Page 120 of Die for You

She rolls her eyes at my hesitation. “Relax. It’s just water.” When I still refuse the drink, she takes a long gulp, throat bobbing. “See?”

When she presses the glass to my lips again, I accept the offering. Every cell in my body is screaming for water to stave off the dehydration.

As soon as I’m finished, Monica drops the glass back to the floor and straightens. “I just want Knox to see that I’ll do anything for him. Our relationship can be different now. Even better than before.”

“Anything’s better than shit,” I growl. “But you still can’t give him better than that.”

Her lips pull down into a dangerous frown, and part of me wishes I could yank the words back into my mouth. But another part of me doesn’t regret them for a second. Knox deserves so much better than her.

Her boot nudges my foot. I try to scramble away, but I can’t scoot far or fast before her boot pushes my foot to the side and comes down on my ankle.

A crack comes a second before the splitting pain, and I scream. My entire body breaks out in a sweat as the pain swallows me, vision going dark, my ankle throbbing in agony the only part of my body that I can feel.

I’ve never broken a bone before, but I’m certain she just broke my fucking ankle.

“I said I wouldn’t kill you.” Monica’s lips purse as she peers down at me with a mixture of disdain and disinterest. Like I’m nothing more than an ant she crushed beneath her shoe. “I didn’t say I wouldn’t break you.”

She stuffs the gag back in my mouth and leaves me on the floor as I writhe and jerk to get out of the restraints. I need to get the fuck out of here. I can’t stay here another second. Who knows what else she’ll do to me.

Quietly, Monica slips back up the stairs. As she’s about to slip out the door, she turns back to me with a smile. “I also didn’t say I wouldn’t let you die.”

Chapter 34

Finn

Another day.Another day without Aurora. Without knowing where she is or what happened to her.

My skin feels like a shell I’ve outgrown. One I want to shed and peel off.

Everything is too much without her. Too loud, too quiet, too bright, too dark.

Search parties gather in the area around campus. Over sixty hours since we returned home to find she wasn’t there. Twelve hours left.

After seventy-two hours, our chances of finding her drop to almost nothing.

I still haven’t been able to track her phone. She must’ve turned it off. Or someone else did.

Damien thinks she was taken. Knox believes she made good on her threat to leave us. With each day that passes, I don’t know what to believe. Every possibility is too terrifying to imagine.

Someone has her, someone killed her, or she left all on her own.

“You’re always such a mystery, Finn.” At my side, Sienna flashes me a watery smile. She’s been crying every night inLuke’s room while he comforts her. During the day, she bottles her tears up so we don’t see them. “What are you thinking?”

“You know.”

“I know you’re thinking about her. We all are.”

My throat bobs. Can barely think the words, let alone say them out loud. “What if she left?”

“You mean, like, what if she went willingly? Ran away?”

I nod. At least if she ran and called, I’d know she was safe. That’s better than the alternative.

But that wouldn’t stop my heart from shattering.

I don’t think I could recover from Aurora leaving me because she wants to. Because she doesn’t want me anymore.

“If she ran away, it’s because she felt like she was more trouble than she’s worth.” Sienna's tone is certain. Spoken from experience. “It’s because she cares about you and Damien and Knox, not because she doesn’t.”