51. Tess
TESS
Stupid fucking padlock.
No matter what buttons I mashed, I couldn’t figure out how to operate the stupid digital thing that locked the door. And as footsteps thundered up the stairs, I realized what a waste it had been to try.
Running across the living room, I grasped the heavy arm chair and tried to lug it in front of the door. If I could block it off, I could buy myself enough time to clear my shit out of the house. I could—
“Tess…” Nash called, gray eyes brimming with worry as they locked on me across the apartment.
“Don’t fucking look at me.” I hissed, letting the arm chair topple uselessly as I moved for the hallway.
“Tess.” She picked up speed, trying to cut me off before I reached the hallway. I slipped past her, ducking my shoulder, but she gripped my forearm, pulling me closer. “Tess, please.”
“You want some too?” Heat pulsed through my veins. I snarled, whipping to face her. “You play it so fucking calm and chill, but you’re just as bad as them. Trying to convince me that you’re my friend, that you care for me?”
A sharp laugh burst from my lips. “Couldn’t do me the decency of telling me what you all fucking knew, though, huh? Let me look like a fucking idiot letting you guys hunt me around your twisted playground, letting you…”
The tears welled in my eyes again. This time, when I tried to wrench my arm away, she let me.
Just like I thought.
Logic told me to go to my room: if she was just going to let me leave, I should do that. But now that I knew who my Freaks were, I felt more trapped than ever. How had they found me? What did they want from me?
While questions raced through my mind, Nash stood silent and sullen, backlit at the end of the hall. She was utterly poised, even as she watched me seethe. And that pissed me off more than anything.
“What did she mean?” I snarled. Before my mind could think better of it, my body had wheeled toward the light, charging down the hall on a collision course with Nash.
“What?” She hesitated, brows creasing as I got closer. Close enough to touch.
“Cyrus.” I hissed, glaring up into her stormy gray eyes. “What did she mean, ‘my fault?’”
For the first time, Nash’s composure cracked. She grit her teeth, biting back whatever words had risen to her lips first. “Tess…”
I leaned closer, stopping her from looking away. “Answer me. Now.”
My heart thundered in my ears as I waited for her response. But after a long pause, all she could manage was a pained sigh. “That’s something you need to ask Cyrus.”
Derision coursed through my chest as I hissed in her face. “Fucking coward.”
I turned on my heel, heading back toward my room. But I could hear Nash’s heavy footsteps following after me. “I’m sorry, Tess. I swear it’s for the best. It’s just—”
“Just like lying to me was for the best?” I scoffed, narrowing my eyes at her from my doorway. She hovered just in front of me — if she wanted to, it would be easy to push past me, to grab the door, to stop me from closing it.
But she wouldn’t. For all their bravado, the Freaks weren’t that interested in keeping me.
They’ll throw me out eventually. They always get sick of their toys.
Rolling my shoulders back, I tried my best to ignore the searing pain in my chest as I looked into Nash’s eyes. “Do me a favor: stop with the bullshit excuses. I’m not sure what you thought, but I’m not a little girl anymore. I don’t need your fucking pity.”
Finally, that placid gaze cracked, a fresh wave of pain cresting in her eyes. But I slammed the door in her face before she could respond.
I waited for what would follow. A knock, a crack, the door swinging open: something that would tell me that she wasn’t just going to let me slip away again.
But instead, I heard a long silence followed by heavy bootsteps receding down the hallway.
Tears welled in my eyes. The pain in my chest cracked open, seeping through the rest of my body. I had worked so hard to leave that religious group home behind, to forget about the Freaks, to move on with my fucking life.
And now here I was, trapped in the same old patterns. Running from a past that wouldn’t let me out of its clutches.
Nash might let me go. Blade probably would too. But I had a feeling Cyrus wouldn’t let me leave without getting her money’s worth.
I blinked away the tears as I regarded the room. I could try to make a run for it while Cyrus was distracted. But I wasn’t sure what to pack or if I even had a bag to pack it in. The Freaks had made the place comfortable, and now I could see what a trap that had been.
Lull me into false security.
I was done letting them decide my fate, though. Done hiding from my past.
I could leave Feverpoint right now, but it wouldn’t leave me any better off than when I’d gotten here. Especially with Rubin running around Valemont.
I needed enough money to fund a clean break. No more dawdling around the park, gambling away my money and treating Cyrus like a free ATM. No more acting like the Freaks were my friends, letting them get close to me.
It was time to get serious about the next Fright Night. The next pot was $40k.
I need to take my money and run before the past catches up to me.