A little while after I've calmed down. Nathan takes me to the beach.
It wasn’t planned. I don’t even remember saying yes, but here we are. Skipping school like it’s the easiest decision in the world. After that scene in the library—after crashing into Nathan and making a spectacle of myself in front of Tamrin, Sadie, and Presley—I needed to breathe. I needed to get away from everything.
And Nathan… somehow, he just knew.
We’ve been sitting here on the sand for a while now. Th
I’m sitting at lunch with Sadie and Presley, and I can feel the anger boiling up inside me again. I can't help it. Celeste—she’s driving me crazy. She didn’t even reply to my text, and now she’s disappearing with Nathan like nothing matters. After that little tumble at the library door, she just walked out with him, parading around like she's in some romantic drama.I know she’s doing this on purpose. Pretending to bump into him like it’s all so innocent. Please. Who does she think she’s fooling?I take a bite of my sandwich, but I can’t even taste it. The frustration is too much. “You know what? I’m sick of this,” I say, louder than I intended. I can feel people turning to look, but I don’t care. “Celeste is seriously acting like she’s replaced us. With Nathan of all people. And she’s doing it right in front of us. I mean, am I the only one seeing this?”Sadie
As soon as Nathan walks through the door, I’m on him. I’ve been waiting all day, pacing the house like a caged animal. I need answers, and Nathan is the only one who’s got them. I don’t even give him a chance to drop his bag before I grab his arm and pull him toward me.“What’s going on with Celeste?” I ask, my voice coming out more desperate than I’d like.Nathan looks at me, confused, and pulls his arm out of my grip. “What are you talking about?”“You know what I’m talking about. The two of you went to the beach and skipped class, Nate. Something happened, and I need to know what.” I say and I can telll he's annoyed that I had someone following them but he has to know that nothing happens around here without me knowingHe sighs, running a hand through his hair, and for a moment, I think he’s not going to answer. “Liam, just leave me out of it. Go ask her”
I’m reaching for a box of cereal when I feel it—his presence. It’s like a dark cloud suddenly hanging over me, and before I can even turn around, I know. Liam.My heart speeds up, anger bubbling beneath the surface. I’ve been dodging him for three days. Three days of avoiding texts, ignoring calls, pretending he doesn’t exist. I’m not ready to see him yet. But here he is, and there’s no way out.When I finally turn around, he’s walking straight toward me, and he looks pissed. His jaw is clenched, his eyes sharp with anger, but I don’t care. If he thinks I’m just going to let him walk up and act like he’s the one who should be mad, he’s got another thing coming.“Celeste,” he growls, his voice low and angry.I don’t even flinch. “What?”He doesn’t answer, not right away. Instead, he steps closer, way too close for comfort, and grabs me by the
As soon as I leave the grocery store, my head is still spinning from the confrontation with Liam. I can’t believe what just happened. My heart's pounding, my breath shaky, but I keep walking, desperate to put as much distance between us as possible. I need air. I need space. I need to just get out of here.I’m almost at my car when I feel it—eyes on me. You know that feeling when you can just sense someone watching you, like a creeping sensation crawling up your spine? Yeah, that. My whole body tenses, but I don’t look up right away. I tell myself I’m just being paranoid, still reeling from seeing Liam.But then I hear it—a voice. Smooth, deep, and way too familiar for my liking.“Hello,” the man says.I freeze, my hand instinctively tightening around my car keys. Slowly, I lift my head, and that’s when I see him—a man standing just a few feet away, leaning against a car like he’s been wait
I stare at my phone, fingers hovering over Nathan's name in my contacts. My brain is telling me to stop, that this is going to make everything messier, but my heart is pushing me forward. I don’t feel like sitting in my room and crying over Liam anymore. I’ve done enough of that. And my friends… they’re not an option right now. I can’t invite them.Before I can second-guess myself, I type out a quick message to Nathan:Hey, feel like hanging out? I could use the
