Page 12 of Reckless Vengeance

“I do, and that scares the fucking shit out of me,” I whispered.

He unbuckled my seat belt and pulled me onto his lap in the small space, taking my face in both hands to force me to look at him.

“I’m not scared of anything, but love is the one thing that terrifies me. Loving you could break me, Aurora. I tried fighting it, I really did. Do you want to be with me? I’ll even let you keep the blue blood pets you insist on keeping around.”

“You like them. Stop pretending they're a bother,” I joked, pressing a hand to his chest. His heartbeat was rapid as he waited for my answer, one that I’d been putting off giving him because official shit was final and scary.

It was ridiculous to think that, it changed nothing that was between us, but it felt different to commit completely. It was admitting these feelings were real.

“Do you want to be with me or not?” he asked, and I nodded.

“I want to be with you,” I said firmly, relief filling his eyes.

“Good. Don’t run from me. If anyone understands what it’s like to be scared of feeling things, it’s me. Talk to me if you freak out and we can work through it.”

“Can you talk to me one day about why it scares you so much?” I asked carefully, and he sighed.

“One day. I’ve been trying to bury it.”

“Maybe it would help free you if you talked about it?”

“Maybe. Won’t take back the fact I killed her over it,” he mumbled, kissing me before putting me back in my seat. “We need to get to mine, it’s safer.”

“You’re not going to flip out and throw me out about the whole Slash thing?” I said teasingly, but I was low-key serious. I’d expected a shitshow.

“I need to process it, but no. Always knew that fucker liked you,” he grumbled, starting to drive again.

He seemed lost in thought, so I stared out the window silently, keeping an eye out for trouble for the rest of the drive.

CHAPTER THREE

TYLER

Anxiety spiked inside me once Rory was gone. For starters, I hated having my eyes off her, but secondly, I knew that Caden wanted to ask me about the whole Slash and Rory thing.

He kept glancing at me, my nerves getting worse when he followed me outside for a cigarette.

“Chill out, dude,” he huffed when I tried lighting my cigarette and he noticed my hands shaking, his lighter appearing in front of me with the flame sparked.

I leaned forward to use it, the smoke filling my lungs and not really calming me like I’d hoped.

“She told me not to say anything. I took your side last time and lost her. I wasn’t—” I started, but he cut me off.

“I know,” he sighed, leaning back against the house to study me.

“So you’re not mad?”

“I’m pissed, but I get it,” he grunted, lighting his own cigarette and taking his eyes off me. “You honestly believe he wasn’t playing her?”

“He wasn’t,” I bit out defensively, needing to stand up for him now that he wasn’t here to do it himself.

“Can you blame us for questioning it? He wanted her dead, Ty. He locked her in that room with my dad in hopes that he’d assault her. I know you liked him, but he wasn’t the best buddy that you made him out to be.”

“He was,” I argued.

“How so? You guys rubbed balls and connected? C’mon, man. Look at it from an outsider's perspective.”

“He never let me be alone once he realized how much I hate it. Did you miss the part where he literally sacrificed himself to save Rory? People playing games don’t do that shit,” I answered sharply.