Page 140 of Meet Me at the Metro

I use the fleeting seconds to run and launch for the bathroom door. My hand nearly reaches its handle just before John grips me by the ponytail and yanks me backward.

I wail as I’m thrown back onto the bathroom floor, pain lancing nearly every inch of my body. The bitter cold of the tiles bites against the skin beneath my fishnet stockings.

John twists me, clambers over my squirming body, and pins my wrists against the ground.

“Please quit fighting me, Eleanor. Just listen to me. Just hear me out. I love you so much.”

“I hate you!” I scream, rage distorting my voice so greatly I can hardly even recognize it. “I hate you!”

“You don’t mean that!”

“I do! I hate you, John!I! Fucking! Hate! You!”

John rears his arm back to hit me, and I clench my eyes shut, bracing myself for the blow, but it doesn’t come.

I gasp as Theo wrenches John off of me in one unbelievably fast motion and throws him back against the wall as if he’s nothing but a rag doll. I shakily inhale as Theo presses the length of his corded forearm against John’s neck and pins him in place.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you.”

36

BLOODY MESSES

T H E O

I’ve never quite experienced rage like this. Rage that rushes through my veins so intensely that my entire body isconsumedby its unrelenting blaze. Though, for once, I don’t extinguish the inferno building inside of me.

I welcome it.

I allow it to fuel my movements as I tear his body off Nora’s.

I want to strip him clean of every shred of wretchedness inside of him. I want him to feel every fucking particle of the anger inside of me.

I pin him against the wall, pressing my forearm up against his neck and stealing every bit of power hethoughthe had seconds ago. I take a long, good look at him, memorizing every feature of his disgusting face before I distort it entirely.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you,”I growl, pressing against his neck harder. “John, innit?”

“Get off,” he snarls, face red as a beet.

It’ll look like a damn prune by the time I’m finished.

“Get off?!”I maniacally laugh.

I recalleverythinghe’s put Nora through. The cheating. The way he had his hands on her the night at the train station. The stalking. The way he just had her pinned against the ground. The way he had his hand reared back to hit her.

Pathetic piece of fucking shit.

My eyes only soften when I glance at Nora to ensure she’s okay. She’s rising from the floor as I hold John in place, tears staining her reddened, fear-stricken face while she straightens her disheveled clothing. The skin of her neck is marred with scarlet stripes and my gut wrenches.

“Are you alright, baby?” I rasp, managing to speak softly, just for her.

Always for her.

She nods warily, and her feeble attempt to convince me that she’s anything but shaken to her damn core has fury seizing any ounce of composure left in me.

“I’ve heard so much about you, you know?” The muscle in my jaw tightens as I pin John with a glare that promises nothing but vengeance. In a deathly icy tone that I don’t even recognize as my own, I gravely inform him, “They haven’t been good things.”

I don’t waste my time spewing any more words before I slam my fist into his face, enjoying the satisfying crack that fills the air when my knuckles connect with his left jaw. The brutal, unexpected impact has him cursing out in pain and stumbling forward.

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