Page 76 of Trapped With You

With a scoff, Ella marched towards me, throwing my leatherjacket to the ground with an exaggerated flourish. She snatched the treasure chest from my hands, flipped open the lid, took out the next dare—another key with a paper threaded through the bow—and threw the empty box, along with my flashlight, into the grave.

Then she gave me the full force of her anger and finally yelled, “Fuck the list and fuck you too! Sometimes I look at you and all I see is a mistake! My biggest fucking mistake!”

My biggest fucking mistake.

The cruel words had the devil on my left shoulder throwing his head back in laughter, causing the pressure in my sternum to explode and shrapnel to travel through my body with a painful ricochet.

When I looked at Ella, all I saw was my biggest blessing.

And she saw a mistake?

How did you tell the girl you loved that she still held your heart in the palm of her hands…while she looked at you with hatred?

How did you convince her to trust you one more time and hear your truth…when she remained blinded from her rage?

“I just want to erase your presence from my life,” Ella rasped, chest heaving up and down as the rain battered harshly against our frames. “Your memory, your touch, your kiss—”

“Fuck a hundred men if you want, Ella,” I threw back angrily, clutching her throat and drawing her deeper into my body. “But it will never erase me. None of them will give you what I did.”

Feeble fists smacked against my chest in a vain attempt to free herself. “And what’s that, huh?”

“The freedom to drop your guard and be whatever you choose—good, bad, fucking dirty—without an ounce of judgement.” My panting breaths fanned against her parted lips. “No one can give you the feeling of euphoria like I did. And that’s what kills you. You search for me in all those men, don’t you,baby? You want to feel the way I used to make you feel—like a fucking goddess—when I worshipped the ground you walked on.”

“You’re wrong!” Teeth chattering, she shook her head, whipping the wet strands of her hair back and forth. Lightning sparked in the sky above us, illuminated her lovely, frustrated expression. Clapping thunder followed, like Zeus himself was laughing at our predicament. “All you’re capable of giving me now is heartbreak. You ruined us with your cheating ways!”

“Why would I cheat on you when you were all I ever wanted?” I growled, desperate to lick the rain streaming down her face like tears, kiss the pain from her lips, and bleed absolution into us.

Ella grabbed my neck, her long nails sinking into my skin like a snake bite. “You tell me.” She grazed the heated words so close to my parched lips, barely quenching my thirst. “I gave you everything. Every. Fucking. Thing. And it wasn’t enough.Youthrew us into the flames!” Pocketing the dare in her cropped leather jacket, she spun around. “I’m done with you and this conversation. I should have known this truce wouldn’t last. You can’t even respect my one wish.”

Goddammit.

I was sick and tired of staring at her back as she walked away from me.

I snarled, “Fuck, just listen to me—”

“Ow!” Ella only took two steps before she winced and nearly fell. I caught her on time, wrapping my arm around her waist to hoist her up.

All my anger disappeared at seeing her visage fragment with pain. I knew something was wrong the minute I reached Balthazar Building’s foyer. “What happened to you?” I barked. “You’ve been limping since we left for the woods.”

Ella tried to dislodge herself from me. It was futile. I was stronger than her. And now that I knew she was hurt, I wasn’tletting her walk back to school in this weather, wearing booted heels and barely dressed to ward off the chill.

After plucking up my discarded items, I swung her into my arms princess-style, finally giving in to my earlier urge. Ella protested, attempting to squirm out of my hold. “Put me down! I don’t want to be carried!”

I silenced her with a glare and started walking, giving her no choice but to put her stubborn pride aside. “What. Happened. Ella?”

The rainstorm’s pitter-patter decorated the silence between us. Ella collected her thoughts before muttering, “I got pushed when I was coming down the stairs.”

I abruptly stopped, my anger returning. “Who hurt you?”

“Keep walking, we’re on a timer,” she hissed in her usual bossy manner. When I wouldn’t budge, she sighed. “By another Initiator. He was wearing a mask.”

“Did he excuse himself?”

Otherwise, after Initiation Night, I’d hunt down the motherfucker and punish him. Nobody hurt my girl and walked God’s green earth unscathed.

Ella hesitated. “No, but he said some unsettling things and…put his hands on me.”

He was a dead man walking. “Elaborate.”