Page 108 of The Cruelest Chaos
“Take me back,” I say quietly. “Take me to your house.”
“Ella.” Maverick’s voice at my back.
Mark’s arms tighten around me. “Do you know this guy?” he asks, his words low.
I shake my head in Mark’s shirt. “No. Take me back.”
“Ella,”Maverick growls. “That’s my girlfriend,” he tells Mark, whose arms tense around me.
“No,” I blubber against Mark. “He’s not. I don’t know him anymore. Take me away—“
“If you take her out of this bar, I’m going to kill you.”
Mark squeezes me hard. “What was that?” he growls. “I’m not leaving her with you, you piece of trash.”
I tense, thinking of my trailer. Of my mother. Of Shane. My sins.
Maverick laughs. “See, Ella?” he whispers. “That’s what your new friend Mark thinks of you.Piece of trash.”
No. No.No.
“Get me out of here!” I scream at Mark, pounding my fists on his shirt.
“Shh,” Mark says consolingly. “I’m going to get you out of here, and then we’re going to call the police.”
No we’re fucking not.But I don’t say that. I don’t say that, and instead, I let Mark wrap his arm around my shoulder and spin me around. I don’t look back as we walk out, Mark’s friend joining us as Mark snaps his fingers.
I don’t look back, and Maverick doesn’t stop us, but I hear him, almost as if he’s whispering the words just for me.
“If you leave, Ella, don’t you dare come back.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
A weeklater and I’m on his doorstep where Connor dropped me off hours ago. He finally pulls up, slamming on his brakes in the driveway. For a split second I wonder if it’s because he saw me, or because he’s just generally an asshole.
But when he puts the car inParkand doesn’t even bother shutting the door as he slowly walks up to me, I realize he definitely sees me.
And I realize maybe this was a mistake.
Maybe all the ignored phone calls, me hiding in my room when he’s come to the house, texts I deleted without reading…maybe I should’ve never come back.
I stand to my feet, taking a step back onto his enormous porch, reaching for the column at my back to steady myself.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” He’s got his keys in his fisted hands and I see something flecked across the back of them and up his wrists, just below his black shirt.
Something red.
“W-what’s that?” I make myself ask, Sid’s words coming back to me.
Be careful with Maverick. He’s always got blood on his hands. Get out while you still can.
He doesn’t look away from me. “Maybe it’s the remnants of that fuck you took home last week, Ella.” He spits on the ground. “How wasMark, by the way? He fuck you good?”
“You wouldn’t—”
He closes the space between us and grabs my arm, yanking me forward. “You have no idea what I would or wouldn’t do, kid. So don’t fucking try me.”
For a moment, I’m with Mom again. For a moment, she’s screaming at me that I ruined her life. That my persistent hunger is costing her too much money. That I’m ungrateful. Lazy. And after Shane, a slut. That I stole her one chance at happiness. For a moment, Iama kid and I deserve this.
