Page 12 of You Belong With Me

But she’s not buying that, I can tell. She can’t possibly know the truth, though. No one does, except for Gabriel. Well,ifhe ever gets his memory back. It’d be better for everyone if he doesn’t.

“Last night, after I drugged you…” she says, hesitating over the words. “I found something in your closet.” Her gaze flicks to me, and before the words leave her mouth, I already know what she’s going to say. “...a black duffel bag.”

My heart is thumping hard against my ribs. “And?”

“And?” she repeats, incredulous. “If you’re claiming you don’t know anything about Gabriel being alive, then why is that bag in your closet?”

Is she fucking with me?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I say. “What does that bag have to do with Gabriel?”

She blinks at me for a second, then looks away.

“Wyn,” I say, trying to get her to talk to me. “What exactly are you asking me?”

She turns back to look at me, her gaze flicking down to my bracelets. Then she shakes her head and moves to stand up. “Nothing. You’re right, we need to head back.”

Something is wrong, and I’m fucking confused. She was about to say something—maybe call me out for what was in that bag—but she asked about Gabriel instead.

I stand, too, but as she turns away, I reach out and grab her wrist, stopping her. “Wyn, what the fuck was that?”

She whips around and yanks her wrist out of my grip. “Gabriel was the one stalking me,” she says. “Before he showed up last night, he admitted he’d been breaking in, leaving flowers for me, and…” She swallows like she’s suddenly embarrassed. “...and other stuff.”

I narrow my eyes, that familiar rage returning with a vengeance. “What does that mean, Wyn? Whatother stuff?”

Her jaw clenches like she’d rather not say. Well, tough shit. She looks away again. “We were uh, intimate. And that bag inyourcloset…it had everything he used when he broke in.”

I take a step back. She thinks it was Gabriel breaking in, and fucking her. She thinks it was Gabriel bringing her darkest fantasies to life. I should let her think that. It would be easier that way, but for some reason, I need her to know it wasmemaking her scream.

“Gabriel wasn’t stalking you, Wyn,” I say, already regretting the words. “I was the one breaking in.” I take a step closer. “I was the one in the mask. I was the one fucking you.”

CHAPTER SIX

Wyn

What.The. Fuck?

I take a step back and shake my head. “Gabriel admitted he’d been breaking in, leaving the flowers, and–”

“What flowers?”

I blink at him. Is he fucking with me? “The gardenias. He was leaving them on my bed. He even left one in my class. That day you found me in the middle of a panic attack, I’d just found one on my desk…”

Lucas takes a step toward me. “Wyn, I didn’t leave any flowers, but I wasdefinitelythe one fucking you. I know, because I haven’t been able to think about anything else for the past several weeks.”

I swallow, still shaking my head. I don’t want to believe it. It was easy for me to assume it was Gabriel—because he’s just twisted enough to sneak into a woman’s apartment, drug her, then fuck her. Planning all that takes a fucked-up mind to conjure up, and it takes a special kind of darkness that Gabriel always had in spades.

But Lucas? I always knew he was an asshole, but this is next-level evil…

I suck in a shaky breath, my eyes flicking to the scar on his wrist, hidden beneath his bracelets. “How do you and Gabriel have the same scar? How is that possible?”

“His scar is from the surfing accident when we were sixteen.” He glances down at his bracelets. “My scar is from Gabriel demanding a show of loyalty. He wanted to see me bleed. Like my blood was some kind of twisted offering to him.” He shrugs and looks back up at me. “For me, it was an attempt at atonement.”

The more details I hear about Gabriel and Lucas’ relationship, the more I realize how fucking toxic it was. Who demands a show of loyalty like that? It’s insane.

“Why stalk me?” I ask, getting back on topic. “Why would you do that?”

He takes another step toward me. “At first, it was just to keep an eye on you after Gabriel’s…” He pauses, then corrects himself, “...after he went missing. Then, seeing you every night became an obsession, touching you became a necessity, fucking you became an overwhelming need...”

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