Page 100 of Filthy Few

She drops her hand back to her side and just looks at me with an awed look on her face. My chest is rising and falling fast as fuck, I’ve never said shit like this to anyone before and I don’t like it. I fucking hate it, actually, and I hate the fact that this little black-haired witch has power over me, which I never willingly gave her yet she still has the power to fucking destroy everything we have worked for.

She takes a step forward and I turn to stone, part of me wants to brace for her lashing out but another part refuses to give her the satisfaction of knowing she gets under my skin. When she reaches out and grabs my hand, I allow it. She places my palm flat against her chest and covers it with hers.

“Do you feel that?” she asks quietly.

I furrow my brow and nod when I feel her heartbeat against my palm. “Yes.”

“I’ve never allowed anyone inside my heart aside from my mom and Waylen.” I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from lashing out about her mentioning that fucker. “Moving here I never expected to find anything aside from misery.” She huffs out a breath. “I guess I found that as well but that isn’t the point. I never meant to let you in or even wanted it to be truthful with you, but I never stood a chance against you, Vox. Even when Ididn’t know it was you, a part of me always hoped that you were two horns.”

“Why?”

She shrugs and shoots me a small smile. “I was too scared to admit it to myself but I was scared to want you because I was afraid to lose you. I don’t trust easily and I sure as hell don’t go around screwing random guys with masks.”

I smirk. “Then why’d you lettwo hornsdo it?” I feel like an idiot talking about myself in third person but I get it, she doesn’t see me and the mask as the same right now but someday she will.

“He reminded me ofyou.”

“That’s fucked up, you know that, right?”

A watery laugh escapes her. “So is making me kneel and watching me eat out of a dog bowl but that didn’t stop you.” I exhale loudly and grip the back of her neck with my free hand, drawing a breathy moan from her when I lean down and rest my forehead against hers.

“If you expect me to say sorry, then you will be waiting a long ass time because I’m not. Everything I did led us to this moment and I wouldn’t change shit about how we got here because we arehere.”

“I would change losing my best friend,” she says with an edge to her tone.

“Buthewouldn’t have.”

Her features contort. “How do you know that?”

“Because if he could change what happened, then that would mean you would have been in that grave. Deny it all you want, witch, but that fucker was in love with you.” She begins to shake her head so I push on. “He was, Nova. He loved you more than a friend and you were just too blind to see it. I saw it the night he came to Homecoming and the way he looked at you when I had my arm around you. He hated me instantly because he knewI had what he wanted.” Tears pool in her eyes. “He didn’t spend his last moments angry, take solace in the fact his last moments were filled with good memories of you and him.” Fuck, that shit tastes bitter on my tongue. When tears escape her eyes, I swipe them away with my thumbs.

“How could you know that, Vox?”

“He scratched 4221 RUN into the lid. He chose to warn the love of his life and remind her that he would always love her forever. In my book, that makes him… alright.” A sob forces its way out of her. I pull her against me, lock my arms around her and hold her close as cries for the fucker—I mean the guy who she loved as a friend and meant a lot to her.

“I want them to pay for what they have taken from me,” she hiccups out into my chest.

“And they will, I’ll make sure of it.” When her knees give out, I scoop her up and carry her out of the closet and place her on the bed. Her eyes fill with worry when I step back. The panic ebbs when I kick my shoes off and climb in beside her. Fuck the cameras and fuck Thomas, he told me to watch, he never said I couldn’t fuck her. I lay on my back and she scoots over to rest her face in the crook of my neck. She wraps an arm around my middle and holds on tight, almost like she is afraid I’ll vanish, stupid girl. Was my admission of not being able to stay the fuck away from her not enough?

“Vox?”

“Hmmm?”

“I can’t lead the Saints,” she whispers.

“I know, you won’t have to.”

“Vivian wants to lead them.” I tense beneath her. “She hasn’t outright said it, but… but…”

“Spit it the fuck out, witch!”

“Vox, I think your sister is Nikoa’s informant.”

Two point five seconds, that’s all it takes for me to leap out of her bed and start pulling my shoes on. Nova lunges for me but I step back and shoot her a warning look to back the fuck off.

“Vox—”

“Shut the fuck up, witch!” I snap, then rush out of her room. I can hear the fucking demon chasing after me. It takes me no time to reach my house. I attempt to shove the door open but it’s locked. I pull my keys from my pocket and try to unlock it as Nova comes up beside me but the key… doesn’t work. “She changed the locks,” I mutter, then race around the back of the house. I try the back door but it’s locked.

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