Page 360 of As the Rain Falls
“You think you can save her? You’re wrong,” he sneers. “The bitch was mine before you even set your sights on her.”
Red.
That’s all I see.
“Keep her name,”I raise my voice, pushing his shoulder. “…out of your mouth!”
He laughs louder, low and cruel, “Ask her. Ask Cassandra. It was so easy, but she didn’t tell you that, did she? Girls are impressionable when they’re young. They look for saviors, don’t they? But I guess you already know all about that.”
I clench my fists.
“Is that what’s going to help you sleep at night, Nathaniel? Convincing yourself I’m just like you?” His smirk falters, but Ikeep going, taunting him, pushing him to the limit when I add. “When she’s gone, who are you going to control?”
“You.” He spits on the ground before lowering his voice. “I don’t think you’re just like me, no. I’m the bad guy, and you’re the good one. Good guys don’t just take; they’re more interested in giving back, aren’t they?”
“This is all a game to you,” I conclude. “She really is just a… pawn to you.”
“She’s mine,” he mutters, losing it altogether. “She’s fucking mine!” And then he tries to raise his hand at me but gives up at the last second once he realizes there’s an audience. “You won’t take her from me!”
Disposable.
That’s how he sees her.
Not as a person, not even as a human being.
“I already have!” I take a step back, then another, distancing myself from him until I reach the car.
My body is thrumming with age, feeling the burn of the glares coming from people around us.
“Where is everybody?” I ask, wondering if our friends left. “Did they just leave you?”
“No, I asked them to go home.” She swallows hard. “I told them I’d explain everything later. I don’t want them to see me like this.”
“No way in hell I’m letting you go.” I shake my head, trying to find a solution to all this, but my thoughts are clouded by rage. “You can’t go back to that house.”
Cassandra frowns, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes. “But what about my parents?”
“Let them call the cops on me. Fuck if I care!” I say, voice tight as I pull onto the road. “He’s not hurting you again.”
We stay quiet until we reach a red light.
I grip the wheel, listening to Cassandra crying.
“But then, what happens next?”
I finally let myself glance at her, and the sight of her wiping away her tears so desperately makes my chest tighten.
My first instinct is to tell her the truth: I don’t know.But I can’t tell her that. So I exhale, and steady my voice, and push all the worries down.
“We figure things out.”
“I don’t want to go back.” Her hands grip her seatbelt, knuckles turning white. I reach over, gently prying her fingers loose, threading them with mine. She breathes heavily. “Nathaniel is dangerous.”
“He is a dead man walking,” I mutter while pressing a kiss to the back of her hand. “You know that.”
Cassandra lets out a weak laugh at that, shaking her head, like she can’t believe I’m being honest about this.
“You can’t just kill him,” she says, and I know she truly believes it.
