She swallows. “It’s so easy for you, isn’t it?”
“To you it is, as well, except I don’t lie to myself. You do,” I say.
She makes a face, and I can tell that she’s biting on her cheeks to stop herself from calling me names. Good. She’s starting to learn what happens when she pisses me off.
“Arthur was innocent. He didn’t have to get involved in this.”
“You involved him the moment you kissed him. It was disgusting.” Her eyes widen, so I add, “Yeah, I saw all of that … thing you did.” I circle my finger in the air. “In his house.”
“You’ve been spying on us,” she says.
“You were going to tell the police about me. Of course, I was spying on you,” I say, entwining my fingers.
She sits back and raises an eyebrow. “Or how about this … you were jealous of him, so that’s why you decided to take revenge now.”
My eyes narrow, and I grind my teeth in frustration. How dare she suggest such a thing? Fucking narcissistic bitch.
“I know it’s the truth,” she muses.
“Shut up!” I yell, jolting up from my seat.
“Mad, Nix?”
I cock my head, rage flowing through my veins. “What did you call me?”
“Nix … Suiting nickname, don’t you think?”
I run to her, growling, causing her to cower in a corner as I jerk on the bars. “That name is not for you.”
“Oh, then who is it for?” she muses, smiling so wickedly that I want to go in there and fuck those lips until she can no longer smile.
“People I can trust,” I sneer. “And you’re not one of them.”
“Says the guy who hurts people who are innocent.”
“You’re no saint either, missy,” I hiss.
“I’m not the one involving Arthur or Paige,” she says, leaning forward and grabbing the cage to taunt me.
“Arthur involved himself.”
“Just because I live with him doesn’t mean he’s part of this shit.”
“Arthur threatened my property, so I had to get rid of him.”
“Property?” she chides.
I reach in and grab her by the throat. “You. Are. Mine.”
“Just because you’re keeping me in a cage doesn’t make me yours,” she says, coughing.
“I own you now. I can do whatever I want,” I hiss, letting go of her.
“To belong to someone means loving them,” she says.
I lean in further, smirking. “You once loved me. I can make you do it again.”
“You wish …” she says, shaking her head. “I never loved you to begin with.”
The snarl on her face makes me want to cut her throat. I smack the bars to scare her. “I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you want.”
Fuck her. She’s trying to get under my skin, but I won’t let her.
I get up and pace around, concentrating on the fact that I hate her to death, instead of the fact that she’s trying to taunt me to end her suffering sooner.
“As if I could ever love a monster like you now,” she mutters.
The more she speaks, the deeper she cuts into my skin.
Fuck!
I pick up a chair and throw it at the wall, making her crawl back into a corner.
“Do you want me angry? Because I’ll fucking give you anger you’ve never seen before.”
“Go ahead,” she sneers. “It’s not like I’m going to stay here forever. Might as well end it quickly.”
“As if I’ll allow that,” I spit. “But I’ll fucking tear you to pieces and keep your heart pumping with my own bloody hands if I have to.”
“So much rage … wow,” she muses. “No wonder it’s come down to this.”
“You have yourself to thank for this,” I say, pointing at her.
“And what about Arthur? Who does he have to thank?”
“Himself,” I growl.
“Excuse me?” she says, frowning.
“You heard me,” I say, the left side of my lip curving up into a devious smile. “You think he’s innocent? He’s as innocent as you are. That’s right.”
“What do you mean?” she asks, grabbing the bars again.
“What? You think he’s a good man?” I put my finger on my temple. “Think again, Princess. I can see the bruises on your face and your arms.”
She covers the spots with her hands, a flush appearing on her cheeks. “Just because we fight sometimes doesn’t mean he’s a bad person.”
I make a face. “Are you kidding me? How blind have you become?” I take a step toward her. “You think he’s sweet? Or are you just ignoring all the bad things in your life?”
“What bad things? Yes, I know he’s controlling, but he cares about me,” she says.
“No, he doesn’t fucking care about you! No one does! See, and this is the thing, you don’t see it.”
Tears well up in her eyes, but I continue anyway. She has to hear this. It’s time to break the façade she’s put up for herself and make her face the truth. “You wanna be fake? You’ll get fake. Fake friends, fake boyfriends, and a fake life. Arthur was just as fake as you are.”
“How would you know?” she asks, wincing as if I’m lying. Or she just doesn’t want to hear the truth.
“He isn’t a good guy, Princess. He wasn’t just there to comfort you. He was there to steal your heart, so you’d give him part of your inheritance.”
“No …” She shakes her head. “I don’t believe it.”
“It’s the fucking truth. I know you don’t trust me, but lying is the last thing on this earth I’ll ever do. Especially when it comes to you because I want to make you see the truth in your own lies.” I take out my phone and scroll through my messages. “Prepare for the blow, Princess.”
“For what blow? You want me to believe that Arthur was just after my money?”
“It’s the only reason he wanted to be close to you. After his brother, Phillip, died, there was nothing in his way.”
She continues to shake her head, trembling from top to bottom as I hold out my phone for her to look at. The message is clear. There’s a bounty on her head, sent directly from one of my employers.
