Page 68 of Theirs to Ruin

His voice bubbled with anger and arousal as he rocked his hips against me. His cock was fully erect and pressed against melike a goddamned weapon. It was almost like he was warning me not to start something I didn’t want to finish.

“You want to fight me some more, Rebel?” he taunted, biting my earlobe. “I can do this all fucking night.”

I couldn’t figure out whether he was threatening me or propositioning me. When he crouched a little and pushed his hard cock into the apex of my thighs, I sucked in a breath, both terrified and aroused. He felt far too big to do anything but split me open.

“Let me go,” I demanded, trying to wiggle away from him.

“Not until you tell me what the fuck you’re doing here.”

“I was looking for answers.”

He stared at me like he was gazing deep into my soul. My chest heaved as I tried to regain my breath, my mind racing for an out, for some way to turn the tables so I was in control. I tested his hold and instead of tightening his grip, he released me. Quickly, he opened the apartment door and then dragged me inside, slamming the door shut behind us.

He let go of me and flicked on the lights. I blinked and looked around. The place looked both familiar and hauntingly different with the couch cushions on the floor and other furniture placed at odd angles. Memories of my confrontations with Ava, a whirlwind of laughter followed by animosity and disdain, seemed to charge every corner.

Both bedroom doors were wide open. My room was empty except for the furniture and some of Ava’s stuff had already been packed into boxes.

“Why did you fight me?” Kage demanded.

I rubbed my tender wrists. “You looked at me like you wanted me dead.”

“You were sneaking into my dead sister’s apartment. Why?”

“It was my apartment, too,” I reminded him with a pointed look.

“And Bianca moved all your shit out. So my question stands.”

I threw up my hands. “It’s been a rough day, okay? People think I killed her! I wanted to search for clues about what could have happened to her. But after I unlocked the door, it just felt wrong, thinking of going through her things.”

He stared at me, obviously trying to assess whether I was telling him the truth. I felt as if my whole being was on the line, judged by the jury standing before me. Finally, he reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, then held it up for me.

“You were hoping to find something like this?”

My eyes darted to the screen. It was a picture of a scribbled note. It had a heart around the word “him,” as well as the date and approximate time of the lake party.

I looked up at him. “You found that in her room?”

His eyes never leaving mine, he nodded. “The police did. And the handwriting is hers.”

“Does that mean…”

He pocketed his phone. “It doesn’t prove your innocence, but as I said before, I’ll believe your story until I’m given a reason to think otherwise. I’m sure the police will too now that they have this.”

The relief that flooded through me was overwhelming. It felt like a massive boulder, one that had been pressing relentlessly against my chest, had lifted. To know there was some evidence out there that I hadn’t killed Ava was like an unexpected lifeline.

“What about her journal? Her laptop? That last night, she said she’d been doing research on something that made her seem giddy, like she knew a dirty secret or something.”

Something flashed quickly over Kage’s features before he said, “Her journal didn’t reveal anything I didn’t already know. And she’d wiped the history on her laptop clean of everything except her most recent search.”

“What was it?”

“Search results for oak tree tattoos.”

I frowned. “Did she get a tattoo?”

“She had a Tree of Life symbol on her hip. But it wasn’t an oak tree. It was a yew tree. I saw it at the…” Kage suddenly sat down on the bed and rested his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands.

Hesitantly, I sat beside him, a respectable amount of space between us, but close enough I could still feel the heat of his body.

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