Page 96 of Break for Me

This was not at all how I pictured this moment going a second ago.

“You take up all the space in my head. You block the eye contact I prefer to keep with the devil at all times. I need you to go now, so I can see him clearly again. So, I can let out what you’ve been keeping at bay.”

I locked my hand in a death grip on the front of his shirt one last time when I turned back to look at him. I thought I had so many things to say to him, but none of those things came out.

“I hate you, J.”

That devastating, knee-collapsing smile crossed his face for just a second.

“I’ll be happy to fuck that lie right out of you the first chance I get, Fancy Face.”

Memphis groaned behind me and Jersey pushed me closer to her. He looked both of us up and down one more time, like he was committing us to memory, and then he turned back toward the other side of the room. He was headed back for that window and the front door to draw them away from us and the disgusting basement door that would take us outside. I rushed by Memphis and led her back to the stench of my nightmares. I had the flashlight out as soon as I swung the door open to that horrifying tomb, but I didn’t even get the chance to turn it on. There was already someone at the bottom of the stairs with a flashlight of their own, but he was still looking around the room. I watched his light trail from one body bag to another, like he really believed we might have been hiding down there in the dirt with them. The thought alone about made me gag. I raised the gun. He wasn’t far away, and I was a decent shot. But killing people wasn’t something I ever just wanted to do. I didn’t end up with much time to think about it when gunfire from the front of the house started and drew this person’s attention right to us at the top of the stairs. I squeezed the trigger twice and he slumped right to the floor with the other bodies. I didn’t make any effort to go down the stairs until Memphis started pushing me. She pulled the door closed behind us while I turned the flashlight on. I picked our way through the sea of bodies to get back across the room and to the other set of stairs. There was no way to sneak back out of that door. No way to open it without someone noticing if they happened to be waiting out there. So, I simply shoved the side with the broken hinges open and started to make my way out. I couldn’t hear anything but the guns on the other side of the house so trying to listen for footfalls anywhere was useless. I turned back to help Memphis out but she was already rushing by me, no doubt to escape that wretched smell.

“This way,” I whispered and started to run into the trees. Her hand latched onto my wrist until I stopped the moment that we made it into the woods. I turned back to see the outline of a man sprinting from around the other side of the house. I took a single step back in his direction, but the very second that another gunshot rang through my ears, Jersey toppled straight to the ground. It only took another few seconds before an entire fucking army materialized behind him. I raised the gun in my hand, but Memphis squeezed my wrist again until I looked at her. She was shaking her head and pointing in the other direction. I watched Jersey roll to his back.

He was alive.

But then I couldn’t see any part of him through the swarm of other people who encircled him, and Memphis started to pull me.

* * *

Silent tears were pouring out of me by the time we made it back to his car. I couldn’t even stop my hands from shaking long enough to push the button to unlock the doors. Memphis had to do it. I was surprised that she still trusted me to drive when she handed the keys right back to me. I passed the knife off to her in case she wanted to make any attempt on the duct tape around her head.

And I drove.

Just drove.

I drove until the sun came up, and then I kept driving.

By the time I stopped to put gas in the car, Memphis had managed to get the tape off her mouth and her face but made absolutely no headway in getting it out of her hair. I wondered if either of us had even spoken a word since getting in the car. I didn’t remember anything about that drive. When I looked at her, she was already glaring at me. She had piercing green eyes. And they were very much trying to pierce right through me.

“What?” I asked, because I was in no mood for whatever this was.

“I’m trying to decide if I hate everything about you, or if we’re cool.”

If I’d rolled my eyes any harder, I would’ve been stuck staring at the inside of my skull for the rest of my days.

“Whatever,” I said and opened the center console between us for Jersey’s wallet. “Let me know when you decide so I can respond in kind.”

I thought I was going to storm out of that car just to get away from her, but I leaned back in that seat and just stared at the wallet in my hand.

“Can you tell me how you feel about him?” She asked.

I wiped the fucking river of tears from both cheeks and shook my head.

“No.”

This little girl fucking laughed. “Yeah,” she said. “I should’ve guessed as much.”

“What?”

“I asked him the same question about you,” she said. “That was his whole ass response too. No. Just no.”

She sighed and looked back down at Jersey’s knife that was folded in her hands.

“Do you love him?” She asked.

“I don’t even know him.”

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