“I’m a hired killer. Guess who asked to get you killed?”
“No … it can’t be,” she says, her face darkening by the second.
“Yes, sweet cheeks. That request came from Arthur. He didn’t just want your money. He wanted you dead.”
CHAPTER 14
VANESSA
My mind and my heart feel like they’re exploding. My lip quivers and a yowling sound emanates from my mouth, a sound so vile that it’s unfamiliar to me, and it makes me want to lash out at Phoenix.
“This is the truth, Princess. The cold, hard truth.”
“How … How could he?” I mumble, still in shock from what I’m seeing.
A text on Phoenix’s cell phone clearly shows a new assignment from someone who hires him. Someone who wants me dead. And that someone is named Arthur Starr.
“Because of the money, Vanessa. It’s all around you. Can’t you smell it? This place reeks of blood money. You know what it can do to people. Look at you. You’re a prime example.”
I sniff, pushing away the impending tears. “I am not like that.”
“Oh, really?” He glances at his cell phone and then back at me. “So that’s why someone wants you dead. Because you’re such a nuisance.”
“Arthur was … different.”
“No, he just pretended to be so he could try and get you to go down easily. It was always about the money. You married into fortune, he wanted it, and he couldn’t wait any longer.”
“Is that why you’re here?” I ask.
“No, I got this text after I arrived at your place. Rather convenient, don’t you think? I guess they knew where I was headed.”
“Who is they?”
“The people I work for,” he muses. “Not that it matters to you.”
“But w
hy would he want me dead? He’s part of the Starr family. It was their money, not mine.”
“And you got it because you married Phillip,” he says. “And then I killed him, so his fortune became yours.”
“So Arthur actually wanted Phillip’s life … the company … he wanted to marry me,” I mutter. Everything is clicking into place.
“Except you didn’t.”
“I had no choice,” I say looking directly into Phoenix’s eyes. “You think I even had the right to make a decision? I wasn’t allowed to pick who I married, Phoenix. Open your eyes. I’m not the only one blind to the fucking truth!”
His lips part, but nothing comes out. He just stands there motionless. I wonder what he’s thinking. Maybe he finally realizes that, even though I married into wealth, it was not my choice.
“You could have said no,” he says. His resolve is cracking. His true emotions are flowing through.
“And then what? Do you think my mother would’ve let me?” I say. His emotions are like the notes of a piano, and I am an expert at playing.
“Who gives a shit about your mother!” Phoenix yells, almost crushing his cell phone.
“I do! And she threatened you!” I yell back.
This shuts him up completely.
The cell phone drops from his hand, and he blinks a couple of time, before picking it up again.
He clears his throat and licks his lips. I guess the cat’s out of the bag now. I didn’t want to tell him, but my circumstances now require that I do. Telling him means he’ll know why I gave him up and why I chose someone else over him. Now that he knows, it’s much easier for him to accept me as I’ve become. Yes, I am a lying, conniving bitch, but I didn’t choose to be this way.
And now he knows the truth.
Good. It makes it that much easier to play with his emotions until he finally admits that even though he says he hates me to death, he still has feelings for me. I know he does, I can see it. I could feel it in the way he kissed me.
It was just like how I remember.
How we used to be.
Before everything turned to ruin.
Suddenly, he starts rummaging in his bag and takes out the duct tape. He storms toward me and rips off a piece with his teeth.
“No, don’t,” I say, shaking my head, but then he sticks it on my mouth.
“You talk too much,” he says.
I try to speak, but it all sounds like muffled groans. He puts his finger in front of my mouth. “You watch that pretty mouth of yours, before I fuck it.”
Then he gets up and turns around. He doesn’t even grant me one more look before waltzing out of the door and slamming it shut behind him.
***
Age 15
Things have been going downhill quickly ever since Miles kissed me. My friends saw it and told my parents. It’s no wonder that my mother didn’t want me to see him again. It must be the reason she invited Phillip to meet me.
Of course, my parents also punished me. I was on house arrest with no phone, no internet, and no friends. It was a living hell. I hate being confined to my room with only my homework to look at. It’s like my parents don’t want me to have a social life at all. They want me to put my future first, and do everything in my power to be successful. It’s not fair, though. Maybe I don’t want to be what they want me to be, but I don’t even have a choice. They are forcing me to fit into the mold they want me to fit. I can’t be myself, so how am I supposed to learn what I need?
I can’t … which makes it impossible to be around Miles. He doesn’t understand. I thought I could be friends with him, but my parents are making it impossible, and I don’t even know what I want anymore. For once, I just want people to be happy with me. To be someone my parents can be proud of, so they’ll finally have something positive to say about me. To be something.
And to be something, I have to work hard. I have to study fast. I have to become someone I want to be, and for that I need power. At least, that’s what my parents always say. Study hard and work hard because then you have power, and power means you can do whatever you want in this world.
So, power it is.
I guess they feel like Miles would be in the way of that. They want him gone. They want me to lie to him. Heck, they want me to lie to everyone because that’s just the way our family is. Lie to everyone to soften the blow and get whatever you desire.
