Page 31 of The Pretty Psycho

"Where the fuck do you think you're going?" I asked, hating the way my voice sounded. I wasn't angry at her. I was angry at everyone else, at the world, the universe, you fucking name it. She was all alone and I should've been there.

I guess I was mostly angry at myself.

She stopped and turned around slowly, glaring at me. "I'm going to Yolanda's room to shower and hopefully sleep."

"No."

"What do you mean no?" There it was. My little firecracker was back.

"You're not going to Yolanda's room."

"Well." She chuckled darkly. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't exactly go back to my own room, unless you magically fixed that building."

"We didn't fix it."

"Then that means I'm going to Yolanda's."

"Goddammit, Vega!" My hand dragged over my face. She was testing my patience.

I was a man on the edge, ready to snap, to burst, to do something. Anything. Sleepless nights, tiresome days, they were all catching up with me, and the last thing I needed was for her to defy me right now.

I started charging after her before she could say another word. Her wide, wild eyes, her disheveled hair, they were making me crazy.

"Adrian." The warning in her voice was clear, but she should know by now that I rarely listened. One of my arms went underneath her knees with the other around her back, lifting her up effortlessly, before I started walking in the direction of my cabin. "Let. Me. Down." She bit out every word, glaring at me while I smiled, looking ahead of me and ignoring the snickering coming from our friends behind us. "Adrian!" She punched my shoulder, rambling the entire time, but I wasn't letting go.

There was only one place she would be sleeping tonight, and it was my bed.

She reluctantly wrapped her arms around my neck, making me smile even harder.

"No, you don't get to smile like that. This means absolutely nothing." She kept saying the same thing over and over again, and I had no idea if it was because she wanted to convince me, or because she had to convince herself.

"Oh, Bambi." I looked down at her, feeling better with her in my arms. "Just keep lying to yourself." I'd be the one telling her the truth even when she didn't want to hear it.

10

VEGA

He was insane.

In-fucking-sane.

Certifiable.

Unstable.

Jesus fucking Christ.

This was the second time he just scooped me up like I was a little kid and started carrying me around as if I were key chain-sized. I was fuming. FUMING. And what did he do? The fucker kept grinning the entire way toward his cabin, even when we entered. He still held on to me as he walked through the place, lowering me gently on top of the bed we shared not too long ago.

God-fucking-dammit, Adrian. I didn't want to be here.

My eyes automatically fell onto the now empty desk, remembering all those files he had on me. I didn't want to be reminded of the betrayal and the hurt he caused. There were only so many wounds I could patch up on my own before the other ones started opening up, and the wound he left me with could not be patched up.

It was bleeding, raw, and the more time I spent in his presence, the more I wished I had never seen those papers. Call me a fool, but for once in my life I wanted to have somethinggood, someone to call my own, even if they lied to me. I wouldn't have known about it had I not gone looking around, snooping through his place, finding things that weren't for my eyes.

Adrian walked away from me toward the kitchen and came back moments later with a glass of water and something else in his hand.

"What's that?" I asked, looking at the little plastic box in his right hand.

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