As I take another sip of my coffee, the peaceful silence wraps around me, but it’s fleeting. The memory of that man from earlier creeps back into my mind, sharp and unsettling. I try to push it away, but the way he looked at me—the mixture of lust and something darker, something dangerous—won’t leave me alone. His words echo in my head, sending chills down my spine."I see why Liam likes you so much, you're gorgeous."I freeze, my hand gripping the cup a little too tightly. Nathan’s sitting across from me, gazing out at the view, completely unaware of the storm building in my head. He’s calm, like always, just enjoying the moment. But I’m not. I can’t be.My eyes drift over to him, and it’s like he senses something. He turns his head slightly, his brow furrowing. Nathan’s quiet, patient, but I can see the question in his eyes. He knows I have something to say, but like always, he doesn’t
Nathan's standing in my doorway, looking tense. It's not like him. Usually, he’s calm, doesn’t let much get to him. But tonight? His whole vibe’s off. I shut the door behind him and lean against the wall, waiting for him to speak.“What’s up?” I ask, though I can already sense it’s something serious. I just don’t know how deep it goes yet.He rubs a hand over his face, exhaling slowly. “We need to talk about Celeste.”My chest
I pull up outside Celeste’s house and kill the engine, my fingers drumming against the steering wheel as I wait. The street’s quiet, a couple of lights flickering in the houses around me. I’ve been here a hundred times before, but tonight everything feels different. There’s a tension in the air that wasn’t there before, like everything’s about to shift.I see her coming down the driveway, her bag slung over one shoulder, her steps slow and hesitant. She looks like she’s been through hell these past few days. I want to tell her she doesn’t have to look at me like I’m the problem. But I guess right now, to her, I am.She stops a few feet away from the car, crossing her arms over her chest like a shield. I step out, leaning against the door, trying to keep my tone calm. “Get in the car, Celeste.”Her eyes narrow, that familiar fire sparking behind them. “No, Liam. I’m not getting into the
The sound of gunfire explodes through the night, deafening and relentless. A machine gun—no, multiple—rips through the air outside, drowning everything else out. I hear men shouting, screaming, and then the screaming turns into something else. Agony. Terror.I clamp my hands over my ears, pressing myself further into the corner of the closet, trying to disappear. My body shakes violently, my breath coming in shallow gasps as I rock back and forth. I squeeze my eyes shut and whisper a prayer under my breath, over and over."Please, God. Please, God. Please, God."The walls tremble with the force of the fight happening outside. Glass shatters somewhere. Heavy footsteps storm through the house. More gunshots. More yelling. I don’t kn
I wake up with a start, my heart thundering in my chest. My breath comes in ragged gasps, and for a moment, I can’t place where I am. I sit up quickly, expecting to see someone in the room with me—someone coming to hurt me, to take me again—but when my eyes adjust to the dim light, the room is empty.Just the silence.I look around, the weight of everything pressing down on me. This place—the house where Trevor has kept me locked up for weeks—has become a prison. It’s always quiet, too quiet. The only sounds are the distant hum of the outside world that I can’t reach, the creaks of the house settling, and my own restless thoughts.The darkness beyond the window is thick and consuming, the kind of darkness that swallows up the last remnants of hope. But tonight, something is different. Something feels off.I strain my ears, listening closely. There’s a faint sound, like the whisper of something moving through
The air is cold, but I barely feel it. My fingers flex at my sides, itching for the moment I get to wrap them around Trevor’s throat.A few meters away, the house stands in the darkness, barely lit by the moon. Celeste is in there. I can feel it, like some invisible tether between us. She’s so close I can almost smell her—vanilla and something soft, something warm.Nathan steps up beside me. I don’t have to look at him to know what he’s thinking. We’ve run through this plan a hundred times. We both breathe slowly, measured, in sync. If we let the rage take over now, we’ll lose. We need to do this right.Behind us, the rest of my men are waiting, silent shadows in the night. Five hundred of them. A small army, but that’s what it takes when yo
Nathan and I are staring at the screen, watching the dot move. Every second it inches closer to its destination, my pulse beats harder, my hands clench tighter. I should be in my car already, speeding toward her. I should be ending this.But I can’t rush this.One mistake, and Celeste might never make it out alive.I take a slow breath, forcing myself to think. Trevor’s still pissed about today—I saw it in his eyes, the way his mask slipped for just a second. He’s getting sloppy. That’s why Tamrin was able to slip one on him, why he hasn’t even realized she did. He thinks he still has control, but we’re the ones pulling the strings now."One more day," I say, more to myself than to Nathan.
