Page 25 of His Fury

I let go of the towel and turned on the shower, stepping under the hot stream of water and pressing my hands against the cold tile.

Breathe, Isla.

The night was over. Yet, I didn’t feel safe. Not in the way I needed to.

My shower was quick. He still had my hair products in his shower, and I’d left a detangling comb in his cabinet. As I dried my hair, a soft knock interrupted me.

“I have clothes for you,” he told me as he cracked the door. I grabbed them, so grateful they were clean and not the clothes I had been wearing last night.

“Thank you.”

“Come out when you’re ready.”

It was such a simple statement, but it made my eyes fill with tears. I found a discarded hair tie, and once I was dressed, my hair in a ponytail, I opened the door, ready to brave the day.

I stopped when I saw Julian and Rye sitting on the couch. Zayn was leaning against the wall, his eyes trained on me.

He saw me look away from Julian when he rose from the couch, my hand already flying up in warning as he rushed me. “Don’t.”

“Isla, I’m so sorry. You’ll never know how sorry I am. Please, Isla, you need to let me?—”

“I saiddon’t,” I snapped at him. “I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to hear youspeak.”

I didn’t look at him, but the hurt in my chest tightened when, from the corner of my eye, I saw his head drop and his shoulders slump.

“We can make this quick,” Zayn said, speaking only to me. “I just need a few bits of information, and then, I’ll take you somewhere safe.” Zayn touched my elbow.

I didn’t look at him either. I looked past him to the wall.

“Isla, consider it payback for one of the favors you owe me.”

I turned to glare at him, but when I saw the small smirk on his face, the heat of anger left just as quickly as it had come. My shoulders slumped; I was so tired.

I wanted to go home.

I never wanted to be near my apartment again.

And then I remembered they had all my stuff.

“They have my purse,” I said, my voice heavy sounding. “My purse, my wallet, my house keys, my phone. They have everything.”

I dropped into the seat beside Rye, who didn’t move away, and I was still too numb to comment on that. I looked up at Zayn. “My whole life is in that purse.”

“Accounts can be frozen, purses and wallets replaced, and locks can be changed. You can have a new phone by today, up and running like nothing happened.”

“But it did happen,” I whispered, and I felt the panic rise again.

He held my gaze, nodding slowly. “It did. And it willneverhappen again.” He looked at the man who hovered tothe side of me; I could see him in my peripheral vision. “Will it, Julian?”

“No.”

It felt empty—a lie.

“Why would they take me anyway?” I asked in the following silence.

“I think I know,” Julian said softly, and my nails dug into my palms as I fought to stifle a scream. “The night I found out about you two was when Patrick started making noise about how much I owed. I was on my way to find you,” he remarked, turning to Zayn. “Instead, I found Isla. You asked me to take her out of Elixir and make it look convincing so people wouldn’t think she was with you.”

I recalled that night and turned to Zayn. “I texted you and said we made it look convincing, but I didn’t understand what it meant at the time.”

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