Page 70 of Snowed Under

“You’re going to talk to me whether you like it or not!” The grip of his arm is strong and he’s not letting go.

“Ow, Drake! You’re hurting me!”

He snickers. “You should have thought about that before you shacked up withlover boy.” He tugs me towards the side of the Town Hall, away from the view of the street.

“Let go of me!” I yelp, struggling against him. But he keeps a firm grasp on me as he pulls me along to the side wall off the main street. “I’ll scream, Drake, don’t think I won’t.”

“Scream all you want. It’s still early, there’s no one around.”

I manage to swing out of his grasp, but he still backs me against the wall. “You’re acting crazy,” I pant, bewildered by his behavior. “Why are you here? What do you want?”

“Ask your dumbass boyfriend. Do you honestly think he will be faithful to you?” he sneers. “He’s the town fuck boy, everyone knows it. You won’t be enough for him. No one can love you like I do.”

It’s my turn to laugh without humor when all I want to do is spit in his face. “Love me?” I shake my head. “You don’t love anyone but yourself. And I am enough for him! Cole isn’t a cheater like you, so I’ve no doubt he will be faithful. You couldn’t lie straight in bed.”

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” he spits. “I told you once and I’ll tell you a million times, I’m sorry I strayed. We’d been together so long, I needed to spread my wings. It was a mistake.”

His words make me sick to my stomach. Not one thing about his demeanor now, or ever, has been sorry about what he did. His eyes are wild, and his face fierce. He looks like he hasn’t slept in a week. Or he’s strung out. Maybe both.

“I don’t want to hear it. You’re disgusting. You should have broken up with me before you hooked up with that other woman. Now, you need to get out of my way or I will?—”

He presses me into the wall with more force and my heart accelerates. What the hell is Drake doing? “You’ll what?”

I hear my phone buzzing in my bag. It could be Cole, the hospital… There’s been a lot going on this morning. I have places I need to be and more important shit than standing out here freezing in a showdown with Drake. And quite frankly, he’s scaring the shit out of me.

CHAPTER 21

AINSLEY

I quickly decidethat arguing with him is only going to rile him even further. So I try a different tactic, anything to get away from him. “Look, Drake, I get the fact that things didn’t go so well for us in the end. But has it really come to this?”

He steps back a little, running his hand through his hair. “It made me so mad seeing you with him,” he says. “It made me realize what I’d lost.”

It takes everything in me not to gag, but I don’t want to piss him off any further. I just want to find a way out of this. “So, you’ve changed your ways?” I say, trying my best to calm my voice and try to act as normal as I can. My heart is beating so damned fast, with no idea what he’s going to do now that he’s got me in his clutches.

“Yes. I love you, Ainsley. I wish you could see it.” He almost sounds resigned to the fact, so much so, I stupidly think he’s going to let me go. I mean, he can’t keep me here forever. I don’t like the way he’s pinning me to the wall. My legs threaten to buckle, but I tell myself I’ll get out of this.

“I do see it,” I whisper, and it almost kills me to say it. The words are like poison in my mouth, but I’m just trying to placate him so I can try to break free and run.

He looks at me warily. “You do?”

“Mmhmm.” My phone chimes again and he shifts on his feet. This seems to piss him off, his jaw clenching and his eyes narrowing.

“Don’t answer that. We need to talk.”

“We’re talking,” I say. “Why don’t we walk down to the cafe and talk there?”

He laughs without humor. “So you can yell to someone there and they can call the cops on my ass?”

“I wouldn’t do that,” I lie. “I want to talk, too.”

“I don’t believe you!” He grits his teeth again, his eyes bulging from his sockets.

He yanks my arm again and pulls me along the length of the wall toward the side entry door. The same door Cole and I came out of just last night.

“Drake, what are you doing?” But my voice falls on deaf ears as he yanks the door open and shoves me inside. I don’t even know how he knew it would be open. I yelp as I stumble, trying not to trip over my own feet. It’s while he’s closing the door that I shove him in the back and take off, sprinting away from him down the hallway and into the main hall where I stood with Cole and all my friends last night. Where we ate his mom’s cookies and tried to escape Mayor Lockwood’s small talk. Right where the whole town celebrated the beginning of the holiday festivities, and the Christmas tree and Frosty reveal. Not that Cole or I saw much of that.

Now I’m being chased by my crazy-ex who’s lost his mind.

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