that kind of guy. Angry. Unstable. Violent. Even now I can see the greenish-yellow stain around his eye. He wears bruises like badges. That’s how many fights this boy gets into.
“Go downstairs,” Cooper says.
“What?” Lars asks.
“Just… both of you. Go downstairs and give me a minute with… Cadee.” He sneers my name like it is something truly disgusting.
“Gladly,” Ax says, eyeing me up and down in a threatening way. “Fuck this bitch.”
Lars follows him and Cooper waits until they are through the door at the end of the hall before he reaches for my wrists. “What the hell was that?”
“That was a threat.”
He pulls a small folding knife out of his pocket, cuts the twine around my wrists, and then reaches for the noose around my neck.
I swat his hands away and remove the twine myself. “And if you don’t think I’ll do it, you have severely underestimated me.” I try to say it with as much conviction as I can, but my voice cracks. And I know if I say much more I will probably start crying.
Cooper sighs, puts his hands in his pockets, then leans against the wall. Like he needs something to hold him up right now.
I don’t mean to stare at the giant fighting-lion tattoo that spans his entire chest—or the muscles underneath it. He didn’t have either of those when we were last together.
You were never together, Cadee. He bullied you. Relentlessly.
Right. Let’s try to keep this day rooted in reality.
But holy hell. The last time I saw this much of Cooper Valcourt, he certainly didn’t look this good.
I pull my eyes away from his chest and refuse to admit I like the tattoo and the muscles, because Cooper Valcourt is evil. All the Valcourts are evil. Which means… his father’s offer might be…
“Look.” Cooper sighs. “If you help me out, I’ll help you out.”
“I don’t need your help.”
“Don’t you? Looks like he stole your life, just like he stole mine.”
Now I do look up at him. “And whose fault is that?”
“Not mine.”
“Wrong. Everything is your fault. Even when it isn’t.”
“Childish much?”
Air blows past my lips. “You are such a piece of work.” I turn my back to him.
“Listen to me.” He grabs my shoulders, spins me around, and pushes me up against the wall. Not only that—he pushes himself up against me. So his chest is pressing against my breasts.
Do. Not. Look at him. Do not!
“Look at me, Cadee.”
Stay strong.
“Look. At. Me. Cadee.” He pauses. Then his voice softens. “Please.”
Fuck. I look. And man… why? Why does this animal have to have those eyes? Piercing. I know. It’s overused in books. Every blue-eyed man has a piercing gaze. I get it.
But it’s just true with this one. These blue eyes of his are not reminiscent of the sky or the long, brilliant feathers of a peacock. Oh, they’re that color. An intense, almost surreal blue. But they are dark. They are the depths of despair. Lightning in a thundercloud. The flame of a gas fire. They are poison. Pure poison.
“I don’t know what he’s doing. I swear to God, I do not know. And I don’t understand why he’s gotten you involved. If I could stop it, I would.”
“Then do it!” I yell it. Right up in his face. “Tell him.”
He sighs and runs his fingers through his hair. “That’s not going to help anything. What’s done is done. He doesn’t need to know about it.”
“You would say that,” I whisper. “Because you made this happen. You did this to me.”
He walks away.
“All of it! This is all your fault. You killed my dad, you killed—”
He spins around and yells, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You are everything that’s wrong in my life, Cooper Valcourt! Everything! It’s all your fault.”
He actually laughs and throws up his hands. “Fine. You want to make it all my fault? It’s all my fault.”
“‘Get on your knees, Cadee!’ You’d like that, wouldn’t you? You and your bully friends! You made my life miserable that year. Do you have any idea what you did to me?” I scream it. So loud he rushes forward and cups his hand over my mouth.
“Shut up!” he growls down into my face. He grabs me by the hair and twists it up in his fist until he’s pulling on my scalp. “Just… calm the fuck down.”
I breathe hard into his palm, my chest heaving. And then… that’s it. I have reached the end of my self-control and the tears spill down my