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I move it closer, and she screams as it starts to burn her skin.

“One name,” I say.

“Daryl,” she says. “It’s Daryl!” I flip the lighter closed and stand up.

I nod, running a hand through my hair after I toss Sweep back his lighter. “Get rid of her,” I say to Trig.

“No, I won’t tell anyone,” she begs.

“You knew the risk when you took a chance on fucking me over, sweetheart.”

Trig lifts her over his shoulder, carrying her out of the office.

“Go get Daryl,” I say to Sweep. “He and Sip seem to be best buds. Sip will kill him.”

Chapter Nineteen

Bexley

One month three days missing

“You know why I said no to marrying you, right?” I say.

“No.”

I exhale. “Seriously, Danny. Both proposals were shit.”

“So, if I did the whole flowers and romance thing, you would have said yes?” he asks doubtfully.

“No. You picked very crappy timing.”

“So, if my timing was better?”

I shrug with a smirk. “Maybe.”

He scoffs. “I need a drink and a smoke.” He gives me a smile, though, and it slays me. I walk over to where he’s standing by the window. He’s leaning back against it, and as I walk near him, he watches me. I copy the way he stands. Our hands are close, our fingers only inches from one another. He smells like pine and dirt, but for some reason, it makes my mouth water. I miss him.

“Why did you tell me Samuel was going to ask me to marry him?” I don’t know why I ask this question. I’m only ripping a scab off, but part of me really needs to know.

He runs a hand over his beard, looking at me in the darkness, save for the fire in the stove and the moonlight coming in through the windows. It would be romantic if we weren’t filthy and being held against our will.

“I guess part of me thought you wouldn’t say yes,” he says as a piece of log pops.

“You thought I wouldn’t marry him?” I ask.

“That’s what I said.”

I roll my eyes. “You’re so self-assured, aren’t you? So goddamn cocky. You thought that I would turn him down, and what? Run back to you?”

“Yes. You were never supposed to marry him, Bex.”

I shake my head, because this man is so unbelievable. He really has it set in his mind that we were meant to be together.

Is he wrong?

“Right. I was supposed to marry you. What did you want me to do, put on my black gown and run off with you into the pits of Hell?”

He narrows his eyes. “If not me, then you should have gotten out of this fucking town and did something with your life.”