Page 214 of Irreversible

“Listen, asshole, I’m not exactly sure what your motivations are here, but your life with her is history. It’s time to let her go.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Everly back away

But Jasper stands his ground. “Everly has a mind of her own. She’s not into the bossy type.”

“Oh, I beg to differ.” I smirk. Then I turn toward the woman I’m apparently losing my damn mind over. “Should we tell him how much you love it when I order you to get on your knees? The things you’ll gladly do when my?—”

“Isaac.” Her eyes flare as a pink tinge creeps into her cheeks. “Please.”

“Don’t leave with him, Bee.”

She gapes at me for a minute, her head shaking with disbelief. “No. You don’t get to make decisions for me—especially not like this.” Then, with her eyes glossy and her expression hard as stone, she yanks on the handle and opens the door. “I can’t do this with you right now; we’ll talk when I get back.” Sliding into the car, she pulls the door closed, yanks at the seatbelt with all the frustration she wants to take out on me, and stares straight ahead.

“Everly.”

“Come on, buddy.” Halfway into the driver’s seat, Jasper pauses to look at me over the roof of the car. “Don’t be a sore loser. She made her choice.”

I meet his eyes with a glare that could shoot daggers.

This. Mother. Fucker.

She’s not choosing this dickhead over me. I refuse to believe that’s what’s happening.Again. I just presented my case wrong. Triggered her rebellious side. This slimy douchebag isn’t my competition. It’s not fucking possible.

“She. Isn’t. Choosing.You,” I seethe, my attention fixed on the woman in the passenger seat, willing her to look at me. To change her mind and get out of the damn car.

To see me.

My lungs are full of shrapnel. My chest constricts with the forceful memory of something I didn’t know I was still holding on to.

I swallow the desperate words before they can leave me.

Come on, Everly. Don’t choose him.

Not again.

“Looks like she just did.” He dares to look me in the face, his expression full of challenge, and lowers his chin. “And you know what the kids say…” With a fading smile and a peculiar look in his eyes, he delivers the words that clinch his fate: “No backsies.”

He’s a dead man.

The car zips away, and I’m left standing in the parking lot, wondering how badly I just fucked up.

Thirty minutes later, I pace the floor of my room. With every second that goes by, I’m becoming more enraged. As it is, I’m going to owe the hotel for punching a hole in the wall, my knuckles are raw, and the gaping hole in my chest cavity feels no better.

Everly was my light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, and I don’t know how it all went so wrong, so fast, but I sure as fuck know who to blame.

Your own bad temper, you idiot.

Still, that does nothing to absolve Jasper Cross.

Every second of that encounter is on replay in my head. Everly’s face when I chose the wrong thing to say, repeatedly. How her anger was mixed with something that looked almost like heartbreak.

“Fuck.”

My fist hits the wall again. I’m surprised no one has knocked on my door to see what’s going on. I need to get out of here before I make things worse. Go somewhere far away from people before I take my wrath out on someone who doesn’t deserve it.

Without bothering to change my clothes, I shove my phone into the pocket of my jeans, lock the door to my already trashed room, and jog around the building to the trail out back.

The morning chill sears my lungs as I hit a punishing pace. The steady rhythm of my feet pounding the ground fills my ears. My breath saws in harsh bursts of exertion, leaving visible puffs hanging in the cool morning air.

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