19. Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Nineteen
Micah
I brought Naomi back to the cabin for one more night. She wouldn’t speak to me through the long, cold walk home. Even as I helped her over the dark patches in the rock, her iciness ran deep. It appears I have finally succeeded in breaking Naomi Wilson—traumatizing her is more like it. I’ve never heard her be so quiet.
As soon as James and Jade had arrived, I quickly had led Naomi out through the plane’s back door, ensuring she wouldn’t have a chance to scream or be noticed by them. Trying to explain why I had a knife to Naomi’s throat would have been extremely difficult in that moment.
Her face is as pale as the moon as she steps inside the cabin and curls up on the bed. “Don’t touch me, Micah,” she snaps, her voice breaking. “Don’t come near me.”
I run my hand through my hair, taking a moment to remember the bond we formed as childhood friends. She’s not an enemy nor a threat. She’s just Naomi shaking like a leaf because she fears me. If Ezra had done anything to London, she’d be dead.
I sit down next to her. “I’m going to take you to Jade, Serena, and the others tomorrow. This is over with me, and you’ll never have to talk to me again.”
She doesn’t respond because there is nothing more to say. Our friendship is broken; it always was. I’m not that guy for her, and I never have been. And I’m doing a terrible job being the guy I want to be for the one girl who has ever truly meant anything to me.
I don’t crawl in next to Naomi, even though my body is dead tired. I won’t sleep tonight anyway. Not that I ever really do, and especially not with Ezra lurking around. I don’t know what transpired on the airplane after I left, but I plan to find out as soon as the sun rises.
I head outside, letting the wooden door creak behind me. There’s a tease of pink and green light in the sky as the Northern Lights break through the stars sparkling across the sky. I make a small fire and sit next to it, placing my head in my hands. I try not to avert my gaze, knowing it’s a sign. Maison loved these lights. He used to go and chase them—a benefit of living in a northern climate. He’s with me right now, and I bet if I looked hard enough, I’d see him watching me.
I finally stare at the sky and at the stars behind those celestial lights and think of every way I’ve failed the few people I love in this world. Maison’s presence is all over me, hovering around me and suffocating the air I breathe. His judgment is pouring in from the other side.
“Yeah, I know, brother,” I whisper. “I fucking know… Now, get out of my mind.”
He has no business being so self-righteous. He killed someone after all. He took a life. He fucking died and left me. The devastation of that is unforgivable. He can rot in hell.
I’m not a killer. I’m not a monster.
I whisper those two phrases to myself over and over as the fire dwindle to flickering embers and ashes. She was right there… I fucking had her within my grasp, and I let her slip. London’s eyes were glazed over, and she looked at me like I was a stranger.
I sit in silence for hours without moving in the cold, frozen and still as the wind cuts through my hood and bites my face. My mind is in a prison, the guilt eating me alive for my heart being the one that’s beating right now. My throat tightens… and for nearly an hour, I can’t breathe.
It’s a hint of light in the sky that shakes me and pulls me back to reality. The morning breaks through the clouds, and I rise, head inside, and nudge Naomi awake. She is sleeping soundly, sprawled out like she’s on vacation—like I didn’t nearly slit her throat eight hours earlier. “Get ready. It’s time to go.”
Without uttering a single word, she rises from the bed and begins cramming her stuff into her bag. Her demeanor has noticeably shifted since last night as she appears more collected and composed.
She finally makes eye contact with me. “They aren’t going to want you there when they find out what you did to me last night. I’ll tell them what you are, Micah.”
A smile hints at my lips, and I open the trapdoor in the floorboards. “Yeah? We’ll see about that.” Her eyes widen as I pull out the medical kit and some canned food and stuff it into my backpack. “This is my peace offering, and they’d be stupid not to accept it. They have no food either, Naomi. It’s my peace offering to you too. Take what you want.”
I’m not worried about Naomi seeing my supply stash. It doesn’t matter anymore. I won’t need it because I won’t be here next winter to eat it.
“How do you have so much left?” she asks as she leans down, cautiously grabs a few cans, and places them in her bag. She doesn’t take it all, and she doesn’t question why I purposely leave some behind.
“Because I know how to live off the land,” I answer. “Nature has everything you need to survive.”
