Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 147801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147801 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
He’s becoming agitated again, his pupils dilating, his breathing growing all chopped off, and his grip tightening on my hair.
I gently hold his bandaged hand in mine. “I never loved Cassandra, Gareth. Not like you think.”
“Liar!” He jerks up, releasing me as he paces back and forth, back and forth, biting his finger until blood coats his teeth, lips, everywhere. “Liar, everything is a lie…you’re a goddamn liar…you’ve used me…played me… I need to remove you like I did with all of them.”
“Gareth, baby, please calm down.”
“Don’t…” His head snaps in my direction, his eyes glittery. “Don’t fucking call me that!”
“Okay, I won’t. Would you sit down? You have a severe concussion, and this will make it worse.”
He comes to a halt, cocking his head to the side, his eyes manic. “Do you care if I’m hurt?”
“Of course I do.”
“Will you go crazy if I die like when she died? Will you start hunting people down and going into a loop of nothingness?”
“Gareth, fuck.” I rush toward him and hold his shoulders. “Don’t say that, please. Don’t…don’t make me lose you. I will do whatever you want me to do.”
“Whatever I want?”
“Yes. You name it and I’ll make it happen.”
“Leave Grandpa alone.” His voice trembles before it becomes steady again. “I don’t know what evidence you have or don’t have, but he’d never assault a woman and kill her. Not after he saw me kill my girlfriend’s rapist. He doesn’t…doesn’t even take rape cases. He’s not that type of man.”
I pause. His girlfriend’s rapist?
What girlfriend?
And he’s killed? He took a life before?
While I’m not surprised, I have so many questions. But this isn’t the time to ask them, so I nod. “I won’t go after your grandfather. I’ve abandoned that for a while now.”
“Because of guilt? Can you feel that?”
“If it’s toward you, yes, I do feel all sorts of emotions I thought I was incapable of. And it’s not guilt per se. I would never hurt someone you care about.” I stroke his shoulder. “What else do you want, Gareth?”
“I want to kill you.” His hand shoots up to wrap around my throat, but he’s not squeezing. “I want to carve your heart out and erase her from it. I want to leave a hole in your chest shaped like me. I want to hurt you so deeply, you’ll never move on. You’ll become a ghost of yourself, haunted by me in your dreams and nightmares, waking up screaming my name, only to realize I’m gone. I want to possess you, to make sure you die with my taste on your tongue and my soul coursing through your veins.”
“Gareth—”
“Shut the fuck up. Don’t call my name, don’t make me hear your voice or your fucking lies.” A puff of air blows out of his trembling lips. “I can’t stop thinking about you with her. I can’t stop thinking that your expression, your smile, your everything was hers. The very thought fills me with revulsion. You were married to someone before me. You gave your heart, your body, and your soul to someone else. You touched someone so deeply, and it wasn’t me. And I don’t give a fuck that she came before me. It still makes me fucking sick.”
He sounds so broken and lost.
And for the first time, I can’t stop it. Can’t mend his wounds or smooth out his emotions.
And now, I wish I’d never known Cassandra or married her. Maybe she’d be alive and happy, and I’d naturally find my way to Gareth, because I would have.
He’s the one I share a soul with, not her.
Gareth drops his bandaged forehead on mine, as if he’s tired, and inhales sharply, sniffing me in that way he usually does.
I inhale, too, sucking him into my lungs. The scent of him binding me to reality.
His touch.
His breaths.
The way his upper lip twitches, how his eyes soften.
I’m obsessed with every inch of him, his joy, his anger, his body, and every word out of his mouth. Forget about making a hole the size of him inside me. That’s already done.
Along with him coursing through my veins.
But he’s not letting me speak, and I don’t want to agitate him any further. He doesn’t seem ready to believe a word coming out of my mouth.
“I shouldn’t have let myself be captivated by you, addicted to you, used to you.” His harsh breaths fan my dry lips. “I should’ve avoided you from the start. I sensed the obsession right away, and obsessions aren’t good for me. They consume me. You consumed me, Kayden. And the thought that you’re in my life because you were consumed by someone else makes my vision red. It provokes my murderous side—the one I swore to suppress so I wouldn’t get caught. But it’s too late. You’ve already caught me, hook, line, and sinker. And the only way to escape is for you to rip my head off.”