Page 10

CALLI

He stands behind me, staring at me, silently begging me to turn back to him for the longest time.

But it’s going to take more than the magnetic pull that’s always between us to make me cave this time.

He’s gone too far.

I was mostly for jumping on the crazy train with him. But this…

This is fucking insane.

I’m at risk. That may well be true.

The Italians are after me in retaliation. That’s not all that hard to believe.

But he could have talked to me. He could have cornered me in that alleyway and explained.

If he did it well enough, I might have even agreed to be thrown in the back of a van.

He didn’t need the theatrics to keep me safe.

If he’d done what I’ve been craving from him for days—hell, for months—and just talked to me, opened up, told me the truth… then I’d have been putty in his hands.

But no.

He had to go all psycho devil on my arse.

But eventually, he must realise that I have a stubborn streak that can rival his, and he backs away without another word.

Once I’m confident that he’s gone, I spin around, finding the bag I’d taken away sitting on the floor by the door.

My body aches as I move, exhaustion and the lingering effects of whatever he pumped me with making my movements sluggish.

Pulling the zip, I look inside, not having a clue what to expect.

What I find makes me fall on my arse in shock.

I’m sorry, Angel.

I need you to trust me, because a world without you in it isn’t a world worth living in.

All the air rushes from my lungs at his words. Tears fill my eyes, and a lump so huge I struggle to breathe around it climbs up my throat.

Reaching into my bag, I pull out his note—accompanied by an origami bat, of course—and my iPad as I fight to keep my emotions in check.

I fail, mainly because the second my eyes land on his messy scrawl once more, an ugly sob erupts from my throat.

Confusion, frustration, and betrayal all war within me. But mostly, it’s my need for him that wrecks me. It’s how badly I want to rip that door open and bury myself in his arms that makes me sob like a baby.

I shouldn’t need him this badly. I shouldn’t want him after all the things he’s done. But that broken, scared boy has latched on to something deep inside me and I can’t let him go.

With the note still clutched in my hand, I crawl onto the bed once more and just give in to the tears that still demand to spill over.

I take a step forward, and Daemon immediately takes one back.It’s as if he’s scared of me, all the while trying to ensure I’m scared of him.

It makes my head spin. But no matter how many times I try to figure this boy out, I never manage it. He’s too confusing. Too… different from the others.

Give my brother, my cousin, a games controller or a football and they’ll be happy for hours.