Page 6 of Beautiful Ruins

Bitch?

I spun around, heat surging through my body. The urge to laugh bubbled away in my chest. One arrogant word had pushed me right over the edge, and I was ready to confront the prick, even knowing exactly the kind of guy he was. I’d stabbedone. I could manage one more. I didn’t care how much larger this one was.

At least that’s what I told myself as I stepped closer, hands balled into fists at my sides. “Who the hell?—”

“Snake.” A deep voice interrupted, cutting clear through the air like nothing else ever could.

It broke through years of silence, through walls I didn’t even know I’d built. It cut me off. Brought me to a full stop.

Rowan.

In the flesh. He stood a couple metres behind Snake, his silhouette backlit by the orange glow of the fire pit crackling behind him. All forms of common sense evaporated, and I clamped my mouth shut. The only words forming on my tongue were jumbled and incoherent. Even from my dark side of the stand-off, his eyes locked on mine for the first time in six years.

Shadows hid his face, but his focus was as intense as I remembered it. Everything else faded, the world reduced to nothing more than muffled background noise and static.

A flush crept over me, heat crawling from my stomach to my throat like guilt. I couldn’t escape him. Rowan Knight. The boy—or should I say, man—I had been obsessed with for most of my life was now staring at me like I was both a thorn in his side and a ghost he couldn’t quite believe was real.

My pulse quickened, a mess of emotions pulling me under. I hated how easily he could make me feel like I was drowning on dry land.

But there was something else there, too. A sadness I knew all too well. I carried it with me wherever I went, a permanent shadow that refused to let me breathe.

Did he carry it too? All those years, and I never let go of a single ghost.

Snake glanced over his shoulder, taking his sweet time likehe was in a slow-motion movie, then stood to his full height. He wasn’t quite as tall as Rowan, but he was wider—that’s for sure.

“VP. What can I do for you?”

“Leave her alone,” Rowan said, flicking a lighter and holding the flame to the end of a cigarette. “She’s off limits.” He still hadn’t kicked that bad habit. Not that it was any of my business.

Snake snorted out a laugh, the sound grating against the inside of my skull. “Is that so?” he said, raising an eyebrow as he glanced back at me. “She yours or something?”

Rowan stepped closer, a cloud of smoke curling out from his lips. I swallowed hard. Even in the dim light, he looked the same, but also completely different. A little older. A little wearier, like the world knew exactly how to push him around.

My throat closed up, almost strangling what little air I still had in my lungs. My mouth refused to move. But what would I have said?

Hi Rowan, how have you been since I disappeared the day after we found your brother hanging from his ceiling? Sorry. How’s life been treating you?

Rowan sniffed, and finally pulled his gaze from mine, a small muscle in his jaw ticking. “She’s no-one. Just my brother’s best friend from back in high school.” His voice was flat. Casual. Like it meant nothing. And his words hit me like a punch to the gut. His gaze flicked to me again—just a breath of softness—then snapped back to Snake. “Besides,” he said, “she’s the chief’s daughter. You really want to deal with that? Probably a little too much for you to handle, don’t you think? You like them cheap and easy. This one is neither of those things.”

No-one?Justhis brother’s best friend?

I wrapped my arms around my middle, holding in the pain of those words mingling with the dull ache of my bruised ribs. I couldn’t let it go, even as the two men spoke about me as if I wasn’t standing right in front of them. They stung more than I should have let them. But this was Rowan. A man I had naively thought would one day see me as more than his brother’s best friend.

Snake dragged his gaze down my body once again as though I was a specimen under a microscope, something to be studied and dissected. “I’m not scared of a little challenge.” His scrutiny stripped me of what little dignity I had left. “I like them feisty.”

“Wow,” I said, a small hollow laugh, devoid of any real emotion, escaping from my chest. “I can hear you, arsehole. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have anywhere else to be.”

My tears grew hot and thick, and I couldn’t let Rowan see how much he affected me. I yanked open the screen door, darted inside, and slammed it shut. Then I locked it like that could keep Rowan Knight from living rent-free inside my head. The door rattled as I pressed my shoulder into it, and I bit my lip until it hurt.

I should have known better.

He was the only person who could save me and make me feel as though I wasn’t worth saving all at the same time.

With my back against the worn wood, I sucked in breath after breath, but it was like breathing in poison. Anger and shame fought each other for the upper hand. I didn’t know why I let him get under my skin. An old habit, I guess.

The faint sound of Rowan’s voice, low and steady, made its way through the thin walls.

Or maybe I only imagined it. The words were too quiet to actually hear their meaning. It didn’t matter.