AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Tate, there you are.” Hawk stopped a few feet away, hunching over and resting his hands on his knees, breathing hard as if he’d raced from Wrath & Ruin. “I amsosorry.”
The encounter with the demon shifter made me forget that Hawk had ripped my heart out less than an hour ago. The nightworlder had turned my world upside down and inside out, and I wasn’t sure I could ever get back to normal.
I pushed off the fence and forced my feet forward, one in front of the other. “How did you find me?” He couldn’t have tracked me in a random alley.
Hawk stood and dragged his fingers through his tousled blond hair. Roxie must have enjoyed tugging on the strands while she rode him. “My aunt puts trackers on everyone’s phone in case of an emergency.” The ghost of a crooked grin melted over his mouth. “I might have gotten Strome to hack it for me.”
This jerk had the audacity to puff his chest out at his own cleverness. “Good for you.”
When I slipped by, he grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “I’m so sorry, Tate. I didn’t mean for that to happen. It was the Rapture.” He shook his head, those puppy dog eyes—still dilated and hazy from the drugs—pleading. “You don’t know what it’s like. I couldn’t control myself. Neither could Roxie.”
“Why did you take it in the first place?” I asked as his fingers kept a firm hold on my arm, but it didn’t burn away the demon shifter’s touch lingering all over me like phantom tattoos.
Hawk lifted one shoulder. “Roxie had already taken some by the time I found her, and she begged me to try it with her so she wasn’t alone. I didn’t think it would be that—intense.” He bit his bottom lip and tugged me closer. “Can you please forgive me? I’d never do anything to intentionally hurt you.”
Roxie’s perfume coated him, making me want to gag.
“Did you finish?”
His brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Hawk knew exactly what I meant, and the panic in his gaze revealed his answer. “After I bolted out of there, did you finish banging Roxie before chasing me down?”
Some of the color drained from his face.
“I thought so.” I yanked my arm out of his grip and strode toward the mouth of the alley.
Hawk jogged after me, quickly catching up with his long legs. “It’s not like you and I are dating. There was no commitment. Don’t take it so hard.”
His words stung like a harsh slap across my cheek, and my boots screeched to a halt. An invisible fist squeezed my heart as I glared at my best friend, the guy I’d been in love with for the last two years.
Did I ever really matter to him? Would he have hooked up with me tonight and then moved on to another?
The hurt and betrayal must have leaked through my hard expression because he let out a string of curses.
“I didn’t mean that how it sounded.” He rubbed his temples. “You’re my partner, for real now, and I want things to go smoothly between us. Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to—”
I lifted my hand to cut him off. “Just shut up, Hawk.” Every word out of his mouth dug the knives a little deeper, twisting until I wanted to scream.
But this was nothing compared to the shit I’d been through. I would survive, like always. No one, not even Hawk, would break me again.
“You’re right. You can do whatever you want and screw whoever you want.” I flicked my hair over my shoulder and shrugged. “Same goes for me.”
He scoffed. “Don’t go hopping into bed with that douchebag Axel because you’re mad at me. I already apologized. What more do you want?”
My bitter laugh reverberated through the night like a banshee call. “I’m not mad at you, Hawk.” Of course I was, but it didn’t matter. “I’ll get over tonight. I’ve experienced worse things than watching the guy I like fuck my supposed friend.”
His eyes widened as those words bounced between us, something I’d never admitted out loud to him. “Tate, I—”
“This is just another horrible memory I’ll shove down so far until it doesn’t exist.”Like all the other shit I’ve tried to bury.
I stormed out of the alley, trying to keep my knees from buckling as I walked away from the one person I trusted the most for the last two years. The historic buildings and twisting oaks blurred as I marched down the sidewalk, cutting through Crawford Square to put as much distance between Hawk and me as possible.
I’d kick tonight's events into another steel cage in the back of my mind and lock it, but the memories of the demon shifter wouldn’t go quietly. He’d haunt my nightmares.
Would he make good on his threat and find me again?
ChapterNine
