Page 22 of Heartless Monster

I’m immediately hit with the scent of his intoxicating cologne. Someone this cruel shouldn’t smell that good.

“What do you want?” I grumble when he meets my side.

“You really think you’re fooling everyone, don’t you?” His voice is laced with intent, and I know he’s getting desperate for that rise I refuse to give him. “No one believes you’re the innocent girl you want them to think you are.”

“Fooling everyone?” I chuckle as I keep walking toward the exit doors where students are huddled. “I don’t even think about any of you, Rome. Unlike you, who seems to be putting a lot of thought into me lately. As for what everyone else thinks of me, I really don’t care.”

I move faster, though he keeps up, walking in step at my side.

Rome glares at me with a smoldering rage. I can practically feel the steam rolling from his flared nostrils. "The only reason I think about you is because I want to destroy you.”

“By getting the whole school to put gum in my locker? Ouch, Rome.” I slap a hand over my heart and laugh mockingly. “That hurt. You win. Consider me destroyed.”

“Fucking bitch!” He seethes, taking me by surprise as he snares my wrist and jerks me backward.

Instead of expressing my bemusement and giving him any kind of reaction he could be looking for, I keep a blank face.

Suddenly, I’m pushed through a door into a room with dim lighting. My back collides with a row of lockers, my head thudding against them. It isn’t until I look around that it hits me where we are. The boys’ locker room. There’s no one else in sight, but I can hear the distant voices of guys talking.

As I struggle against him, Rome’s hand clamps over my mouth and his other holds tightly to my wrist against the locker. “Get off me!” I sputter incoherently into his palm.My fingers curl into a fist and I try to pull away, but his grip tightens in response.

“Don’t fight me, and don’t you dare scream,” he grits out. “It’ll only make things worse for you in the long run.”

The look he levels me with is foreign, more sinister than I’ve ever seen before. For the first time in all my encounters with Rome, I’m actually scared of him and what he might do.

Tears prick at the corners of my eyes and I pinch them closed to try and hold them in. “What do you want from me?” I whisper as his hand moves away from my mouth.

Memories of last year when I was assaulted flash in my mind and my heart races. Sometimes I can still feel that guy’s cold fingers against my chest and wrapped around my arm.

I open my eyes just in time to see Rome’s jaw clench as he looks me up and down. It’s not sexual, more like he is trying to see just how far he wants to take this.

“I’m done playing games, Freckles. You cost me my life, now I want yours in return.”

I wave my hands in the air, beyond confused as to what he’s talking about. “What does that even mean?”

Before I can blink, he’s in my face, baring his teeth. I flinch back, startled by the sudden change in him. Rome has a beast hiding under his skin, and I think I just woke it up.

“I want your compliance,” he spits. “You will do what I say, when I say to do it. Your future is in my hands now. No decision will be made on your part without going through me first, understood?”

“What?” I huff. “No. Not a chance. My future is my own.”

He pulls my wrist away from the locker, only to slam it back against it harder, causing my body to tremble at his outburst.

“You owe me, Elodie.”

Owe him? What the hell is he even talking about?

He can’t seriously think I’m going to obey like his little pet. Rome has no idea who he’s up against waging a war with me. I’m a strong, independent woman who stands up for herself. There’s no way in hell I’ll bow to this man.

“I don’t owe you shit, Rome.”

He chuckles darkly, the kind of laugh I remember all too well from that night a year ago. He has no intention of letting this go, letting me go. “You belong to me now, Elodie. You do what I want, or I’ll make damn sure Stanford is nothing but a distant memory.”

His words hit me like a punch to the gut, stealing my breath away. All of the anger and frustration that had my hands curling into fists swiftly turns into anxiety, making them tremble.

“How…how do you know about Stanford?” I haven’t told anyone yet. Not even my mom. I was waiting to tell my family after things settled down from our big move and the wedding. My acceptance letter has been hiding in a folder next to my journal, along with over a dozen other acceptance letters from colleges around the US. “Did you go through my things?”

A smug grin tugs at the corners of his lips. “I know a lot more than you think I do. With that said,” his pitch rises, “you will keep no secrets from me from here on out. You think I didn’t notice your new friends? They have secrets too, and my mouth might slip if you try to hide things from me.”

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