Page 31 of Wild Angel

“Nyx.”

I hate the way he says my name. Like he has some right to use it. When I feel stronger, I’ll tell him so.

“Nyx, please.” His deep voice rumbles through me, felt as much as heard. “Talk to me. Hear me out. Just…react.”

If Savage thinks that pathetic piece of paper with those meaningless names on it gives me a reason toreact,then he’s more idiotic than I’d originally thought.

He has nothing.

Knowsnothing.

He pretends to be this big, bad gangster, but he’s pathetic and weak…just like me.

“This is a solid lead,” he explains to me like I’m a fucking child. “I have all my men out there, looking. We’ll find them, and then we’ll find—”

“Shut up.” The words rush out of me, soft but vicious.

A weight settles on the side of the bed, and my body starts to roll toward it. I force my shoulder back, hunching in on myself, drawing into a tighter ball.

“I can’t change what happened,” he says. “But we can—”

“Shutup.” There’s venom in my voice, but he just keeps talking. Shifts closer, until some part of his body touches mine. I immediately draw away, but he follows.

An internal tremble starts up somewhere deep inside me. So deep, I don’t think it’s stillinmy body.

He lays a hand on my shoulder, grips me through the sheets. I try and pull away, but my body is so goddamn shaky and pathetic that I can’t.

“I’m going to find Phoebe and Athena. I’m going to find them, and I’m going to—”

“Shut! Up!” My yell tears through my throat like molten vomit. My insides churn, and my body shudders, and my face contorts amid a violent sob.

I twist around, my hand in a claw aimed straight for his face.

“You don’t get to say their names! You don’tget to eventhinkabout them!”

He catches my wrist with ease, but the hardened look of concern in his eyes sets me alight. I scream like a cornered animal, lashing out with all my limbs, kicking, kicking, kicking to escape the trap of the sheets.

My vehement attack doesn’t even make him blink. Savage simply ducks under my grasping hand, throws his leg over mine, andtwists.

In an instant, I’m back on my side. My back turned to him. The sheet a snarled tangle between us. I’m panting, writhing, wailing,struggling.

But my body’s too weak.

My mind too brittle.

I collapse, my limbs melting and my face pressing hard into the pillow.

And then the tears come.

Hot, and aching, and raw.

They rip through me. A tidal wave, a fucking tsunami. They crush everything in their path—my anger, my denial, my resistance.

I go limp in Savage’s brutally strong arms, and he simply wraps me up even tighter. His hard chest and stomach and thighs mold against me, forcing me into a ball.

Tighter.

Smaller.

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