Page 100 of Forget Me Not

“Where the fuck are you going?” Reid growls from behind me. Soaking wet in the rain, his button-up clinging to every finely tuned line of his skin . . . he looks absolutely terrifying. Like Poseidon come to collect an overdue debt.

Like a monster.

“Go away, Reid!” I shout over the rain, flipping him the bird over my shoulder and continuing down the old, worn path. I just need to get away from him, figure out my head, and then never speak to him again.

I regret taking him to my little hideaway. I regret even more that I cleaned up the living room of the house yesterday, making it the perfect little hideaway from the rest of the island in the hope that he and I could spend time here, in the quiet, together.

“So that’s it? You’re not even going to listen to me?”

That’s what Jack always said, too.

You’re imagining things. You’re seeing things.

My phone rings in my pocket, but ignore it, turning to stop in the clearing in front of the old house.

“You know, it’s funny. I actually believed that whole lie about you being different.”

“You actually think I would do that shit to you?”

My, he’s angry. I can’t say I’ve ever seen something quiet as dangerous as Reid with a murderous glare in his eyes. Unfortunately, I’m too full on bullshit to think about self-preservation right now, or I would probably run the other direction. He stops a foot away from me, but I refuse to back down.

“You saw me shove her off.”

I shake my head, turning away, but he catches my wrist.

“Let go of me.”

“Nova,” he starts, but I cut him off, tugging at his hand to no use.

“What makes you so different?”

“I’m not him,” he growls and both of us fall silent, the only sound the racing of my heartbeat in my ears and the thunder overhead as the skies continue to soak us.

In this moment, I hate him. I hate him for making me get attached. I hate him for the pull he has over me. I hate my feelings and I hate that I can’t escape that dread that settles in my chest every time I think about Sophie touching him.

Most of all, I hate that I care.

I don’t know what makes me do it, but when I attempt to jerk out of his hold, and he doesn’t immediately let me go, I snap, hitting him in the chest.

He doesn’t move an inch.

I do it again, an angry growl tearing from my throat.

What are these emotions? This anger, this fear that I don’t understand. I’ve never wanted to hurt someone, but right now, I do. Only, I can’t decipher if it’s Reid or Jack I want to bleed.

“Hit me,” Reid grits when I shove at his chest. “Do it.”

“You’re fucking crazy.”

His eyes flash with something wicked, glinting like a true madman in the rain.

“You made me this way, little bird,” he growls, grip tightening on my wrist. Both of us breathe heavily, both pissed off, both toeing the thin line between toxic and all-out deadly.

This has gone too far.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stop it if I tried.

“Hit me. Fight me. Whatever you need to do, just fucking think about what you saw for two seconds. You really think I have space in my fucked-up head for anyone else? I don’t even want you there, but like a fucking pest, I can’t get rid of you. I can’t think of anything but you.”

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