The Rush (The Siren Series) - By Rachel Higginson Page 0,46
more guilt around. After Sam, do you really think you can handle two more lives to add to your list?”
“Are you threatening me?” I whispered in a raspy voice. The heels of my feet hit the wall with an empty thud and I realized Nix had me right where he wanted me. I was the trapped baby gazelle, while the experienced lion stalked his naïve, helpless prey. This was his plan all along, fear as motivation, friends as incentive, threats and promises to perpetuate the cycle.
“Hardly,” he sighed, taking a step forward so he towered over me. I felt small and weak next to his intoxicating masculinity. “I don’t have to threaten you because you’re not going to let this get out of hand. You’re going to bend to my will. You’re going to obey me.”
A loaded silence dragged heavily between us. I wasn’t going to agree to Nix’s outrageous demands and he wasn’t ever going to back off. Not ever.
Eventually he changed the subject. “I don’t like the idea of you going to a party tomorrow night. I think it’s too soon.”
More silence on my part. This was my job: parties, boys, drunken revelry.
“Ivy, I’m not trying to offend your pride,” Nix wisely pacified me. “I’m concerned for you well-being and nothing more. A party…. after the accident last spring, could trigger all kinds of-“
“Nix, I’m fine,” I interrupted, a sharp, determined edge to my voice. “I know what you’re going to say, but I’m better. The depression, the breakdown…. that’s not going to happen again. The crash was just…. unexpected. I’m better, Nix. I promise.” I pushed as much commitment and feeling into my words and body as possible. I couldn’t go back to treatment; I couldn’t, even for one second reveal how just not fine I really was. Nix could see through anything, every single one of my lies, but I was hoping this was a lie he wanted to believe. Or at the very least believed he could make true.
Nix’s eyes narrowed in thought, his laugh lines making a pronounced appearance as he looked me over and waited for me to recant from my knees in pleading supplication. “Ivy, the accident…. The car crash…. I know you had a soft spot for Sam, but what happened wasn’t necessarily a terrible thing. You could look at this like a sign of great things to come, you could look at this like a-“
“Nix, don’t,” I whispered desperately. I overstepped my good graces when I dared to interrupt him twice, but I could not bear to hear him put a positive spin on the accident. I destroyed someone’s life, destroyed it. There was no sign, or omen, or great thing to come. There was only me, the destroyer of men’s lives and ruiner of promising futures.
“One day you’ll understand, Ivy. One day you’ll see,” Nix promised, his eyes softening with sweet adoration. “Now, come along, you’re by my side from now on.” He held out his elbow for me and I took it obediently. The exposed skin of my forearm slid easily along the silky fabric of his expensive suit. The hard lines of his body were pressed against my side as he led me out to the rest of my party.
He was dominant strength to my fragile obedience. He was entertaining and lively to my submissive silence. I participated only when directly engaged but played the part of his pretty bobble in every way I was taught to. For now I was allowed to be sixteen, or as sixteen as any other woman in our circle was ever allowed to be. But if I didn’t do something, if I didn’t escape, I had a lifetime of this to look forward to and worse.
Sam’s drunk driving accident would only be the beginning of a never ending list of lives demolished by the notorious Ivy Pierce.
Chapter Fourteen
My hand shot out from under me with surprisingly fast reflexes since the rest of my body was complete dead weight. The alarm buried in the clutter of my nightstand refused to stop blaring and so with expertly placed force I batted at the snooze button until the incessant bleeping stopped. I squished my eyes closed as tightly as I could and retracted my arm to the snuggled position underneath my tired torso but it was no use…. I wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep.
Thoughts of the party last night tumbled around in my exhaustion addled brain. And when I was finally able