My hands are trembling so hard I can barely hold the phone. My chest feels tight, like there isn’t enough air in the room, but I force myself to breathe. In and out. In and out. I can’t fall apart now. Not when I finally made a move.Sadie sits next to me, watching silently. She hasn’t asked a single question since I took her phone, but she doesn’t have to. I know she’s thinking them. I know she wants to yell at me, shake me, demand answers. But she doesn’t. Maybe she knows I don’t have the strength to explain right now.Nathan answers on the second ring. His voice is sharp, alert. “Who’s this?”“It’s Tamrin.” My voice barely comes out, but I swallow the lump in my throat and force myself to continue. “I hid my phone in Trevor’s car so you can track him. I’ll send you the details now.”Silence. Then a sharp breath on the other end. “You—” he starts, but I don’t give him a chance to question me. I end the call and immediately go to the tracking app on my phone, sending the location str
The drive back feels like it lasts forever, and every minute of it makes my stomach churn with dread. Trevor’s words hang in the air, thick and suffocating. He doesn’t stop talking, doesn’t stop reminding me of everything he’s capable of, and how easily he could ruin my life if I even think about crossing him. Every threat is sharp, like a blade cutting through my chest. He tells me he will kill me, kill my family, that no one would ever know what happened to Celeste or that I was involved.The fear grips me harder with each passing second. It feels like I’m suffocating in this car, trapped in this nightmare I can’t escape. I can’t say anything. I just nod, keep my eyes on the road, my breath shallow, praying he’ll just let me go. But it never comes. The torment doesn’t stop.Finally, when the car pulls up in front of my house, I feel my body go stiff. Trevor grabs my thigh, his fingers digging in deep, hard enough to bruise. The pain flares up immediately, sharp and relentless, and I
I’m sitting in Trevor’s car, my hands trembling so badly I can barely keep them on my lap. My head is pounding, each beat of my heart sending sharp pangs of pain through my chest. I don’t know what he’s going to do to me. I can barely look him in the eye, even though he’s sitting right next to me, his cold presence suffocating me in this small space.How did I end up here? I can’t even remember when it started to go so wrong. I thought he was different. I thought he was charming, charismatic, someone who could make me feel like I mattered. I let myself believe he cared. I even slept with him—let him do things to me that I’m ashamed of now. I wish I could take it all back. I wish I could somehow erase the last few months of my life.But I can’t. I’m trapped.I don’t know when I started to see the darkness in him, when it became clear that Trevor was a monster. I was too blind, too naïve to see
The car rolls to a stop in front of the abandoned building. The windows are boarded up, and the air around here smells stale, like no one’s been within a hundred miles for years. I park with precision, the crunch of gravel beneath the tires settling in my ears. Tamrin doesn’t say anything, but I can see her eyes darting around, her body stiffening with every passing second. She’s terrified, and it’s exactly what I want.I turn to look at her, my gaze dark and unrelenting. There’s a moment of silence, thick and suffocating, before I speak.“Tamrin,” I say, my voice low and commanding. “What happened when you came back?”She looks at me, trying to hide the fear behind her eyes, but I see through it. “What do you mean?” she says, trying to play dumb, but I can hear the tremor in her
I pull up to Tamrin’s place, the tires crunching softly as I stop in the driveway. My hands tighten on the steering wheel for a moment, the anger from my conversation with Liam still simmering beneath my skin. The asshole had the nerve to think he could intimidate me. It’s all a game to him, but he doesn't understand what I’m capable of.I pick up my phone, dialing Tamrin’s number. It rings a few times before she picks up.“Yeah?” Her voice is tentative, like she already knows something's wrong.“Come outside,” I tell her, making sure my voice is low and controlled.There’s a long pause on the other end, but I wait. I know she’ll come.