The Sinners - Ruby Vincent Page 0,76

He saw me, and desperate muffled cries leaked past his gag.

“It’s your choice, Em.”

Moonlight glinted off the blade’s serrated edge as Cassius presented it to me.

“It’s your revenge.”

Nolan crawled to me and was pulled up short by the rope tying his hands to the tree. His bulging eyes begged to be set free.

“Cassius. Clay...” I trailed away.

What could be said to this? They snatched a man from his bed, carried him into the woods, and held him against his will.

And the knife.

My gaze drifted to the weapon in his palm. Why would they do this? Why would they believe I could do this?

“What do you expect me to do?” I whispered.

Clay’s response slipped inside and burrowed deep. “Whatever you want to do.”

Whatever I want to do.

What do I want to do to the person who made a bet over my virginity? Who pretended to like me, date me, and made me feel special. Who showed me just what kind of trash he thought I was when he discarded me without a second thought.

What do I want to do?

My hand closed over the knife.

The distance between Nolan and me was no more than twenty feet. Those feet stretched into miles as I stepped off the mound and approached the thrashing boy.

A seed took root in me. Implanted by the callousness of my parents, fed by the cruelty of Eli’s attack, and growing strong on my helplessness to the mercies of the blackmailer and drug dealer who came within twenty minutes of destroying our lives. I didn’t know what that seed provided for me... until then.

Nolan stopped his shouting. His sickly pallor shone under beams of moonlight and eyes that were more white than brown latched on to what I held in my hand.

I bent down and released his gag.

“Ember, don’t do this.” A hoarse rasp struggled out of his throat. “They’re fucking crazy. Violent. Dangerous! But you’re not.” He lunged forward, lurching within a hair’s breadth of my face. “This isn’t you. Let me go and no one has to know about this. We’ll forget this ever happened.”

“Why did you do it, Nolan?” I didn’t recognize the person speaking. But it was me. “Why did you go through all of that to get me to sleep with you? Have you ever asked yourself that? Why you, who could be with anyone, would put so much effort and maliciousness into tricking a girl into believing you like her, just so she would have sex with you? Serious question, Nolan. At any point in the last two years, did you ask yourself what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Nolan’s head snapped this way and that, searching for a way out. “Ember, that was years ago!”

I twirled the blade’s tip on my finger. “That’s what you have to say for yourself?” I asked, tone light.

“No, I— Sorry.” Nolan spoke to me, but looked at the weapon. “I’m sorry! It was wrong. I never should have made that bet.”

“But it went further than the bet, Nolan. You weren’t satisfied with lying and using me. You then had to humiliate me for daring to say no to you.” I leaned in, pressing my face to his and feeling his cold sweat on my forehead. “You left me in these very woods in the middle of the night because a person who denies you is no longer of any worth.”

“That’s not true—”

“It is true! You can save your lies for someone who doesn’t know you, Nolan Ives. Your mask doesn’t work with me anymore!”

“What do you fucking want from me?!” he roared. “I did it! I made the bet! I left you in the woods! You had two years to do something about it!”

Nolan swung with his bound hands. The blade flew from my grip, landing on the riverbank.

“But you didn’t because you moved on,” he said. “You didn’t care about me either until them. This isn’t about you, Ember. They hate me. They’ve always hated me and threatened me to stay away from their sister on our first date. But I loved Camila. I treated her right. I don’t deny that I should have stopped Brynn and Destiny and their stupid joke, but believe me I didn’t think for a second that Leo would do what he did.

“This is not you, it’s the Angels. And they want you to be just as low and twisted as them!” Spittle flew from his mouth, dotting my cheek. “They’re using you. Manipulating you. Untie me, Ember. I swear if