like you owe me, then do us both a favor and disappear. Get out of my house, and get out of my life before you force me to do something we’ll both regret.” He sounded deadly serious, and I couldn’t stop a sharp chill from racing up and down my spine.
I forced a wobbly grin and told him, “I don’t care how much time has passed. The Huck I know would never hurt me or do anything to me that either of us would regret.”
I refused to believe he’d changed that much, and in such horrible ways, since we’d been apart.
He moved before I could react.
I gasped in shock when he was suddenly right in front of me, one of his rough hands holding my jaw tight enough that it hurt. His amber eyes glowed like they were lit from within by the fires of hell. His voice was low and scary as he moved his face alarmingly close to mine, his fingers holding my face hard enough to leave bruises.
“You don’t know anything, Olivia. You never did. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m the same kid you walked all over, who let you have your way no matter the circumstances. I’m not him anymore. I’m not someone you should underestimate.”
I dropped my drink on the ground in surprise. It splattered across his black and white sneakers and my battered combat boots. He never called me by my full name. Not ever. I lifted a hand to his wrist, to pull him away or hold him closer, I wasn’t sure. I felt his pulse kick under my fingertips.
I could feel his breath as he practically spat out the words. I could feel the tension in his big body as he nearly shook with restraint. If either one of us moved in the slightest, our lips would touch, and I was totally stunned by how much I wanted to lean forward. Our relationship had never been one of a romantic nature, but now that he was all grown up and pretty much the only person in the entire world I felt like I could rely on, something had shifted. My mind understood that he meant the move as a threat, but the rest of me didn’t seem interested in reading the signs he was sending loud and clear.
Huck dropped his hold and shook loose from my hold once again. He turned and walked away without another word or backward glance.
It took me a second to get my breathing back under control as I looked forlornly down at the mess by my feet. I didn’t have a ton of extra cash on hand most days, so the sweet drink had been a splurge to celebrate safely making it long enough to see my second semester and the start of a new school, one that I picked and wasn’t forced upon me. For a good long while, I’d been convinced I wasn’t ever going to get to decide any of life’s basic choices. Where I lived, what I wore, what I ate, who I interacted with, where I went to school, what I was studying, all of those things were decided for me after the accident. If I dared dissent, Sawyer would threaten to stop paying for my mom’s medical treatment, so I toed the line until it became clear she couldn’t hold on. It wasn’t until she passed that I learned she’d been squirreling money away for me, that she put every single dime into a secret savings account I couldn’t access until she was gone. It wasn’t a ton of money, but it was just enough to get away from that mansion and the people in it. It was enough I could get the education she wanted for me as long as I didn’t have hopes for a top-tier college. She was doing her best to make sure I was cared for even after she was gone. It was like she knew I needed a way out, and the only way to get it was if she stopped being my biggest weakness.
I shook my foot in irritation and started toward my next class. I was almost to the building when my phone suddenly rang. Only a couple of people had the number, and since I’d been blowing Mercer up for days. I knew it was probably her.
“Hello.” I nodded a slight apology as I nearly ran into a girl rushing through the doors. “I have class in a couple of