Fraud (Antihero Inferno #2) - Lily White Page 0,109
a second. “Nothing.”
“That’s bullshit. You’re thinking something, and I want to know what it is.”
“It’s nothing,” she mumbles. “I have nothing to add.”
Sawyer speaks up again. “Can somebody please bring the real Ivy back? This chick is freaking me out.”
Me too, and his outburst is the only trigger I need to storm in her direction, grab her arm to pull her up from the couch and drag her back in the direction of the den.
“What are you doing?” she hisses at the same time Tanner calls out to ask where we’re going.
“Give me a minute,” I bark at him before shoving Ivy into the den and shutting the door behind me.
She crosses her arms over her chest and refuses to look at me, which only bothers me more.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Behaving,” she answers without any inflection in her voice. It’s like talking to a drugged out mental patient.
I take a few steps in her direction and grit my teeth when she moves away. My fingers curl into my palms, but I stand in place staring at her.
“This isn’t behaving. You’re acting like a hollow shell.”
Her shoulders shake with a bark of laughter, her blue eyes turning to lock with mine.
“Isn’t this what you wanted? You don’t want me to be me. You want me to obey. So this is me without my colors. If I can’t be myself, then this is what you get. I don’t understand the problem.”
I take another step toward her but stop myself.
“I wanted you to stop pulling your usual shit, not sit there with the boring personality of a deflating blowup doll.”
Her head snaps my direction, fire once again behind her eyes that I realize I prefer seeing. Just as quickly as it’s there, she blinks it away and retreats back to being a woman I don’t know.
“I’ll give you what you want, Gabriel, so you don’t leak the tape. Tomorrow, I’ll go talk to my dad. I’ll find a way for you to access his office. And when you’re done doing that, my price will be paid and then I’ll be sure to never see you again. We’ll be done. Which is exactly what you want, so what is your problem?”
That it’s not what I want.
That I can’t stand the sight of her acting this way.
That I’m pissed off at myself for threatening her with something I have no intention of doing in order to turn her into this pathetic facsimile version of herself.
That’s the fucking problem.
So why can’t I just come out and say it?
Ivy uncrosses her arms and moves to step around me to leave the room.
Pausing, she doesn’t bother looking my direction when she says, “You wanted this. I’m giving it to you. You win. And when my price is paid, I’ll be gone.”
When she takes another step, I wrap my hand around her bicep without thinking, her eyes sliding to meet mine.
We stare at each other for several tense seconds, my mind racing with a million thoughts I can’t make sense of while she flicks a glance to my hand and back up.
“Do you mind? I’d like to go back out there and do as I’m told.”
My jaw tics, frustration eating at me because I don’t fucking want that.
Rather than saying anything, I release her arm and watch her walk to the door.
She looks at me from over her shoulder. “I don’t know why you dragged me back here, Gabe. I’m behaving just like you asked. You should be smiling because I’m giving you everything you want.”
Except I don’t want it.
I certainly don’t fucking like it.
And if I don’t stop being a damn idiot, the woman I can’t admit I’ve always wanted will be gone for good.
After eighteen years, Ivy is finally giving up.
A girl who always fights.
A woman who never crumbles.
She’s walking away.
And that’s the last fucking thing I want.
Ivy
I don’t know what came over me earlier. I hadn’t intended to call Gabriel out on everything. Hadn’t intended to lose my shit and practically scream in his face.
But it was like it all boiled over and I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Years of feeling this way festered to the surface.
Hating him.
Fighting him.
Chasing him.
And in some weird way loving him.
It all shot to the top in a blur of memories and emotions, the words I’ve always wanted to say rushing out before I could stuff them back in.
The entire time, Gabriel stared at me like I was a stranger. Someone he doesn’t know or even care about.