Page 307 of Lessons in Cruelty

I barely, so fucking barely, hold back a ‘slut’. Many moments from last night still burn bright in my mind. Rooke so smugly explaining that Haven was a virgin is one of them.

He could be lying. Don’t know what the fuck it would gain him, but if anyone has a hidden agenda, it’s Rooke.

“I don’t have the energy to entertain your fucking delusions right now,” Haven says dryly.

I give her a scathing once-over that makes her lips tighten into a hard line.

“Fine, Heavenly. Stay.” I swipe a hand toward the black Lego-block of a house behind her. “Go and fuck Rooke some more. I’m not gonna be here when he wakes up.”

My face feels hot and tight. Wouldn’t be surprised if the rain was steaming off my skin.

All I want to do is grab her and drag her away from this sick fuck’s lair. I don’t black out on molly like I do with booze. I remember everything. I know Rooke took advantage of Haven, because I fucking did.

That shit I still have to unpack, but I’m so low on fucking serotonin right now, it’s like asking me to climb Everest.

I can’t leave Haven here. Rooke’s already gotten his claws into her somehow, and after last night, they’ve only sunk in deeper.

Haven insisted I fucked her first last night, and that has to count for something.

She belonged to me first.

I claimed her first.

She was mine first before he turned us both into his fucking puppets. Her blood is still on my skin, proof that I took a part of her that he’ll never be able to.

If I walk away now, who will be there to stop him?

The thought of his hands on her, touching what’s mine, causes a savage heat to fire up inside me. The same feeling I had seconds before I beat Ezra’s face in.

“Please, Haven. Let’s⁠—“

“Seriously?” she cuts in, a tic in her jaw. “You were seconds away from sucking his dick last night,” she spits out. “Now you can’t stand to be around him?”

I shiver as I turn away. Not from cold, but from suppressed rage. And about a hundred other things I can’t stand to fucking think about. I meant what I said. If I never see Rooke again, it’ll be too soon.

I hear her call my name, low and urgent, but I just keep walking, ready to go around the house, find the road, and keep at it till I can hitch a ride back to town.

Might take a while, seeing as I’m only in a pair of drenched sweatpants.

I’ll survive. I’ve been through worse.

“Kai!” Haven catches my arm as I turn the corner. It’s slightly more overgrown here, the forest nudging closer to the house. I didn’t realize there was an extra room on this side of the building.

Then again, unlike Haven, this is the first time I’ve been here.

I shake her off, but she just latches on again.

So I grab her arm and pull, yanking her through a row of tall grass until her back is against a tinted window. The boughs of a tree overhead shield us from the worst of the rain, but now I can’t get the scent of Rooke’s body wash out of my nose.

“I’m leaving. Come, stay, I don’t give a fuck.”

“I don’t want to leave yet. And I don’t want you to leave, either. Please, Kai. Just stay for⁠—“

“You’re fucked in the head if you think anything’s going to happen now that we’re all sober.”

“I don’t want—“ She cuts off, whipping her head to the side, blinking furiously. “We should talk. Like…decompress or something. Figure out what happens now.”

I laugh, drawing her gaze back to me. “What happens now, is everyone pretends nothing fucking happened.”