The Price of Inertia (The Seven Sins #4) - Lily Zante Page 0,112
I feel for him losing his manuscript. I’ve seen him toil over this. I’ve come to understand his pressure. Rob will go insane. “You didn’t need to burn it.”
“I told you,” he bites out slowly. “I warned you.”
I touch his arm, but he shrugs it off with a violence that catches me by surprise. I don’t understand the big deal of me reading a few pages. Rob was going to read it. Why is me reading it any different? Besides, this was just the paper version. He has it all on his computer. He can easily print off another copy.
“You have to believe me. I didn’t mean to read. It was just so good—”
His hard eyes turn on me. “Are you deaf? “Get. Out.”
I take a step back, because this is more than a warning. This is an execution order. He’s back to being how he was before. A bully. Feral. Neanderthal. Scary.
In this moment, Jamie’s warnings don’t seem so out of place. Fearing for my life, I back away, because now I’m starting to get really scared. “I only read the first few pages, Ward. I’m sorry.”
He’s staring into the fire. I try to turn my phone back on but it is lifeless. I press the on/off switch frantically but I can’t get to turn it back on. “You broke my phone,” I cry, all the sympathy I felt for him suddenly vanishing.
“You broke my trust.”
“It’s only a story,” I say, staring at him evenly. Does he understand that? “It’s only a story, and I only read a few pages. I’m sorry I did.”
“I told you not to.”
“I … didn’t mean to. I … I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry. I made a mistake.”
“So did I.”
I stare at him in disbelief. He has a backup of his manuscript, but I don’t have a backup phone.
My mom.
The nursing home.
I need to have constant contact with them. He can print his manuscript out again. He can make it so that this isn’t a big deal. He can man up. I have to get my phone fixed. Right now, there is no way for anyone to contact me. My anger inflames. “You’re making such a big deal of this,” I hiss under my breath. “You can print off another copy.”
“You’ve seen it now. It’s no good.”
“What?” I shriek. Maybe Jamie was right. Maybe Ward is more messed up than I thought. He’s messed up in the head. He killed his girlfriend. “It’s only a book. It’s not the end of the world.”
“Only a book?” he hollers, striding towards me. I flinch as I stumble back. He hasn’t apologized once for my phone, and I’ve said sorry numerous times. He’s only concerned about his lousy manuscript. He doesn’t care about anything or anyone else.
I was naïve to think he had changed.
“Leave!” he roars.
I intend to. He can die in hell. “Don’t worry. I quit,” I yell back. “I quit right now.”
He doesn’t seem the least bit shocked by my announcement. “Then get the fuck out.”
In that moment, I no longer want to be here. “You never speak about Lisa,” I manage to say. How I dredged something like that up from the past I don’t know. Maybe the desire to hurt him made me brave.
His eyes widen with shock. He looks as if he’s been hit by a baseball. The color drains from his face.
“What did you do to her?” I back away. I sense him wavering, sense him weakening, sense that I’ve hurt him.
He shakes his head, his eyes narrowing to slits as he creeps closer. “What? How do you know about her?”
“Lisa Dooley.” I lift my head up high. I’m getting something from him, even if it’s a truth I don’t want to face. “How did she die?”
“What are you asking?” His voice is barely audible.
“I want to know.”
“What do you want to know?”
“How you killed her.” My fear turns into foolish courage, and my body starts to shiver, but it’s not from the cold. He puts his hands on my shoulders. “What makes you think I killed her?” he asks, softly. His whispered voice freaks me out.
“You never talk about her.”
His fingers dig into my flesh. I hear the blood pounding through my ears. I shrug, but he doesn’t move his hands away. “She’s someone you don’t need to worry about.”
The tremor begins in my knees and crawls upwards, every cell in my body quaking with terror. I wish Jamie were here.