Heartbreak Lover (Broken Hearts Academy #2) - C.R. Jane Page 0,64

Jackson along, about how selfish you were. You ruined his life. You and your magic pussy that you wouldn’t give him.”

She put her knee in my stomach as she leaned over to get something, still keeping a firm grip on my hair with her other hand.

My eyes watered as the pressure on my gut and skull intensified.

I began to struggle again when I saw what she’d grabbed.

It was a knife.

“You’ve just got him confused right now. He’s just feeling sorry for you,” she muttered practically to herself as she stared at the knife, fascinated. “He didn’t mean to say your name. He didn’t mean it.”

She shot me a piercing glare. “I’ve done everything to get rid of you. He told me about your fear of the dark back in high school. Have you liked my little games? Pushing you down the stairs wasn’t really part of the plan, but I couldn’t resist it when I saw you up there.” She grinned wildly.

“You’re insane,” I told her through gritted teeth as I tried to control my urge to cry from the pain. At least now I knew who’d been behind everything. That fucking snake. “You can’t think that whatever plan you have in your head is going to work.”

“He’s just too nice. He can’t get rid of you. But if I do it, he’ll help me. I know he will. Because he loves me.” Her voice came out in a sing-song, high-pitched tone that couldn’t have gotten any creepier.

My shock at the rude awakening and the craziness that she spewed finally faded, replaced by outright terror as I realized that she’d truly lost it. It wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for her to try and kill me with how she sounded and looked right now.

“Melanie, Caiden does this. He manipulates people. Has he actually told you he loved you?” I tried to plead to whatever reason was left in her brain. Whatever Caiden had done to this girl, I knew it had nothing to do with love.

At this point, I didn’t think that he was capable of such a feeling.

“He loves me. I know he does,” she told me frantically, and a wave of pity hit me, even amidst the fear, because she really believed it even though he hadn’t said it.

She suddenly dropped the knife and grinned down at me, even as I struggled against her. My head felt like it was loaded with concrete, so my movements felt stiff and uncoordinated. My poor brain.

“I think I want to make this as personal as possible,” she whispered manically as she let go of my hair and laid both hands around my throat, beginning to press harder and harder, until I couldn’t breathe at all and it felt like she was going to crush my windpipe.

This crazy bitch really was about to kill me.

I struggled as hard as I could, but she was persistent, continuing to squeeze with all her might. The world started to fade, the literal light at the end of the tunnel of my vision getting smaller and smaller, until I knew it was the end.

I suddenly heard a loud crash and then what sounded like a war cry. Melanie screeched above me as her hands suddenly loosened and her body flopped off of me, letting in a gulp of beautiful, beautiful air.

Lane’s panicked face appeared in front of my hazy vision, and then I felt hands pulling on the ropes around my wrists. A few seconds later, my hands were free, but all I could do was lay there and try to get my breath back.

I heard Lane screaming at someone, and I faintly realized that she must have called the police.

Her face popped into my view again. “Everly, please say something. The police are on their way.” Tears dripped on my face as she continued to hover right above me.

“Melanie?” I finally asked in a scratchy voice.

“I knocked that bitch out. She might be dead. But I don’t care. I’ll pray later,” Lane said fiercely.

She helped me up after a few more minutes when I regained some of my strength, and we huddled together across from Melanie’s still, prone form on the floor next to us.

We heard loud stomping down the hallway a minute later, and then five police officers ran into the room. They took one look at Melanie’s body and turned their attention to us.

Lane held up her hands. “I was the one who called you. She was about to kill my