She waits with her arms crossed and her lips pursed as I finish packing and head outside. She follows me as I scan both directions of the dark forest, half expecting Ezra or Nigel to pop out. A fresh breeze hits my skin.
I head south along the creek. She says nothing to me, still frightened or scared but quiet, which is what I always prefer when I’m with Naomi. That’s why I used to just shove my dick in her mouth. However, that tactic wasn’t an option this time around.
After about an hour of walking at a steady pace, she stops in her tracks. I ignore her and keep walking until I realize she isn’t planning on moving until I acknowledge her.
“What is it, Naomi?” I ask with an edge of irritation in my voice.
She bites her bottom lip. “What if they don’t want me here? I haven’t seen them in months.”
I tilt my head. It’s not like Naomi to be so insecure. “Serena’s there. You’ll be fine.”
She sucks in a breath, completely unsure of herself. “I… I don’t know, Micah. Am I safe with them?”
I let out a laugh. “You’re safer with them than you are with me.” I pause for a moment, contemplating those words. “Naomi, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for doing that to you. I love her… I really fucking love her.”
She looks away as a flash of emotion flows through her eyes. Pain, jealousy, or perhaps longing for what she has with someone else that she royally fucked up. “I know. You’ve made yourself abundantly clear. Let’s get this over with,” she mutters as we approach the meadow.
I try to breathe out the pent-up tension I’m holding inside, knowing London is here, too.
As we walk up, I notice Thomas, Jade, and Serena before they notice me. They are in the middle of the meadow, where they have set up another more central fire spot. They are huddled around… but there are only three of them. James is missing.
I hang back and watch for a second.
“Serena!” Naomi runs through the thicket and the meadow, all ponytail and pep, capturing their attention.
For fuck’s sake.
This is why I prefer to fly solo. She has absolutely zero clue these people have changed, and her initial instinct to be weary was the right one.
Serena’s eyes flicker up, then she bolts with excitement. “Naomi?”
The next few seconds are full of shrieks and hugs, and it’s like we are in the halls of New Ocean Prep and the two of them just came from a pep rally—the bane of my existence—oblivious to the fact that Jade and Thomas rise, and neither look happy to see her. Jade’s eyes tighten as she peers into the forest, right in my direction. Her knuckles are so tightly clenched that even from here, I can tell they are white.
She has good reasons to hate Naomi since she was the one who pinned her down when Ezra cut Thomas’s hand. And Naomi is, of course, oblivious to the hatred spewing out of Jade. Thomas looks up toward where I’m standing. I step behind a group of fir trees, immersing myself in the comforting scent of pine needles.
“Where’s Micah, Naomi?” Jade asks without pulling her gaze from the trees.
Naomi looks in my direction and frowns. I should leave right now and not have this conversation. I’m tempted…
She shakes her head. “I don’t know. He was right there.”
“Come on out, Micah,” Thomas says, his massive frame intimidating the fuck out of me even from here. And I don’t say that lightly.
I grip my bone weapon, readying it. No point in hiding my weapon. He’s not my friend anymore, and he’s twice my size even after surviving the hell of winter. Plus, James is not in my line of sight, which makes me really fucking nervous.
I’ve come to terms with having no one by my side. I have effectively isolated myself, but eventually, we will all succumb to turning against each other—an inevitable outcome as our resources diminish.
I keep my hood over my head as I step out from the shadows. “Thomas…” I say casually and with as little emotion as possible. I don’t need this to be a recap of how shitty of a friend I am or how tortured they were all winter.
Thomas gets all bristly and puffs his chest but doesn’t come near me. Instead, he steps in the opposite direction. Jade and Thomas both turn toward the shelter and then toward me.
It catches my attention.
“What are you doing here?” he asks, and Jade stays wholly still beside him, observing me. I doubt he knows Jade and I had our little rendezvous after our last meeting. I’ll keep her secret… for now .
“Calm yourself down, dude. I’m not staying. I came to drop Naomi off and give you this.” I drop the contents of my bag—containing all the canned food I could carry and the medical supplies—to the ground. The cans roll around, and the food scatters.
Jade and Thomas exchange a glance, as do Serena and Naomi. None of them know how to handle me… Thomas takes yet another step in the opposite direction, keeping his eyes on the threat.