And the worst part of it all is that they force me to lie, and now, I’ve started doing it without their instructions. It’s like it’s been glued inside my brain.
I hate that they’re trying to make me part from Miles, although I do understand why. He doesn’t exactly bring a healthy mindset to the table. He keeps rebelling, while I’m trying to conform to the rules, and it’s ripping us apart. Even though we were once so close, I have no idea what to do with him now.
Every day I watch him stand with his friends, in the hallways, outside, in the playground, and I wonder what in the hell he’s doing with his life. Smoking. Drinking. He’s even gotten tattoos and piercings now. Just looking at him can make me boil. I don’t know why it makes me so angry, but it does. I want so much more for him. He deserves so much better than this, and I don’t understand why he won’t give himself a chance. It’s like he’s already given up.
Well, just because my parents won’t allow me to be friends with him, doesn’t mean I can’t try when they’re not around. Nobody has to know. I just wish Miles would understand it without me having to literally tell him what’s going on in my family.
I walk to him as he stands by the lockers and pluck the cigarette from his hand, throwing it in the garbage.
“What the …” he says.
“What are you doing?” I say.
“Why do you care?” he asks. His friends start laughing.
“Because I do. And so should you.” I frown.
He turns his back toward his friends so he can talk more quietly with me. “And you think I don’t?”
“No, if you did, you wouldn’t be out here smoking and … adorning yourself.”
He raises his eyebrows as he points at the piercing in his lip. “Oh, you mean this?”
“Yeah, and whatever else you’re doing to yourself. I don’t understand why. Is it some sort of cry for attention?”
He chuckles. “Now you’re really starting to push my buttons. Be careful there, Princess.”
“Princess?” I wince. “Seriously?”
He leans forward. “Yeah, because you’re acting like a stuck-up princess. I just call it like it is.”
I shake my head. “I can’t believe this.”
“What? That I’m not like you? That I care less about studying and more about my friends? That I don’t try to make anyone but myself happy?”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
He places his hand on the locker in a way that overwhelms me a little, making me want to shrink in his presence. “Oh, really? Then what are you doing? Because it sure seems like you’re trying to mold me into someone you can be friends with.”
“I’m not trying to mold you—”
He grabs my arm and pins me to the locker. “Listen, Princess. I’m not a toy you can play with.”
“You’re not—”
“Shh.” He places his finger on my lips. “Stop trying to convince me to be like you. It won’t work. I’ll never be like that. You can forget about it. And if that’s what it takes to be your friend, then I can’t be your friend.”
I frown, my lips parting. I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “What? You’ve got to be kidding me.” Tears well up in my eye, but I blink them away. “I can’t believe you’re saying this.”
He grabs my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Look at me.” He lifts his shirt and shows me the tattoo on his chest. It’s some sort of bird with a skull in the middle. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up just looking at it. Why is he doing this? And more importantly, how? It’s illegal at our age, so some questionable joint must�
�ve done it. I shouldn’t care, but I do. I care a lot.
“Does this look like something you want to see?”
“I don’t mind …” I shrug. “I just think you’re focusing on the wrong things.”
“I’m focusing on what I want.” He leans in, placing his other hand above my head and trapping me. “Maybe you should do the same once in a while. It’s much healthier.”
“Are you suggesting that I’m not doing what’s healthy for me? Because those piercings are obviously proof of your knowledge,” I sneer.
“Hmm …” He smiles, and his tongue dips out to lick his piercing, which causes goosebumps to appear all over my body. I’m transfixed by the way he tugs on it, and it makes me want to touch it. Goddammit.
“You know what I think? I think you’re just jealous,” he muses.
“Jealous?” I say, shocked. “Of what?”
“Of the fact that I can do whatever the hell I please, and you’re stuck doing what Mommy and Daddy demand.”
That’s it. He’s gone and done it now. Rage is filling up my veins, and before I know it, my fist is right up in his face, making contact.
For a moment, all the people in the hallway stop in their tracks, and I have a feeling they’re all looking at us. Nobody flinches, not even Miles himself. As I take my fist off him, I turn around and run into the nearest bathroom.
Oh, god. Oh, god. Oh, god. I can’t believe I just did that.
I stare into the mirror, wondering what in the hell is wrong with me. Why in the hell did I do that? Why do I let him piss me off so much?
I turn on the faucet and splash some of the water on my face before wiping it off with a clean towel.
Someone knocks on the door, and I look up and wait. My heart is pounding when I hear his voice.
“Vanessa … please come out.”
I don’t know what to say because nothing is an excuse for what I did. And yet, I’m too terrified to go out there because I fear he’ll hit me back.
I don’t know why I’d think that, but somehow, I do. Maybe it’s because of that redheaded kid he beat up, the one trying to bully us. Something about Miles makes me cower, and that’s not me at all. I always feel on top of my game, except when I look at him. When I do, all I see is hurt, fear, anxiety, and above all, anger. It’s like he could lash out at any time. This fear has me in its grasp. Almost as if it has power over me.
Stalker Page 12
