Mia has finished signing and is now waiting for Jeremy’s reply with a hand on her hip.
“He’s all yours,” he tells her, obviously having understood her.
“Oh?” Landon jumps up to a standing position and straps his mask around his neck, appearing as cool as ever, short of the bruising and blood. “I’m going have to decline whatever deal you two have.”
He grabs my other hand. “Cecy and I have a date.”
No, we don’t.
But before I can say that, merciless fingers dig further into the flesh surrounding my elbow and I wince.
“The only date you’ll have is for a funeral.” Jeremy tugs hard, wrenching me from Landon, or more like, my childhood friend lets go at the last second.
“Necrophilia. Yum.” He grins with a suggestive lick of his lips. Mia lifts her leg to kick his crotch again, but he blocks her with a hand on her head, effectively immobilizing her in place. “Jesus fucking Christ, calm down, and stop acting like a rabid dog.”
That only makes her want to grab at him more as she struggles, punches, and kicks—mostly the air.
Lan effortlessly escapes her attempts at violence and stares at Jeremy with his provocative smile. “Let go of Cecily.”
“No.”
I pull my elbow free. “You have no right to touch me.”
He finally slides his gaze to me in the form of a glare. I glare right back.
Why does he get to act this way when he’s the one who ended us?
“What she said.” Lan tsks and shakes his head while Mia continues to struggle and exert herself for nothing. “How does it feel to be the second choice to me? In fact, you wouldn't have even been on her list if you hadn't stalked her.”
Jeremy strides over to him, but I jump between them. I know precisely what Landon is doing by making him jealous. He wants Jeremy to be with me again, but I won’t stand by and watch him claim ownership he doesn’t have.
I stare at Jeremy, even as my heart beats in my throat. “Stop it.”
“Step away.”
“I said, stop it.”
“And I said to step the fuck away.”
My whole body shivers at the lash of his words. I haven’t heard the gruff timbre of his voice for so long, and now that I do, it’s fills me with a myriad of chaotic colors and twisted emotions.
“We’re out of here.” Lan is dragging a struggling and obviously angry Mia out of the storeroom. “Remember, Ces. You loved me first.”
I can sense the destructive energy in Jeremy before he acts on it. If he’s stroking his fingers, that stops. And he usually stops breathing for one fraction of a second before he chooses violence.
Despite being scared shitless of this part of him, I don’t think about it as I block his path again.
Jeremy slams into me, my head bumps into his chest, and he steps on my foot, but he swiftly pulls back and actually stops.
That destructive energy that I’m sure is always thirsty for blood slowly lulls, tucking itself beneath the surface of his apparent calm.
He flexes his palm and remains still, probably realizing that Landon is already out of reach.
When he speaks, his voice shimmers with thick tension and unveiled anger. “Are you hurt?”
I touch my forehead as if that will somehow camouflage the trembling in my chin. Why does he have to ask that when he was the one who ripped my heart open.
“No thanks to you.”