Me… I’m the threat.
He can’t help it; he’s a defenseman. He’s never been a fighter, but his guttural instinct is to protect. So why does he think London needs protecting?
I cut my gaze to Jade—since clearly, she’s the one in charge—and jerk my chin toward the shelter. “Is she in there?”
Naomi and Serena grow quiet, although still hanging off each other. The air electrifies between us as Jade grabs her spear. “Micah, let’s go talk.”
I shake my head. “Nah. Why don’t you just tell me why Thomas is all jittery? What do you think I did?”
Jade bites the inside of her cheek, steps toward me, and points in the direction where I just came from. “Forest… Now, Micah.”
Fuck.
I decide to appease her and not cause a scene. I step back toward the tree line, and Jade follows me. As soon as we are away from the others, I whip around. Jade jolts, but her spear is up in an instant, the tip pointed right at me.
“London’s here, Micah. She’s not well, but I think you know that. We are jittery because Ollie is missing, and we don’t know who to trust right now.”
I don’t know if I should be relieved or royally pissed off. Like fuck I am going to let Jade or Thomas stop me. I direct my attention to the shelter where London is resting.
“Micah, wait…”
I take a step forward as she doubles down on the grip on her spear. “No. I don’t think I will.”
Jade grabs my arm, and I bristle. “She’s not well, Micah. Leave her alone right now. Trust me. ”
I pause dangerously and turn to face her. “If she’s here, she needs me. No one else can help her the way I can. Can you understand that and get your spear out of my fucking face?”
She closes her eyes for a moment, composing herself, then opens them. “What I understand, Micah, is that she was with you, and then she wasn’t. And she was hurt badly by Nigel and then Ezra. I also suspect she was hurt very fucking badly by you. So you can storm in there and proclaim your presence, but all you are going to do is upset her, and she needs to rest.”
My eye twitches, her spear poking into my chest. “You can’t stop me with a fucking stick.”
She drops the spear an inch. “You’re probably right, but then you will have to get through Thomas in order to get to her.” She shrugs. “Good luck with that.”
I let out a heavy sigh, knowing damn well Thomas will be an impenetrable wall for me, so I guess I have to play nice. “Well, what the fuck do you expect me to do, then? I can’t just sit here.”
She waves her hands. “I don’t know. Go fishing or hunting. Find us some more food and contribute, considering we now have three more mouths to feed, soon four. That might go a long way with us. When she wakes up, I will let her know you’re here.”
As I scan my surroundings, my anxiety intensifies. James is still nowhere to be found, and it makes me really fucking nervous having so many rogue people roaming this island.
“Where is James?”
“He went to find Ollie who went missing a few days ago.”
I place my hands in my sweats’ pockets, trying to calm my raging heart. “What do you mean, he went missing?”
She sits on a nearby log and places her hands over her neck. “He went to the creek to get water and firewood and didn’t come back. We searched for him for hours. It’s not sitting right with me. Nigel’s still unaccounted for. What if he has Ollie?”
I pause at how ridiculous that is. Ollie is twice the size of that short motherfucker. “Why would you think that? ”
She sniffles and runs her hand over the bridge of her nose. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. There was another message…”
Another human bone.
I pause for a moment and compose myself. “That’s why I’m not leaving. If London’s here, then you’re stuck with me too. I haven’t seen Nigel, but Ezra is a liability as well. He’s the one who hurt her, Jade, not me. If she just fucking stayed put like I told her to…”
“No one said you had to leave.”
I need to explain myself; judgment is pouring out of her eyes. “I didn’t mean to hurt her, Jade. I was supposed to go right back to her, but I got distracted by a nearly-dead Naomi.”
“No one said that you did.”
I run my hands through my hair, wanting to rip it all out. “I fucking love her. If something happens to her. If I lose her…”
Her eyes finally soften a bit. “I know, Micah. But pull yourself together before you talk to her, for her sake and yours. Go clear your head and come back. She’s not going anywhere, and she’s safe right now and resting. I’m watching over her. Just please trust me and calm down.”
The tension radiates off me, the hurt inside hitting a breaking point, and poor Jade is about to take the brunt of it.
