Maybe it’s that my only other significant interaction with the opposite sex has been with a sociopath, but it hadn’t occurred to me that there was an ulterior motive to Jake’s invitation to get some air.
I’ve gone off alone with a boy that I barely know.
I was so concerned with Vin, I didn’t stop to think that I might be throwing myself out of the frying pan and into an open flame.
So stupid.
Jake stares down at me with an eager smile and expectation in his gaze. If he was a bad guy, there had been plenty of opportunity for him to prove it before now. But a shiver of awareness runs down my spine as he steps closer, eating up the small amount of space separating us.
Before I can convey to him that we should be anywhere but here right now, he bends his head and kisses me.
It’s a nice kiss, just enough pressure and not too much tongue. Pleasant like floating on your back in the ocean on a day when the waves are calm and the sky is clear. He tastes like sunshine, salt air and all things purely good.
But I still feel a stab of disappointment.
Jake is barely a glowing ember next to Vin’s raging inferno.
The kiss is good, but not even close to being the same.
He pulls away to look down at me with that same half-smile on his face, but now uncertainty lingers in his gaze. “Are you okay?”
“She’s probably just bored. That was about as hot as sponge-bathing your grandmother.”
My heart stops.
Vin steps into the dark room, his cold gaze lowering the already frigid temperature by several degrees. The door slams shut behind him, and he watches us like a fox who has cornered shivering rabbits in the grass.
To his credit, Jake shifts to stand in front of me as if his body isn’t something Vin would tear apart to get to me. “Look, man. I don’t want a problem.”
“You should have learned a long time ago that you don’t always get what you want.” Vin’s gaze shifts to the rusted wheelchair behind me, and his eyes narrow before flashing to my face. If looks could kill, I’d be dead and buried. “But today is your lucky day, because I’m giving you a choice. You can go out this door — alone — or I can send you out through the window.”
Jake’s shoulders tense. “And Zaya?”
“She’ll be going out the window right behind you.”
I want to believe he isn’t serious. But staring into his eyes, I don’t see anything aside from dark intent. My lips burn with awareness as his gaze lingers there with hyper-focused attention, a manic twist to his lips.
In a mood like this, Vin is capable of anything.
“You can’t just go around threatening people,” Jake insists, even as his weight shifts uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “Just let it go, and we can forget about all this.”
Vin tilts his head to the side, regarding the other guy like a particularly interesting specimen under a microscope. His gaze flicks up and down, assessing even as his body coils with tension like a snake about to strike. “You can’t go around playing with other people’s toys and think something won’t get broken.”
I want to tell Jake that he should leave. I also want to beg him to stay as if he might actually be able to save me from whatever Vin is planning to do. But I don’t say anything at all, because even now I allow Vin to make the rules of this game we’ve been playing since we were kids.
My hands push at Jake’s back, urging him toward the door. He spins to face me with surprise and what almost looks like betrayal in his eyes.
“You want me to leave you with him?” he asks, voice incredulous.
“Maybe not too stupid to live, after all,” Vin murmurs with a sardonic smile. “Run along and leave a girl to fight your battles for you, just like last time. You’ll cover more ground if you split up.”
Because my life is a horror movie, right?
Jake sucks in his breath, obviously preparing to say something scathing. I just shake my head furiously, trying to tell Jake without words that this isn’t his fight. Even if it were, it’s not one he can win. Perversely, I hope he fights me on it. I want him to insist on rescuing me, promise to take me away from this awful place even though you can’t run from what is inside you.
Just because I refuse to be a damsel-in-distress, doesn’t mean I don’t wish there was someone willing to be my knight-in-shining-armor.
But I can’t expect that from Jake, who rode into town in a late-model luxury sedan and not a white horse. His gaze searches mine, looking for something he obviously doesn’t find. Anger twists his features before he turns away and strides toward the door.
“You two deserve each other.”
I wince as the door slams shut behind him.
Vin has the nerve to smirk at me. “My, people do come and go quickly here.”
My heart skips more than a few beats as I glare at him. Silence be damned. Clearly, all of the rules have changed.
“What the hell do you want?”
“You mean, aside from world peace?”
“Aside from torturing me. Aside from making my life a living hell. What. Do. You. Want. Vin?”
He pushes off the wall and takes a step closer to me. I fight the urge to back away, even as every fiber of my being urges me to run. Everybody knows if you run from a predator, it won’t be able to stop itself from chasing you.
“You seem on edge. Must be the sexual frustration. From the looks of it, Jakey-boy has a hard time getting the job done. He seems like the type to
