Page 71 of Pretty Little Lies

“Little Terror,” I snide back, peering down at the outline of her body, only half of it sworn from the lack of lighting hovering over the boardwalk. “I thought I told you to stay the hell out of my way. This is starting to sound like a broken record.”

“I think a little appreciation is in order,” Bay replies, putting a little pressure on her gun into my stomach. “Didn’t your mama teach you any manners?”

“She did. She told me to stay away from flighty women and candy.”

“Good advice.”

“I thought so, but they won’t leave me the fuck alone, and I didn’t grow up with a sweet tooth. I’m sure now she’d tell me to just stay out of trouble.”

Bay smiles. “Well, you obviously didn’t listen to that because you’re part of the Forsaken Crew. And I’m guessing that comes with a lot of trouble and bullets.”

“Says the girl who currently has a gun pressed into one, so how do you think this is gonna end?”

“Hopefully with a thank you?”

“And?”

“I definitely wouldn’t expect a kiss goodnight from you, so that’d be it.”

Leaning against the metal she has pressed into my stomach, I smell lavender and something sweet off her skin. “You think this is all a game, don’t you? My warnings aren’t because they’re in my best interest, but because they’d keep you safe, too, Bay. You lost your protection of Wallace because you couldn’t keep your legs closed, so I’m hoping you’re not thinking you’re going to get it over here.”

“Why are you so scared of me?”

I immediately scoff. “Scared? Sweetheart…it should beyouwho’s scared of me. All the things I could do to your family—” Bay’s fist launches into my ribcage, and I grunt, not expecting her to be able to hit so hard.

“Threaten my family again, my little Italian Stallion,” she leers. “And I’lldrownyou in your own blood.”

My lips coil in victory that it didn’t take much to rile her up, nor much imagination. “Are we sensitive now?”

“Fuck you, I’m Emilio Wildes’s daughter,” she professes with confidence, using that card for the first time, and it sets my skin ablaze with what I expected all along. She’s going to run up against us. “And that probably gets you to believe I’m going to flip sides. But my question is, what side do you live on?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You work for Emilio. You’re his lap dog?—”

“I’m not his fucking lap dog,” I retort sharply. “The hell gave you that idea?”

“The night you came to the bar and burnt it down with me in it.”

My palm latches onto her hip and my skin burns from the contact of just touching her through clothing alone. “I’m not going to tell you again, Little Terror. I didn’t light a match, nor did I give the order to burn you in that bar.”

Bay continues to stare up at me, unaffected by my anger. “How does it feel to keep repeating yourself and the person you want to listen doesn’t?”

“I don’t care how you feel.”

“And that’s mutual. So, in the grand scheme of things, we want to stay out of each other’s way. That actually works for me. Because I’m not going to lie down and become Emilio’s bitch just because Levi left me. I don’t need your advice, so shove it up your ass the next time you want to hand it out. But, if you want to, save everyone the trouble and kill me right now if you’re going to continue this back-and-forth shit. I’ve lived my whole life without you. I don’t need you now.”

Her last statement is almost cryptic. As though she’s accepted the fact that she’s alone and her fate is sealed. I haven’t seen Wallace around her since their very public breakup. I’ve had guys watching him when I can. Making sure he’s not fucking with us and playing this shit against my boys and me.

“If you think I’m gonna give a fuck about Wallace breaking up with you, you ran into the wrong guy.”

“Yeah, that’s exactly why I pushed you into a dark space,” she mocks back. “I needed that comfort.” The hard imprint of her weapon leaves my body, and she steps away from me, bringing up two crammed fingers up to her lips, and it’s then that I realize she never had a gun at all.

It was those two fucking digits.

Rage slams through me as I amble forward, knocking into her chest, but she doesn’t recoil away from me.

In fact, a shitty little smirk forms across her lips.

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