Page 64 of Uncontrolled

“Call him. Ask him about the girl he’s going to the movies with tomorrow.”

Her expression only grows more confused.

“She’s a hunter. A couple weeks ago you did a resurrection where there was a pool, right?” I ask, but I don’t wait for her answer. “It was a trap. They were going to sell you for your blood. They took Jason Jourdain because you ditched them. I’m trying to find out where he is. If he’s still alive, I can get him back. That’ll prove to your people I’m not a hunter. It’ll be enough to clear you and Talia and me. I had a plan! I was going to tell you everything.”

I expect relief, gratitude. Instead, I get one word from her. “Unbelievable.”

My temper flares. “You couldn’t have found out on your own,” I hurl back. “You need me and it scares you.”

“Is that what you want to hear?” she screams at me, close enough for her breath to skate across my lips, and for a split second I’m sure she understands. Then she brings it all crashing down. “Because it’s a fantasy! I don’t need you! We’re not a team! I am terrified every second of every day you’re going to do something stupid and get yourself killed over me,” she yells. “Or because of me!”

Those icy eyes skitter across mine, never meeting them. “Now I have to worry you’re going to get me killed as well? You’ve proven again and again you can’t be trusted.”

At my surprised bark of a laugh, she pauses.

“Christ, you open your mouth and Talia spills out! Is it too much to ask for you to think for yourself?” I yell, slamming the heel of my palm into my temple to drill home my point. “Would I do anything I thought would hurt you? Would I put you in danger?”

“Yes!” she says. “Enough times that I’ve lost track!”

Some of my anger slides away. I’ve held a knife to this girl’s throat. I delivered her over to a monster.

“I’m trying to do things right this time.” My voice cracks halfway through the sentence and I swallow to get the rest out. “I’m trying to help.”

“Please, don’t,” she says, a sarcastic chuckle tinging the words. It fades into a silence that lasts a beat before she suddenly fills it. “I need you gone. Tonight. Now.”

I say her name, but she only shakes her head.

“Leave town.”

“And go where?” A flutter of nervousness starts inside me. “Look, if I messed up, I’m sorry. You’re right. I lied. Let’s talk this out, okay?” I pause. “Please.”

Please. It’s a broken record of a word. I keep saying it, when I should tell her I love her, that I did this because I didn’t want her to shut me out.

Her knuckles go white, her hand fisted around the knife she still clutches. “Let me be very clear. I’m done.”

The finality in the words hits me like a slap. Her shoulder slams into my arm when she charges past me. The door opens.

When I whirl toward her, she tilts her chin toward the hallway beyond. “Get out. Now, Ploy.”

Everything inside me feels carved, raw. “Or what, you’ll kill me?”

She raises her knife and the last of my hope crumbles. Challenging her was a mistake. When Allie’s forced into a corner, she won’t back down.

If she could do it, hurt me, kill me, I don’t want to know. Instead, I edge around her and into the hall. “Tell me I was wrong to do this,” I say.

“You wanted us to be a team,” she says. For every step she takes, I retreat. “I told you why it wasn’t worth the risk. You did it anyway. How is that a team?”

“My risk paid off. Or at least, it will,” I say. “Warn CJ. Tell your resurrectionists they better be on their toes. If the hunters can’t get him, they’ll need a replacement to sell.”

“Is that where your share of the rent money came from?” she asks. “Trafficking teenagers to murderers?”

We stare each other down, neither one of us willing to relent.

“Fine,” I snap. I toss the fold of money onto the floor. Let her deal with it. “You want me gone? I’m gone.” I manage exactly one step down the hallway before I backpedal. “Maybe I was stupid. Maybe I lied, and maybe I could have gotten hurt. But everything I did was because I care about you. I want to be good enough for you, Allie.” I can’t keep the spite from my tone. “If you can’t see that, then I guess I should have been a little more worried about whether you were good enough for me.”

For the length of a breath, she studies me. “How much easier would my life be,” she says. “If I had let Talia shoot you in that cellar?”

The moment stretches like a dare as I stand, too stunned to move. My throat goes tight. I don’t bother with a response. What is there to say? This time, for once, I do exactly what Allie asked me.

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