my first time in this situation, I'm sure that dealing with me will be as easy as taking candy from a baby. You know, one of those babies that don’t know any better, not the ones who hold onto shit for dear life.
Despite having Nic at my back, I sense him lean into me, although he doesn’t touch an inch of my skin. Call it female intuition, or maybe I just know Nic well enough to know what he’s going to do before even he knows. Let’s hope it’s the second option. At least that way, I might have the slightest hope of getting out of here.
“Stop fighting it,” Nic murmurs, his breath rushing past my ear, his voice low and deadly. “You’re not going anywhere.”
“Give it up, Nic,” I growl, slamming my head back and cracking him in the face, getting the slightest satisfaction out of his grunt of pain. “This shit isn’t funny. Untie me and let me walk out of here. Otherwise, you’re going to have every single Wolf on your doorstep, tearing this place to shreds.”
“I highly doubt that,” Nic laughs, though I hear the pain in his voice. “Is this how you want to play this?” he questions. “You’re down for petty threats and pain because baby, you know damn well that I’d love to play along.”
“I’m not your baby,” I snap, always hating how he’s never been able to stop calling me that, even now. “Take this fucking bag off my head. If you’re going to try and hurt me, then at least have the balls to do it while looking into my eyes.”
“You don’t think I will?” he questions, his hand dropping to the top of my head and peeling the bag off.
I blink into the room as I adjust to the brightness, but in reality, it’s not actually that bright. The room is dark except for one low hanging light bulb gently swinging above my head. Nic moves around me and steps right in front of my face, letting me see him. “Really?” I laugh. “You want to use the light bulb bullshit to try and intimidate me? You think that this is going to work because you know everything about me, but maybe you’ve forgotten that the door swings both ways. I know all your dirty little tricks, Nic. It’s not going to work.”
A brilliant smile stretches over his face, pulling at his dimples and taking me back to the good old days. I haven’t seen that smile in months, and I’m only now just realizing how much I missed it. “Do you honestly think I’ve brought you here to hurt you?”
I raise a brow, pointedly tugging on my bound hands. As the light bulb gently swings, it sends shadows soaring across his face, quickly flickering and drawing attention to the bloodstains on the concrete floor. I try not to think about all the things that have gone down in this exact spot. Slowly, I raise my gaze back to Nic’s. “You’re kidding yourself, right?”
He shrugs his shoulders and walks back into me before pulling out a small pocket knife. The shiny blade glistens in the swinging light, and as he creeps closer, I wonder just how far he’ll go. He leans down over me, placing his hands on either side of the wooden chair, looking right into my eyes. “You’ve been crying,” he tells me, the blade way too close to my skin for liking. Yet for some fucked up reason, I still find myself completely trusting him.
“So what if I have?”
A growl rumbles through the back of his throat, and I can’t help but breathe him in, still wondering if the old Nic still exists in there. “Why?”
I scoff. “Like you care.”
His eyes glisten with a deep, genuine concern that tears at every piece of my soul. “Try me.”
I keep my glare locked on his. “Really?” I say with a laugh, trying to shrug off my emotions, knowing all too well how they keep coming up and betraying me at all the wrong times. “You don’t talk to me for weeks, you show up at my mother’s wedding, and then come storming into my school making demands, and you chose this exact moment to catch up on the ins and outs of my life. Are you crazy?”
“Answer the damn question, Ocean. Why were you crying?”
I roll my eyes. Why am I giving in to what he wants? “If you must know,” I say with a frustrated huff. “Just before