Page 50 of Caged

I grab his hand and try to wrench it free. “Get the fuck off me! Did you follow me just to threaten me again, you fucking ogre?”

“I’m here to do more than threaten you,” he growls, his towering frame hunched, his face mere inches from mine.

“You know what’s dumb, Gabi?” Sirens blare in the distance. Jace’s dark brown eyes bore into mine, and I forget how to breathe. “Wearing a fucking hot pink ski mask while you’re trying to break into someplace you don’t belong.”

I shove him away, taking several steps backward. “What are you talking about?”

He gives me a vicious grin and closes the small distance I managed to create. “I wish we would have fucking caught you. You know what Sigma does to people who get caught? Especially whores like you?”

“Whores like me? How original,” I cackle. “You should look in the fucking mirror, Jace. God, your jealousy is disgusting. All this rage simply because I got tired of fucking you,” I tsk. “It’s pathetic.”

“Is that right? Why don’t you go whore yourself out some more, Gabi? Or have you run through all your options and now no one wants to fuck used goods?”

The urge to slap this man is so overwhelming that my fingers tingle.

“You haveno ideawhat you’re talking about, Jace. No idea!” I scream, pointing a finger in his face. “You have no fucking clue, do you?”

“No clue about what? About how you used me for social clout and then discarded me like a piece of trash once you got tired of riding my dick?”

“I swear to God, Jace Carver, if you don’t shut the fuck up, I’m going to slap you!”

“Slap me!?” he mocks, throwing his head back in fake laughter. “Do it. I dare you to touch me again.”

Tears sting the corners of my eyes, and I know I’ve got thirty seconds before they fall.

“You were a waste of time, Jace,” I glower, because he was.Fuck this cheating excuse of a man.

His eyes snap back to mine, his expression one of animalistic wrath.

“And you were nothing more than a mediocre fuck.”

I force a feigned smile. My lips quiver. “Oh, I know Jace. I know I was nothing more than a mediocre fuck to you, so whydon’t you tell me something I don’t already fucking know!” I scream.

The shrill volume of my voice stuns us both, and for a moment, we both stand down as if we forgot what we were fighting about in the first place.

“If you get caught at Sigma again, you’re leaving in a body bag,” Jace says with terrifying steadiness.

“Yeah? Well, I guess I’m a dead girl walking.”

I spin around, my eyes so full of tears that I can’t see. I’m sure Jace is thrilled with himself for making me cry, but I could not give less of a fuck. That man is the worst person on the entire goddamn planet. My phone vibrates in my hand, and I look down to see an incoming call from Ele.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Gabi,” she gasps my name, and I know right away something is very wrong.

“Ele! What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Gabi, what I’m about to tell you is very upsetting.”

“What?!” I shout. “Just say it!”

“A body was found floating under the footbridge. People are saying it’s one of the girls who went missing last semester, which would mean the cause of death is what everyone originally suspected. As horrible as that reality is to accept, it wasn’t Sigma, Gabi.”

My fervent walking comes to an abrupt halt. “Oh my God,” I breathe, “that’s awful.”

I wince at how disingenuous I sound.

“You sound disappointed,” Ele comments.