Warily, her father seemed to give, and she touched his arm as she passed and stepped out into the darkness, shutting the door behind her.
Nerves fucking raced, so goddamn hard I could feel the beat of my blood through every inch of my body.
I gripped onto the edge of the table like it could be the anchor that kept me pinned in that chair.
Trying not to spin out of control.
To do something that I couldn’t take back.
Mr. Ramsey stood at the closed door in outright reluctance before he finally heaved out a sigh, roughing a hand over the spot balding on the top of his head as he headed back into the dining room.
Rhys swore under his breath, and Richard bounced his knee, while Lincoln looked at their father like he was waiting for him to give the cue to attack.
Hostility seethed in all of them.
It only fed my aggression.
Mrs. Ramsey and Rhys’s mother tried to strike up a conversation to cover the bleak mood that descended on the room.
Directly to the side of the dining room, the intimation of voices echoed through the thin walls of the house, gnarled and distorted.
Through the side window, I could barely make out the shape of the girl, her shoulders slouched and her arms crossed over her chest.
A guard.
Security.
Comfort.
Heat blanketed my skin, and I could feel the beads of sweat gathering on my forehead.
Swore I felt a piece of myself crack. Splinter away. Slammed with the need to be that for her.
Her protector.
Her shield.
The one she could rely on when the people she’d relied on most had left her high and dry.
To carry her and let her carry a little bit of me.
Stupid.
So fucking stupid.
I fisted my hands tighter and tried not to blow.
The prick’s voice got louder, elevated in anger. Emily’s response was a string of words that I couldn’t understand, though I could tell she was upset.
“This is bullshit,” Richard grumbled.
There was a scuffle of sounds. Footsteps and shouts and a small crash.
That was it.
All I could take.
Mr. Ramsey was starting to stand, but I was already on my feet. Violence streaked through my muscles and aggression slicked across my flesh.
Fire heating me to the core.
Mr. Ramsey frowned in surprise, hovering between sitting and standing. Richard stuck out his hand, his gaze slanting to me for a beat, a warning and a buoy. “Think Royce has this one, Dad.”
Confusion and speculation crowded the lines on their father’s brow, but I couldn’t find it in myself to stop. Didn’t care what anyone else thought in that moment because the only thing that mattered was I needed to be there for Emily.
“I’m just going to make sure she’s okay.” The words cracked, a blatant lie and the outright truth.
Their voices continued to carry, their argument a muffle of quickened words and old hurt and new wounds that were bleeding through the atmosphere. Could feel the entire table watching me as I moved through the living room, opened the door, and stepped out onto the porch.
Heatwaves instantly clawed at my overheated skin, sticky and thick.
From the side of the house, Emily’s heaving words became clear, agony threaded through every one. “No, Nile, you don’t get to make accusations about my life. It’s none of your concern. Not anymore.”
“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” His voice was hard. Riddled with scorn. I wanted to skin the flesh from his bones.
I took a silent step in the direction of their voices, trying to hold onto my quickly dwindling control. To remind myself I was only out there in case she needed me. That this wasn’t about me needing to enact a little piece of revenge for that piece of shit hurting her.
“Is this about that freak who was in that picture? Writing you up like some kind of pathetic poet? Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with you, Emily? Don’t even know you anymore, running around with some goth boy who looks like a junkie or some shit . . . what is he, some kind of wannabe rocker?” His voice was pure disgust. “I thought you were better than that.”
“You’re gonna judge him when you’re the one who cheated on me?”
“You were gone for three fuckin’ months.”
“And that makes it okay?”
“A man has needs, Emily.”
“Glad to know I didn’t fill them. And guess what, Nile, I have needs, too. And I needed you to be there for me. For you to be waitin’, just like you’d promised you would be.”
“Right . . . you wanted me waiting around for when it was convenient for you.”
“You have no idea what you’re even sayin’. I loved you. And I came back because I needed you more than I’d ever needed you . . . and I found you with someone else. You destroyed me. Ruined the last piece of true belief I was clinging to.”