Page 17 of Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

“You’re mine, Skyler. You, my little wallflower, belong to me, and you’re mine to play with however the fuck I see fit. Mine to break. Do you know why?”

Nate didn’t wait for me to reply. Tightening his grip even more, he smirked when I started to feel light-headed.

My hands flew up to claw at his wrist while his eyes roamed my face, devouring the panic dancing in my pleading gaze.

“I know your secret, and if you don’t do as I say…” Leaning in, he brushed his lips over the shell of my ear, his breath teasing my sensitive skin. “…I will go to the police and tell them everything. Do you wish to spend the rest of your life in jail, Skyler?”

My heart galloped in my chest, hammering so hard it felt like it might claw its way out the same way my fingers shredded the skin at his wrist. Crimson blood stained my nails, the scent of iron rich in the air.

Nate’s nose drifted to my hair and breathed me in as I struggled. “Your fear is fucking delicious.”

He dropped me just as fast and I slumped against the fridge, clutching my throbbing, bruised throat.

“Why are you doing this?” I choked out on the verge of tears.

A slow, venomous chuckle danced on his lips, revealing a flash of sharp incisors. “You’re not naïve, Skyler, so don’t pretend like you are. I’ve watched you. I see you.”

He was back, crowding me and stealing the smidgeon of air in my lungs. His dangerous touch slid down the curve of my jaw before tenderly cupping my chin. The way his thumb pressed down on the swell of my bottom lip was deceptive, and my yearning body betrayed me as it sought the promise of something dangerous in that single caress. He gripped me hard, all traces of gentleness gone. It sent me reeling how he played me like a marionette doll.

“I’m your worst nightmare, Skyler. Don’t for a minute think otherwise. I am going to destroy you and leave you broken, and when you’re on the ground, begging me to mend your shattered pieces, I’ll kill you.”

“Why don’t you kill me now? Why wait?”

“That would be no fun, Skyler. I want to toy with you first. See you tremble under my fingertips as I make you scream my name when you come on my cock. Your eyes are dead, Skyler. There’s no fucking light. I want to set light to the dying embers, only to douse them again. You left me for dead on that road, and I’ll leave you broken and bleeding out in my bed, with the memory of my name lingering on your parted, blue-tinged lips like the scent of sex in the air after your soul has left your pathetic little body.”

I whimpered softly, breathing in his intoxicating, masculine smell. The promise of cruelty that burned in his cold eyes called to a dark place inside me—a place as uncharted as the echoing chambers of my hammering heart. I needed something.

Logically, I should fear him and his threats, and I did, but he also breathed life into me for the first time. It was thrilling to have his punishing hands on me, the way he touched me like he wished to pick me apart, piece by piece, until only my beating heart remained.

“You don’t want to play this game with me, Nate,” I replied, surprising myself with the sharpness of my tongue. “I’ll kill you for real this time. I’ll make sure you’re so dead that the devil steps out from the shadows to drag you back to Hell.”

Humming under his breath, his dark eyes on my lips, he responded, “I hope you’re ready for me, little killer, because I’ll drag you right down with me.”

CHAPTER

SIX

SKYLER

As I grimaced with the cold spoon in my mouth, Evelyn scrunched her cute little button nose up and asked, “What’s wrong?”

She had convinced me it was a good idea to pop into town with her after school, and I had to admit, I needed the distraction. Nate was everywhere, watching me with that sinful smirk of his in the hallways or class.

The paper bags of clothes rustled at her feet when she pointed her spoon at me. “Let me guess, brain freeze?”

I nodded, placing my banana milkshake on the small rectangular table between us. I was seated on the red leather couch that ran the length of the room, and Evelyn sat across from me with her back to the ice cream bar. This was our last stop before heading home and I felt more than ready to shut myself in my room.

“You guessed right,” I groaned, grimacing.

Evelyn stirred her spoon through her vanilla milkshake, a contemplative look on her face. She placed it on the table carefully and said, “It doesn’t feel right that Nate is back.”

“What do you mean?”

Evelyn shrugged, taking a large sip to give herself time to formulate her answer. Then she looked at me as she lowered it to the table, running the tip of her finger over the rim. In a low voice, she said, “We killed him, Skyler. He was dead.”

Nodding slowly, I kept my gaze down. Evelyn was right. It made no sense that he had magically showed up now, this close to the first anniversary of his death.

“I have a bad feeling.”

---