good to still be found in Maverick, but now she could see exactly the sort of person he was. The kind to use her up, devour everything she had to offer and spit it back out like it was worthless.
“What the fuck, Maverick?!” JJ barked, shoving past him and striding over to me in alarm.
Maverick started laughing loudly. “He needed this. It’s exposure therapy. That was what I was giving him.”
JJ tried to unbind me as I continued to stare at Rogue, my blood cold in my veins and murder singing Maverick’s fucking name in my ears.
Rogue shook her head in disbelief at this situation, her eyes blazing with unshed tears that she refused to let fall. She rounded on Maverick, slapping him hard and he just laughed louder.
“Oh come on, beautiful,” he tried but his laughter fell away at her volcanic expression.
“How long have you been here?” JJ asked me frantically, but I didn’t answer, I didn’t even look at him, my gaze was hooked on Maverick as I waited to be set free. Because I was gonna kill this motherfucker once and for all. There was nothing but a bloodthirsty temper left of me and it needed an outlet.
“Foxy washed up on my island needing rescuing. I may or may not have used his phone to keep you all from worrying,” Maverick admitted. “And to deliver a few home truths to dear old Daddy.”
“You’re insane,” JJ snapped at Maverick who just shrugged.
Rogue shoved his chest with a snarl on her lips. “You used me! You fucking asshole. How could you?”
Maverick’s gaze moved back onto her and a flicker of concern slid into his gaze as he took in her hurt expression. “It wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like then?” JJ threw at him, giving up on trying to free me and striding back over to Maverick with his shoulders squared. “Because it’s pretty fucking clear what you were doing, motherfucker.” He swung a punch at Maverick and he took the blow to his face, stumbling back a step and dabbing his lip as it split open.
His eyes became two dark graves and he lunged at JJ with a roar, throwing his full weight against him so they crashed to the floor.
“Fuck you, you piece of shit,” Maverick snarled as they rolled, punching and fighting with the savagery of wild dogs.
Rogue’s took out the flick knife I’d given her, striding over as the name Maverick glinted on it and somehow I hated what that blade probably meant to her now. It had meant something to me too once, but fuck if I cared about it anymore.
“How long have you been here?” She worked to cut the rope holding me down as pain blossomed in her eyes over me. And for a second, the crushing rage in my chest gave way to an ache in me that mirrored hers.
She was cracking on the inside, this situation crushing her just like it was me. But as her gaze met mine, I looked away, turning my head as my jaw ticked. Whatever good had lived between us was broken, and there wasn’t a future where we could coincide anymore.
“What’s it matter?” I muttered and a choked noise escaped her, but she didn’t answer.
That was the worst part of this, losing her all over again, and this time knowing it was for good. There was no coming back from what they’d all done, the choices they’d all made. She’d chosen the boys she wanted and they weren’t me. So I had to try and pick up what was left of my pride and bow out, but I had a score to settle first. Maverick had wronged me, toyed with me in this room and there was a price to be paid for that.
The rope finally snapped and I shoved to my feet. Rogue’s hand grabbed my wrist and the flick knife dropped to the floor as I looked back at her with a hard wall in my eyes.
“I never meant for this to happen. We can fix it,” she begged and a seed of longing within me grew shoots, begging me to listen, to somehow find a way to forgive her. But there was a darker seed inside me that was growing into a vengeful beast, and it doused the other seed in poison, destroying it roots and all.
“There’s no we anymore.” I yanked my wrist out of her grip and turned my back on her, striding over to where Maverick was choking