look at me, Ivy Clark.
I know your name. I know who you are. I know what you’ve done. And it will cost you dearly.
I can’t fucking wait to watch you beg.
The professor finishes his class, and she swiftly grabs her bag and rushes out the door. She thinks she can escape me, but this shortie’s legs favorite thing in the entire fucking world is chasing something down … And today, I’ve found my prey.
Ivy
I run through the corridors of Spine Ridge University, the sound of students chatting away doing nothing to drown out the noise in my head.
He saw me. He saw me sitting there and looked at me like he knew what I’d done.
I head into a women's-only bathroom and lock myself in a stall to catch my breath. I sit down and close my eyes for a second.
He doesn’t know you stole from him.
He couldn’t possibly kno—
The door slams open, and my eyes burst open along with it. I hold my breath as someone steps into the bathroom and closes the door behind them. I immediately pull both feet up on the toilet seat and make myself as tiny as possible.
“Ivy …”
It’s him.
“Oh, Ivy …”
His unsettling, dark voice brings chills to my spine.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are …”
WHAM!
A door two down from me is knocked open so harshly I nearly squeal, and I cover my mouth with my hand to stop him from hearing anything.
“I’m going to fucking find you, one way or another.”
WHAM!
The next door is kicked open, and when I peer through the tiny slit between the two stalls, a shoe retracts. My door is next.
“And when I do, you’re gonna be mine .”
I have to find something, anything, to defend myself with when he gets ahold of me. This guy is insane.
I turn around, gripping the old, nonfunctional water pipe behind me that’s bound to break eventually, and the moment his shoe lands against the door, I rip off the piece. The door flies open, and his unhinged smile makes my veins burst with fear and disgust.
“Found you.”
The second he lunges at me, I swing the pipe at his face, but he blocks and grips the metal.
“Can’t hit me, twig. I’m quicker than you,” he taunts, and he tries to pry the pipe right out of my hand.
“What the fuck do you want from me?”
“What do I want?” He laughs maniacally. “Your life.”
“Get away from me!” With the pipe between us, I push him out of the stall, forcing him back against the sink, but all it does is make him smile and laugh even harder.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“What’s wrong with me?” he mocks. “Maybe you should ask yourself that question.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I say.
I know I’m lying, but I’m not going to admit the truth to the likes of him.
Clutching the pipe hard, he leans in with a tilted head as he stares at me. “You missing a hearing aid, thief?”
He looks me dead in the eyes, and the toxic smirk on his face makes me gulp.
Suddenly, he inches forward and bites the air right in front of my nose, making me jolt back. Another sadistic laugh follows.
“You don’t know who you’re messing with.”
He pushes me back with ease as if all this time he was letting me believe I could take him, that I was in control of the pipe that separates his hungry teeth from my skin.
“You stole from me,” he growls. “I don’t take that lightly. You will pay. Whether it’s in cash … or with skin.”
Skin?!
What the—
He pushes me all the way to the wall, and it knocks the air out of my lungs as I’m pinned between him and the pipe. Nowhere to go. No way out.
His face inches closer, green eyes nearly boring a hole into my heart.
“Now … how should I make you pay for your crime?” His breath leaves hot marks on my skin. “With blood?” he whispers. His tongue, wet and dripping with hunger, licks a trail from my neck to my ear. “Or with fear?”
Fuck. He’s actually licking me.
Silas Rivera is licking my skin, mouth wide open, teeth ready to sink in.
How am I going to get out of this?
If only I hadn’t fallen out of that damn tree, I would’ve still had my hearing aid, and he would’ve never known it was me in his room.
“Prove it.” It’s out before I realize it.
His tongue lifts from my skin. “Prove what?”
“Losing my hearing aid is not a crime. You don’t know if I stole from you.” I’m not backing down even though I know this is a tough shot. “Prove. It.”
Murderous obsession flashes in his narrowed eyes. “How many strokes do you think it would take before you spill?”
I frown. “What?”
Suddenly, his hand dives between my legs, swatting them aside with no remorse as he begins to rub me right through the fabric of my pants.
“One?”
I’m so shocked I don’t even know how to respond as his callous fingers circle my most sensitive area like he already owns the place.
“Two?”
He circles once more, biting his lip as though he’s enjoying the view of seeing me unravel.
“Three? C’mon, thief, give me a number, and I’ll make you see the stars above before I bury you.”
“You’re insane,” I growl.
I try to shove him away, to no avail, as my arms are still lodged firmly behind the pipe he’s holding onto with just one strong hand.
“Do you feel this finger, twig?” he says, a chaotic-looking grin on his face. “I could kill you with just this one. So that makes you insane for stealing from someone like me .”
I don’t think I want to know how he’d do it.
He adds another finger, and I struggle to stay upright while my knees begin to buckle.
“Now, are you going to fucking tell me the truth?”
“Fuck you,” I hiss, trying not to let it affect me, but it’s hard, so damn hard, when he’s touching me exactly the right way while those green eyes bore a hole into my head to keep me from running.
It’s as if my mind no longer belongs to me.
“Oh, we’ll definitely get to that fucking part if you don’t tell me what I want to know right fucking now.”
The door suddenly opens, and a girl stands frozen in the doorway, staring us down like she walked in on a murder, and I don’t think that’s too far from the truth.
Silas pulls his fingers away from my slit, drops the pipe, and immediately walks away, but not before throwing me a final glare. “I’ll see you soon, twig.”
His tongue dips out to run along the top of his lip like he’s still tasting me. A final lick of the dessert he will devour when he gets the chance.
I gulp as the door shuts behind him, and the girl grabs my shoulder. “You okay?”
I don’t want to involve her in this. Those boys are way too dangerous.
But damn, I’m lucky she came in.
Even though I’m in complete shambles just from the way he touched me.
“I’m fine. He was just messing with me.”
But I’m not fine.
My heart has never beaten faster than it did just now.
I can still feel the wetness he left with those ruthless fingers, still feel his filthy tongue on my skin, leaving a mark of death.
Like a threat …
A promise to ruin me.