Page 92 of Pretty Little Lies

“I oughta kill you right the fuck here, you motherfucker.”

Matteo holds his empty hands out in the air then clucks his tongue with the roof of his mouth. His full lips curving into a shitty smile. “Look at who you grew up to be. A queen meant for a kingdom.”

My index finger squeezes the trigger, but my rationality doesn’t allow me to pull. His entitlement irks my ever-loving nerves. “I don’t owe you shit, Matteo. And you don’t order me around.”

“And if I find out information about Emilio?”

“Call Levi. We’re done.”

“Hence why you’re here. I don’t have his number.” He erases more space between us, and I order my index finger to pull the trigger.

No one would ever know.

“You gotta know by now, Bay…you’re the only one for me.”

“No.” I shake my head against his lies. All of it, everything we ever had together was so fucking fake. I was so stupid. “We’redone.”

“We don’t have to be.” His voice is so soft. It was like that when he needed me to keep quiet after he’d let his boys use me. Then the dogs…

Pull the trigger.

“I hate you,” I choke out, tears burning the back of my eyes. “You ruined me. I’ll never trust anyone ever again because of you.”

“It taught you how to be tough,” he retorts. “You were weak.”

“You didn’t have to hurt me.”

“Didn’t I? You never would’ve understood?—”

“Stay away from me!” I scream. The closer he looms, the worse it gets. My body is trembling, and I can’t get it to stop.

He fucked me up, and I can’t get over it. I’m absolutely terrified to hand my trust out for someone else to break it.

“Bay, c’mon,” Matteo upbraids with zero compassion in his tone. “Don’t act as though I never—” The echo of a gunshot goes off, causing me to jerk back because…did I just fucking shoot him?

Matteo checks his body, palms patting down his front, just as confused as me.

Yet, when he heaves his heavy and murderous regard back to me, I lose my fucking breath. “You gonna shoot me, huh?”

I ignore the question because I have enough crap going through my head, like the main reason why I came here, which hasn’t been discussed yet. “Now, that you’re done spewing your shit,” I sneer, “I find you in my fucking house again, Matteo, you’re gonna meet the double barrel of my gun.”

His brows narrow in disbelief. “Noone fucking shoots at me.”

Well…

I pivot, my heart slamming inside my chest as I sprint back to the woods where Reeve is waiting for me.

“You’re mine, Bay!”

TWENTY-NINE

reeve

The motherfucker waslucky he was that close to Bay that I purposely missed so she wouldn’t have his blood all over her.

I saw the way she shook, the distance she was beginning to put between them. It was hard enough to permit her to go out there alone without me, let alone stand idly by and watch the bullshit.

However, I understood why.

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