I step inside the house and breathe deeply, trying to control my rage. I’ve never been more ready to head out there and hunt for what’s mine, to finish what I started, to have my revenge.
But she … she defies all I ever believed about myself.
I look at her kneeling on the ground, face buried in her hands, and the sting of tears she refuses to show gut me like a knife.
She did this.
She lied to me.
She made me believe Jill was dead.
All so she could have a shot at killing me.
My nostrils flare as more rage bubbles to the surface, and I stare at my own hands. The hands of a killer. Or at least, I thought I was. Until today.
Everything I believed to be real was a lie.
All because she’s trying to protect the one girl I hate more than anything.
My hand balls into a fist.
I should punish her for lying. For trying to kill me a third time. For not upholding her end of our blood debt.
But when I turn to look at her and see her body rise and fall with each hiccup, each restless breath, all the fury leaves my body like a storm finally calming down.
She’s giving me what I want.
Finally, she’ll be mine.
No fighting.
No killing.
Just … her and me.
It’s what I wanted all along. More than anything. More than … revenge itself.
I blow out another breath and rub my face before I head back outside again. “C’mon.”
She looks away and brushes her thumbs along her cheeks. Not one second does she look me in the eyes as she gets up from the muddy ground. She brushes the dirt off her baggy clothes, the ones I gave her, but still refuses to look at me.
Fine.
If she wants it that way, she can have it.
“Look at me,” I say.
And finally, for the first time in a long time, she does what I say without revolting.
But the shimmer in her eyes is long gone.
Replaced by nothing but repulsion. And it fucking hurts like a jab to the heart.
I grab the door and hold it open for her. “Get in.”
With slumped shoulders, she enters the cabin, and when I close the door again, she jolts up and down from the sound.
I sigh and approach her, placing a hand on her shoulder to turn her around.