Page 132 of Obsession
Snatching up my wrists, his strong jaw twitches. “I never lied.”
“Lying by omission is still lying, Robbie.” I wrench my wrists free, then shove him again before stepping away when he comes for me. He’s faster, trapping me in his strong arms. “I never fucking lied to you.”
“Then where’s Beatrix, huh? Don’t fucking lie to me, Robbie.”
His arms slide from around me, and I spin around before leveling him with a glare filled with tears and heartache.
Strands of hair stick to the wetness on my cheeks. “Did you have anything to do with her disappearance?”
“Everything I’ve done since I left that prison has been for you. Everything!” he bites out, jabbing the air, anger radiating off him in waves.
“For me?” Shaking my head, I stumble back. “I never asked you to kill for me, Robbie. And Beatrix? What has a teenage girl got to do with me?” My head shakes again as my stomach clenches with nausea. “You’re sick.”
“I knew it,” he breathes, ripping off his hood.
The pain and anger I see in his eyes steal the breath from my lungs as though a hand reached in and pulled them out.
“I knew you would look at me like that.”
“Like what?” I ask, my own anger momentarily forgotten.
“With disgust. I told you all women look at me like that, like I’m a fucking monster.”
“Because you are!” I scream.
He stills.
I still.
The world stills.
Beside us, the fir trees lean in, too.
Robbie tears his gaze away, confusing me for a moment with the hurt look on his face.
“You’ve killed people, Robbie,” I whisper. “Beatrix, she?—”
Swinging those cold blue eyes in my direction, he seethes, “I never claimed to be a good man. You knew what you got yourself into. What did you expect? A happy ending? A fucking antihero? A movie villain with a redemption arc? I’m neither.” He steps closer and jabs his chest. “I’m a true villain.” Another hard jab. “A monster from your worst nightmare. I’m as sick as they come, Savannah. If anyone deserves the needle, it’s me.”
I flick my eyes between his, and our visible breaths dance in the space between our bodies. But he’s not done. Raw pain as ancient as time bleeds from his every pore.
He invades my space, bathing me in his warm scent. “But it’s too late now. You don’t get to push me away. You want to hate me? You want to look at me with that disgust in your eyes? Go ahead. I’m used to it.”
“You’re scaring me,” I whisper weakly when his hands stay locked at his sides. The Robbie I know takes without hesitation. He hurts. He inflicts pain. He doesn’t hold himself back like he is now. He’s close enough for his warm breath to skate over my lips, but the distance between us expands until I can no longer see his raft on these stormy seas.
“Good,” he breathes, his shoulders tense. “You should fear me. I told you that from the beginning. And yes, I knew about your parents. Everything I’ve told you is the truth.”
“Why didn’t you tell me you went to school with them?”
“Would you have come back?”
“I don’t understand.”
Robbie finally strokes my hair away from my cheek, and a muscle ticks madly in his cheek. “I don’t understand it myself. Your father, he…” He swallows visibly, and his eyes burn with regret. “He made my life hell. I hated him. Hated everything about him. Then, one day, I read your column in the newspaper, and it intrigued me.Youintrigued me.”
My heart clenches.
“It was an article about the healthcare system. Remember it?”