My fingers curl into a fist as the rage inside me boils over, melting the all-consuming love I have for the girl lying a few feet away from me. Someone needs to die for what happened to my twin and for forcing me to watch the girl I love deal with the pain of his death. How could she ever love me with that dark cloud hanging over our heads? We were doomed from the start.
“You want me to calm down? Like it’s that fucking easy, Jade. You are the one who moved on when Maison died, like you didn’t give a shit about him. He was slaughtered before your eyes, and you let his killer just walk away. You even gave him food. And you’re telling me to calm down?”
It takes all of two seconds before Thomas is suddenly behind Jade. I watch him carefully as my world starts to turn gray—that dark place I get where I don’t know what the fuck I am capable of.
“Step back, Micah. We’re not your enemy,” Thomas says, then places himself in front of Jade as I begin to shake and pace.
Weak…. I’m fucking weak for breaking down like this. For allowing them to witness my raw vulnerability. I need to get the fuck out of here.
Jade blows out a breath and shakes her head. “Micah, please understand. We had to focus on our own survival. I’m sorry about Maison, I really am, but we’ve been grieving Nathan, too, and everyone else that’s lost their lives here.”
My teeth grind together, a fiery heat rolling through me. “It’s not the same. Nathan wasn’t murdered.”
Thomas tilts his head, stepping between Jade and me. “No, but the outcome was still the same, man. He’s still gone.”
I look her up and down. Then I look over to Thomas, to Serena and Naomi, who are eavesdropping only a couple of feet away, and finally to the shelter.
No sign of life. Nothing. London must be in a pretty shitty state if she hasn’t come out yet. If I lose London, I might as well kill myself right now. She is all I have left; she is all I want and will ever want.
I look directly at Jade. “For your sake and everyone else’s here, make sure she doesn’t fucking die.” I pull my pack over my shoulder, then pick up the knife and grip it to make sure everyone can see it. “Don’t eat the food all at once. I’ll be back soon.”
I arrive back at the site just before dusk, as promised. I caught a fish and a rabbit, which I’m hoping will be well received by the others. I single-handedly doubled their food supply. I did as Jade suggested and took a breath and focused on what I do best: hunting, stalking, getting control of my surroundings.
Killing things .
I spent the better part of the day circling the perimeter of the camp to make sure there weren’t any more messages sent by Nigel. I saw no sign of him anywhere. In fact, I’m confident he’s nowhere near us, at least for now. My anxiety can ease, although I still don’t think I will sleep knowing he and Ezra are out there.
Jade was right to send me away. A day in the woods helped clear my head and gave London a chance to sleep. My rage, however, is still simmering within me, ready to be unleashed at any moment. London can help with that once she’s better and I can finally get her alone.
As I enter the meadow, Naomi and Serena are cuddled together by the fire. Thomas is working on skinning something while Jade, I notice, shoots daggers at Naomi. Naomi, in return, shoots them at me. Obviously, Naomi updated them on the reunion we had on the airplane last night. Their faces say it all as they behold me.
I approach silently, and Thomas shoots me a warning glance as he looks at the shelter. I hold up my kills in a gesture of neutrality and walk up next to him. He moves over, grunts, and tends to his skinning as I take out the knife and begin to prepare my kills.
Jade lifts her head as I approach, giving me a tight look. “She’s asleep, but don’t worry, she’s still breathing.” I can sense her maintaining a healthy distance from me ever since my emotional outburst earlier. I give a small nod, signifying my agreement, and then redirect my attention to my kills.
I want to go check on her, at least lay my eyes on her, but I’ll give London space if that’s what they think she truly needs. Or worse, if that’s what she asked for.
Everyone is anxious around me, staring at my knife and the casual way I wield it. I’m not sure when I became the enemy on this island or when everyone became complete strangers to me, but here we are. The only person who seems unbothered by my presence is Thomas .
Together, we skin my kills, and I try not to stare at his wrist because I know it will set him off. But I marvel at how skilled he is with one hand, and I’m secretly proud of him for how he’s been adapting to it since the last time I saw him. It has healed well from what I can tell, and that’s because of the clean cut I gave him when I severed it with the same knife I’m holding now.
Like fuck I’m telling him that, though, because he’s acting like a fucking baby.
We finish cooking our meat, and I find myself a stick to carve out a new spear. It’s second nature to me now because I’ve known for a long time that my hands can’t be idle.
