Page 71 of Treacherous

"Yes you did, Noah," she spat, rushing past her uncle as he held the front door open for her.

"I don’t know what happened tonight between you and my niece," her uncle said in a tight voice, waiting until Teagan was inside to speak. "But stay away from her," he snarled. "She doesn’t need the likes of you sniffing around her."

His words struck a nerve inside of me and my hackles rose. "Isn't she old enough to make that decision for herself?"

"She's seventeen years old, you little shit," he hissed. "She has a bright future ahead of her. I know your score, Messina, and she doesn’t need you dragging her down to your delinquent level."

Know my score? "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I know who your mother is," he snarled. "And who your father is."

"Was," I managed to grind out through clenched teeth. "Who he was."

"Keep your poison away from my niece," he warned me. With that he slammed his front door and left me standing in the driveway feeling smug as shit that he'd let his car lights on.

A dead battery was the least he deserved for being a judgmental snob.

****

Chapter 15

Teagan

I learned pretty quickly that there wasn't enough body wash in the world that could rid my body of Yellow Teeth's groping hands. No amount of scrubbing erased the dirtiness I felt from allowing Noah to touch me the way he had, but the worst part was knowing deep down that I liked Noah touching me like that –and I wanted more…I was sick. How the hell could I have enjoyed something as degrading as what had happened?

When the power finally returned I must have sat on that shower cubicle floor for hours, at least until the water ran cold. And then I wrapped a towel around my body and moved on to the guest bathroom before filling the bath with scalding hot water.

I felt disgusting and I was fuming because I had let him win.

Noah Messina had hurt me.

I had sworn to myself I wouldn’t let him in and the bastard had crept under my barriers anyway. Now Noah was on my mind constantly and I couldn’t stand it. He was not good for me, not good at all. He was involved in an illegal fighting ring dammit, that alone should've had me running for the hills. So why was I obsessing about him?

Because he kissed you and made you feel it…

Because when he was touching you it wasn’t fake and you know it…

Because he saved you twice, even though you've been a grade-A bitch to him…

Because he put your key through the letterbox…

Uncle Max stayed at home with me on Wednesday night – and gave me a very thorough talk on the evil mind of the teenage male – but he was gone again by breakfast time Thursday. I knew that because I had to hide in bed until he left for work. Max was a pretty cool guy, but he'd lose his shit if he thought I was skipping school.

I avoided Hope's texts and calls.

I avoided everything.

Someone rang the doorbell a couple of times on Thursday, but I didn't answer. I wasn't interested in talking. Instead I stayed in my bed, under the covers, with my headphones on my ears and the most depressing music playing on my phone.

To be honest I wasn’t sure how I was ever going to be able to face school again – especially now there werefourpeople in my class who had seen me naked. I felt mortified, guilty and a huge chunk of me wanted to rock in a corner. I'd been exposed…

So much had happened in such a short space of time that I felt like my life was railroading.

When people were told to define the word fear, it usually dredged up some deep dark secrets from their past, whether it's the drunken kiss they shared with a colleague in the corner of the stuffy cloak room at the New Year's Eve office party, or the folded up credit card statement in the bottom of their purse with thefinal reminderstamp etched in bold ink. Yeah, sure, some people had phobias of spiders, or heights or heck even public bathrooms, but for me fear was never something I had to internalize or think too much about. I craved adventure and I had a very nice newspaper folded up and ready for every furry, eight legged freak that dared come too close.

There used to be only one thing that could scare the life out of me.

The darkness.

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