Page 15 of Death, Interrupted

“Joey, what’s going on?”

He sighed. “He wants to kill me. Call the cops.”

Their calm tone irritated me. This was not a joke,but they were playing it like one. “No no no! No cops!” I glared at him, then looked right back at her because I could not seem to stop. “God, I’d be tying you up too if you were a guy.” I gripped my knife harder. “Do you have to be so fucking beautiful?”

“Hey, stop fucking looking and talking to her!” Joey warned.

“I’m so confused right now,” she said with a small laugh. It wasn’t a nervous laugh. It was an amused one. On the flip side, that only confused me more. Why was she so calm when I was two seconds from combusting?

“Babe, just call the damn cops! He wants to kill me.”

She still did not look at him. Her eyes stayed on me. “You want to kill Joey? Why?”

Was she trying reverse psychology? If so, it was working. “I’m taking revenge for everything he’s done to me in the past. Yourboyfriendhas tormented me for years.” My jaw tightened, heat rising with the words.

She flicked her eyes to Joey and then brought them back to mine. Her expression sharpened, brows raised, arms folding across her chest as she shifted her weight to one foot. “Is that so?”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“Shut up, Joey!” I roared, the knife pointing at him while all the old rage surged. “Yes, you did, and you ruined my fucking life doing so!”

Silence pressed down on the room. For once, it felt good to say it out loud and to his face, to let the truth sit there and breathe.

“He’s a dick,” I added under my breath, because accuracy matters.

“Huh.” She kept watching me. She did not reach for her phone. She did not move at all, which made my pulse pound harder and my head clear, just a little.

“What’s your name?” she asked, catching me off guard for the hundredth time.

“What the fuck, babe?!”

I ignored Joey and answered her. Whatever this was, I wanted to see where it led. She was giving me mixed signals, all of them strangely good. Maybe I was being irrational, maybe I was delusional, but I had a feeling she knew something about his past that made this moment feel lighter to her.

“What’s your name?” she repeated, softer now.

“Sly.”

“Sly…” My name sounded better when she said it, warmer and cleaner. I wanted her to say it again, but even I knew asking would be weird. Then again, none of this qualified as normal.

Something was happening between us. I could feel it. There was a pull I could not ignore, and I sensed a weight lift off her shoulders the second she saw her boyfriend taped and contained. I could not pinpoint it. I tried, but I came up empty.

Chapter 5

Sumner

What in the dark romance is going on here?

My pulse slammed and my mouth went dry when I first entered the house, but I was secretly glad that I had walked into a scene like this.

I had dreaded coming here all day. If I am honest, I dread coming here most days, and I never fully know why I still do.

My relationship with Joey had been bad for months, maybe longer if I am brave enough to count straight. I kept trying to end it, but I kept failing.Every time I packed courage, something in me pulled tight, and I stayed. I was tied to him in a way, and I hated it.

I knew he had rewired and manipulated me, and I knew how naïve that sounded even inside my own head. I told myself I deserved better. I told myself I could leave. Then I pictured the unknown and froze every time. In the beginning, he had been charming, loud about how much he wanted me, and so very protective. Then time did what time always does. The performance stopped, the true colors showed, and I learned how small a house can feel when every room holds a new version of the same fight.

He pushed me to places where I did not recognize my own voice. I said things I never would have said. I did things I never would have done. Not without the nudge. Not without the constant threat. I knew he was trouble. I knew he was wrong for me. But I could not seem to find the door out.