I don’t make eye contact with anyone, but I keep a careful eye on the shelter. After about an hour of sitting in silence, I blow the dust off the new spear just as a figure emerges from the darkness.
The moment James lays eyes on me, his body goes rigid, and a mix of fear and anxiety churns inside me when I notice he’s not alone. Ezra steps out from the shadows and stares at me with a fucking cocky grin. I jump to my feet, and I’m not the only one. Thomas is right beside me, looking just as pissed.
James lifts his eyebrows and centers his attention on Thomas. “What’s Micah doing here?” He also takes in the additional presence of Naomi, and his fingers curl into a fist.
Well, this just got fucking interesting…
Jade slowly rises, and Naomi’s mouth gapes open. I guess Ezra’s presence is a surprise to all of us.
It’s Naomi who speaks first. “Ezra, what the hell happened to your hair?”
He chuckles, running his hand over his head. “My new girlfriend cut it for me.” His words are cold and brutal, and he looks at me as he says it.
This has me jumping out of my skin, and I get to him before anyone can stop me. All the rage coiled in my stomach erupts out of me.
My fist connects with his face, knocking his ass to the ground, thinking of how close London must have gotten to him to cut his hair so nicely. How much care and attention she gave him…
What the actual fuck?
He rises to his elbows and grins up at me from the ground as blood stains his teeth. My bone weapon is against Ezra’s neck before James or anyone can blink. He doesn’t put up a fight as I pull him up and get him into a chokehold in a way that cuts off the oxygen to his brain. The same way he was holding London yesterday. It’s not the first time I’ve done this to him, and it feels just as fucking good as it did the last time.
He always knows how to get under my skin; he baits me to act this way. Only this time, if anyone comes near me, I will kill him.
I grind my teeth together. “What the fuck did you just say?” He can’t respond. His body goes limp underneath me as I restrict his ability to breathe. He doesn’t try to fight back, but his chest rises and falls with laughter.
He’s fucking laughing at me.
I yank him a few feet away from the others, positioning myself so no one can get behind me. “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right fucking now?” I say with my mouth against his ear.
“I think he should,” Thomas says, and it makes me smile. Just like old times.
“Thomas, stop. We talked about this,” Jade says, holding him back by simply pressing her hand to his chest. “This isn’t your fight.”
I dig the bone tip into Ezra’s neck. “One little slice, and we’d all have one less mouth to feed. I’d be doing everyone a favor.”
“Micah, stop this shit,” James says, taking a step forward. “You’re scaring the girls.”
Naomi and Serena are shaking like leaves. Jade, however, is watching, her face unreadable.
“What the fuck is he even doing with you?” I snap at James. “He had a knife to London’s throat.”
James curls his lip, his fingers now curled in a hard fist. Thomas steps back, not interfering, which was the exact response I was hoping for. “You had a knife to Naomi’s throat too, man, yet you’re here. And he’s here because London begged me to bring him here, so talk to your girl.”
Not the fucking same.
“He killed my brother,” I retort.
“He didn’t,” Jade says, stepping forward. “That was Nigel, and you know it.”
“Well, he was a fucking part of it.”
As I squeeze, the pulse in Ezra’s neck throbs in my hand from how fast his heart is beating. I want to experience it…What it’s like to suck the soul right out of someone.
My anger is overwhelming. I squeeze harder. I’m not even sure the others realize he can’t breathe at all anymore. One more second, and I could end him.
“Micah, stop! If you kill him, I’ll never talk to you again.”
The sound of her voice nearly cripples me. I whip my head up and see her.
Wild, beautiful, and broken.
London’s watching me as if I’m a monster—the monster I kept telling myself I wasn’t. I drop Ezra, and he immediately gasps for air, clinging to his throat. I’m so tense that no one dares come near me, but Naomi rushes over to him as London takes a step back.
I immediately chase after her. “London, baby, come here.”
London stands there, and everyone stares at her, then back at me. Ezra moans from the ground but finds his voice. “See, I told you she was mine now,” he says in a mocking tone.
London shakes her head, turns around, and disappears into the darkness.
“Fuck,” I mutter.
