Page 117 of Treacherous

"What the hell are you doing here?" I demanded as I held her against my body as tight as I could. This was my worst fucking nightmare coming true.

"I came to save you," she whispered and it was then the enormity of what I'd done impaled me. This girl had come to save me, but I wasn’t worth saving. Not anymore…

"We still have time," she rambled. "Just come with me now…Logan's gone to get his…." Teagan's voice trailed off as her attention fell on the screen behind me.

"That's us," Teagan hissed as she covered her mouth with her hand and backed away from me.

The hurt in her eyes was crippling as she stared in horror at the television screen. And when turned her gaze to me the betrayal I saw in her hazel eyes caused my heart to split clean open.

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Teagan

I was a pornstar – granted an unintentional one – but a pornstar never the less.

My head was screaming at me, pushing forward all the incriminating evidence against Noah to the fore point of my mind. Shame, mortification and more dominantly anger coursed through me.

He'd done this…it had to be Noah. He must have recorded us, or gotten access to the elevator footage…but why?

Oh god, I felt physically sick and gagged as realization dawned on me.

How had I been so deluded…so wrong about him?

For Christ's sakes, I was going to run away with him. I was prepared to do that forhim…

I was here to helphim…

"Thorn," I heard Noah say as I backed towards the door JD had dragged me through. His eyes were wild and frantic as he held his hands out, palms facing me. "I didn’t do this," he said quickly.

"Oh my god," I whispered when words found me again. I gasped for air but couldn't get enough into my lungs, I felt winded. I felt so exposed, so violated...

Swinging around on shaky legs I stumbled out of the warehouse and into parking lot, desperate to get away. I had no idea of where to go. Logan had taken the car to get help – he'd managed to fight off JD's men and break away, but for what?

"Teagan…Thorn, wait dammit, let me explain…"

The feeling of suffocation was urging me to move faster and further away from Noah and this fucked up arena. Yet there was another feeling festering inside of me that was even more unbearable. I felt like I was tearing my body in half, literally ripping myself apart by running from him.

"Wait," Noah husked, seconds before his arms enveloped me. "Reese stole the CCTV footage from the hotel," he said in a panicked voice as he turned me in his arms. "It wasn’t me. I fucking swear to you it wasn’t."

"Logan told me everything," I choked out, though it was little more than a breathy whisper. "About your mom and dad, the drugs…everything." My throat felt like it was closing up, severing my air pipes, suffocating me. "Did you fight him – Javi?"

"I…" he paused to brush a lock of hair from his eyes before whispering, "I did."

"Did you win?"

Noah's eyes met mine and I didn’t need to ask any more questions. Noticing the horrible markings on his face, I sucked in a sharp breath. The answers were written on his face, the truth was in his eyes – naked and ugly and cutting me deep.

"He's dead?"

Noah nodded his head slightly and a scream ripped from my throat.

"Oh my god, Noah." I stared into his brown eyes, not bothering to brush away the tears that were spilling down my cheeks. "Youkilleda man."

"He's a survivor," Ellie snarled as she stalked towards us. The look of detest in her eyes was obvious and directed at me. "So don’t you dare try to make him feel bad for wanting to live."

"Ellie, you better back the fuck away from my boyfriend right now," I snarled as I glowered at her touching Noah's shoulder. "I'm about three seconds past crazy and a hare's breath away from beating your ass."

"I had no choice," Noah choked out, brushing Ellie's arm off, as he reached over and grabbed my wrist, dragging me close to his chest. "I wasn’t ready to let go of my life – let go ofyou…" Tears pooled in his eyes. "I know I've screwed everything up," he said in a gruff tone.

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