“I told you what I want.” His voice drops to a dangerous, low range. “But what did you do?”
I fold my arms both to stop his chest from grazing mine and to control the hammering of my crazy heartbeat.
My gaze trails in the opposite direction, refusing to meet his eyes. If I do, I have a feeling they’d swallow me whole and never let go.
“I said.” His thumb and forefinger squeeze my chin, forcing me to face him. “What did you do?”
I gulp against the feel of his skin on mine. The calloused, long fingers bring back memories of that night.
Hit-and-run night.
For the first time in months, the memories aren’t gory and gruesome like in my nightmares.
No.
It’s entirely different.
These memories consume me like a case of drugs gone wrong — or maybe it’s gone right.
Goosebumps form on my skin at the memory of how good it felt to be touched by him.
How he elicited those desperate, foreign sensations in parts I thought didn’t exist.
This same devil made me feel like no one did before.
No. That was Ecstasy. Anyone could’ve touched me and it would’ve felt good.
Only now, I’m under no drug influence and I might as well be. Tingles draw down my spine, and I have no way to fight them off.
All I can do is show him that he can’t get through me.
“I told you I’m not meeting you. It’s not my fault you assumed otherwise.”
He raises one perfect, thick eyebrow. “Is that why you painted my car?”
“That was for humiliating me in front of the entire school.”
“That’s nothing compared to what I can do to you. Be a good little princess and I’ll let everything blow over.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Believe me, you don’t want to go there.” Something menacing and sadistic shines in his gaze. It’s like he wants me to defy him so he can take sick pleasure in crushing me.
That’s his type, isn’t it? They’re so rich and entitled and bored. So they make it their job to step on anyone in their path to fend off their boredom.
If he steps on me just because he’s bored, I’ll make his life a living hell.
He releases my chin, and I hate how the place his fingers touched feel empty and tingling at the same time.
“I heard you’re not dropping the accident with the police.” His tone turns dispassionate.
“You know about that?”
Aside from Dan and the odd student here and there, I didn’t think my non-fatal accident meant much to RES, especially not to the point that Levi would know about it.
My invisibility game must be getting too weak.
“Drop it,” he says in that infuriating authoritative tone.
“Huh?”
“Stop going to the police station, stop digging your nose around. Drop. It.”
“Are you out of your mind? You want me to let a criminal who left me to die off the hook?”
“You look fine to me.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” A potent fire shoots through my veins. “While you were having fun in your stupid summer camps, I spent my days in physical and mental therapy. Bet none of you thought I’ll come back, but I’m here now and I’ll make anyone who made me suffer pay. So don’t you dare stand there and have the audacity to tell me to drop it. That will never happen, King.”
I pant after my outburst. My ears and face are on fire and my entire body is stiff, but I don’t back down from his demonic stare.
It actually feels super good to give him a piece of my mind. Screw him if he thinks he can make me give up on my justice.
Something undecipherable flashes on his face as he steps back with his head tilted in that assessing, unnerving way.
“I’ll play the game. Think carefully because this is the only time I give up the first move. What will make you give up?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing, huh?”
“Absolutely nothing.”
“Tell me, princess, is your sense of justice more important than everything else?”
I lift my chin. “Of course.”
The unnerving silence returns as he measures me from the top of my head to my shoes. It’s not in a sexual way, though. He’s like some hitman assessing which way will kill me faster and with less hassle.
When he meets my eyes again, they’re darker than a few seconds ago.
Black.
Lethal.
“We’ll see about that.”
Dread tightens my stomach. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means…” He taps my nose twice with an easy smile that would’ve made him appear welcoming if I didn’t already