Jade turns to James. “Get Ezra out of here,” she growls, and James grabs Ezra, pulling him to safety. “Micah, calm the fuck down. And Thomas, you’re not helping. This won’t solve anything. Micah, if you can’t compose yourself, then leave right now and don’t come back.”
James walks Ezra across the meadow, and Ezra stares right at Thomas, then at his missing hand. “He fucking cut my fingers off, too, man,” he mutters as blood stains the snow beneath him. James shakes his head at him. “An eye for an eye.”
James pats him on the back. “Ezra, you’re not making any friends, man.”
I ignore them. I jump over the cooking site and am out of view before Jade can stop me. I step toward the shelter, only to find it empty. Luckily, it’s a clear night, and the moon and stars create just enough light to sort of see where I’m going.
“London,” I call out for her, but she doesn’t answer. I pause and listen—for her breaths, her rustling, her heartbeat—for any sign of her. She can’t have run far, so she’s hiding.
“London, I’m never going to stop looking for you, so you might as well come out and talk to me.”
I hear a faint sob and a crunch of snow. I take a few steps and see her kneeling down, her head hanging in front of her. Her hair is muddy and messy, but she looks so fucking sexy. My stomach knots with a mix of emotions, aware of where she is standing and who is currently consuming her thoughts.
And it’s not fucking me.
“London,” I say in a low voice. She’s so close, yet so far away right now.
“Stay back, Micah. Don’t touch me right now. This isn’t a game.”
I tilt my head, but she continues to keep her eyes downcast. “Talk to me, baby. Let me explain.”
However, I don’t really have anything to say about it. I did all the things she is mad about.
I tied her up and left her alone.
I abandoned her.
I didn’t chase her when I should have.
She looks up at me, and her face is expressionless and cold. She opens her mouth slightly to say something, but no words come out. She won’t give me a fucking word.
I reach out to her, needing to touch her. I grab her hand, and she flinches when I squeeze it. Something’s wrong. Her hand is limp and distorted .
“Your hand is broken again.” My stomach turns, thinking about what she must have done to get out of the binds I had her left in. What must have been going through her head as she shattered her own hand to escape me.
She probably thought I wasn’t coming back, that she had no choice…
No wonder she can’t look at me.
I kneel in front of her, pull her chin, and force her to look at me. Even though she’s caked with dirt, all I can see are her gorgeous, full lips in the moonlight.
“I didn’t mean to do this to you,” I tell her.
“Ezra was right about you,” she whispers, pulling her hand away. “I didn’t want to believe she was the reason why you didn’t come back for me or try to find me. But she was, wasn’t she?”
I wipe some of the dirt on her face with my thumb, and damn, she’s the most beautiful girl in the world. I don’t know if I can be this close to her without her being mine. “Ezra hates me, London. He’s poisoning your brain.”
She stands, and I stay on my knees, placing my hands on either side of her slender waist.
She’s so small, so breakable.
“Ezra didn’t tie me up and leave me for two days,” she mutters and turns her head away. But her little body is pressed right against me, sending a throb right to my cock.
She tries to wiggle away, but I don’t relent on my hold. I breathe her in, so fucking happy to have her in my arms again, and I don’t let go. Her fingers find mine, and she unwraps them one by one. She looks down at me, her expression chilling me to the core.
I squeeze my brows together. “Please, baby. I’m so sorry for doing that to you. I’m on my knees for you, London. I’m begging for you to hear me right now. Can you not see that was the worst mistake I’ve ever made?”
She grazes her fingers over my cheek, not touching me, but the heat of her fingers lingers. “You left me,” she breathes. “I waited for you even after I got out. I so desperately wanted you to come back, but you didn’t. You left me so vulnerable, Micah.”
My eyes flash as that rage rolls through me again, thinking of Ezra. “Did Ezra hurt you?”
She pinches her lips together. “No more than you did. And he’s not the one I was referring to.”
I recall the level of comfort I just witnessed between them. His claim on her… Something happened between them. She had a chance to kill him and didn’t. She fucking pampered him instead, gave him care and attention she should only reserve for me. I can tell by his cocky grin alone that he liked it.
I press my forehead against her stomach and shut my eyes, as if not seeing her will make this better. “Did you fuck him?”
