Page 19 of Hymns of the Broken

“I love you,” he says, and it lands between us.

I don’t even blink. All I can feel is Jasper’s stare dragging across my skin like a brand, scorching in its certainty. It doesn’t say jealous—it says,‘Try that again and I’ll take her in front of you’.

And suddenly, the space between us feels electric.

Blake is still watching me, searching my face for something—love, reassurance, guilt—anything he can use to convince himself he still has a hold.

But all I give him is a smile. Sweet, but laced with poison.

“I’ll text you later,” I say, and he nods, satisfied, too blind to see the truth.

Because I’m already turning. Already walking away and following the man who, even though I deny it, doesn’t need to touch me to undo me completely.

Jasper walks ahead, one hand wrapped easily around my suitcase handle, as if it weighs nothing. He doesn’t glance back to make sure I’m following. Of course, I am.

And Blake?

He just watched me walk away with a goodbye I never said and a smile that never reached my eyes.

JASPER

Fuck that.

She kissed him.

Right there, out in the open, like I wasn’t still standing twenty feet away. Like she couldn’t feel me burning holes in the back of her skull. Like she didn’t know I’d been locked on her since the second she stepped out of that car.

It’s not just the kiss—it’s the way his hands were on her, holding her like a leash, like he was trying to remind her where to heel. I’ve seen that look before. I heard enough from her little friend the other night to know what kind of man he is. The kind that hides the cage behind “I love you.” The kind that thinks keeping her means owning her.

I couldn’t move; shit, I couldn’t even breathe. I just stood there, jaw locked, fists buried so deep in my pockets it was the only thing keeping one of them from connecting with his smug fucking face.

His hands were on her as if he had some goddamn right. And her? She let him. Let him grab her like he owned her. Let his mouth press to hers while I stood there bleeding slowly and silently inside my skin. She let him kiss her like it mattered, and I felt every second coil tight around my ribs like barbed wire.

But it wasn’t love. It wasn’t even comforting. It was desperation—her trying to lie to herself while the man she should’ve been kissing stood a few steps away, swallowing the urge to rip them apart.

She pulled away first, because she didn’t want it. Not really. I saw it—hell, anyone with eyes could see it. And then her gaze found mine.

Boom.

That wasit. The moment. Her lips were still wet from his, and the guilt hit her so fast that I saw the breath leave her body.

Good. She knows the kiss meant nothing. She’s going to be mine. She was thinking about it even as Blake’s hands were on her. Her soul is already trying to crawl to me, she just has to let it.

And him? Let him try again. Let him put his hands on her one more time. I won’t just break his face. I’ll burn his entire existence to the ground.

Because when I take her, when I finally get my hands on her…

It won’t be desperation.

It’ll be a choice.

And it’ll be the only choice she ever wants to make again.

Chapter 4

SAWYER

The second my foot hits the first step, the door slams shut behind me with a hiss of pressure and finality.