She pulls away, and her eyes flash. Then she slaps me hard, right across the face with her non-mangled hand. My body is like stone, but the weight behind that slap hurts—the emotional punch she packs that turns me on so much about her. I take in every second of it; the pain is blissful because it means she still cares.
“Did you fuck Naomi?” she asks.
“No.”
“Did she try?”
I should lie because that would make my life so much easier right now, but I’m a fucking terrible liar and I’m pretty sure she saw Naomi and me. “Yeah, she tried. But I didn’t do anything with her, London. I swear. You’re the only one I want, baby. I pushed her away before it got to that.”
She bites her lip, and the swell of emotions in her eyes keeps me going. She’s standing close, so I keep my forehead against her stomach and my hands to myself. Finally, she softens.
“I fucking missed you, London.” My voice comes out as a whisper. I’m so hungry for her, and having her so close and not being able to touch her is torture. I just want to devour her so fucking hard. Especially as the image of her and Ezra together infiltrates my brain and I think of London cutting his hair. How long that would have taken her, and the fact she had scissors to his neck and didn’t shove them into him .
I grab her hips again and pull her closer, so happy to experience the heat of her body again. I have memorized every curve and line on this girl, and I can’t get enough of it. How does she not see that she is all I want?
I gaze up at her. “I can’t be around you if you’re not with me, London. You’re mine, baby, remember? That doesn’t change in a matter of days… It never fucking changes.”
A twig snaps near me, and I pause for only a moment, then shrug it off. I doubt that with the performance I just put on, anyone would have the guts to interrupt me right now. I dig my thumbs into her in a way I know she likes as agony pours through me.
“Everything has changed,” she hisses. “The moment you left me and didn’t come back. That’s when it changed. You shouldn’t have chosen Naomi,” she says coldly, and the sting from her slap still burns.
I run my hand along her stomach, down to the drawstring of her pants to remind her how little has changed, but she stops me, gripping my hand with hers. Annoyance tugs at me. She has never not given in to me, which tells me I must have really fucked up.
“Please, baby. I need you right now.”
Her voice comes out ragged and raw. “Micah, you scare me… You really scare me. You don’t seem right in the head, and I don’t think I’m right in the head, either. I can’t do this with you right now. I need to… process.”
Process? She needs to process? What the fuck does she need to process?
“What the hell are you talking about, baby?”
“Please, Micah, don’t make this harder than it needs to be.”
Please. How many times has she said that to me?
Please.
Please.
Please.
Fucking needy, which is exactly how I want her. I’ll remind her how good it makes her feel.
Suddenly, an annoying voice rips through the forest. “I think the girl told you to back off her, man. ”
My body stills, and every hair on my skin bristles. For fuck’s sake. Of course, it would be James interrupting me. “Mind your fucking business,” I yell out to him. This kid is really starting to get on my nerves.
“Nah, I don’t think I will,” he calls back.
London’s eyes widen. He stands a few feet away with his head turned at least. Not that I care about James watching me as I claim my girl—or about anyone watching, for that matter. Let him watch.
“Get the fuck out of here,” I gripe back at him with no intention of stopping.
The moment, however, is ruined. London pushes away from me and shakes her head, begging me not to make another scene.
“Look, man,” I call out again, “I’m just having a moment with my girlfriend.” At least, I think she’s my girlfriend. She’s looking at me like I’m a stranger right now, and I don’t like it.
“London, are you good?” James asks.
“Of course, she’s fucking good,” I snipe.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“I’m fine,” she responds weakly. “Micah and I are just talking. We will rejoin the group in a few minutes.”
James pauses for a moment as if he doesn’t believe her.
“Did you fucking hear her?” I ask, wondering why he’s still fucking here.
She nudges me. “Micah, stop it.”
“Yeah, I heard her, man. Jade called a meeting. We all need to chat about a few things. It would be appreciated if you both came and you didn’t kill anyone or chop off anyone’s fingers in the process.”
“Can’t promise anything,” I yell back.
I tilt my head and peer down at London, whose big brown eyes are staring right into me.
She jerks her head in the direction of where James’s voice came from. “Let’s go, Micah.”
I finally relent, and she shuffles away from me as fast as she can. “I can’t fucking wait,” I mutter, trying to ignore the painful fucking bulge against my pants.