Page 78 of False Idols

“I feel like I’m supposed to be asking you that,” I snap and Beau steps in between us.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Ali?” he snaps.

Ali.

Her name is Ali. I fucking hate that name.

She sits up and pushes back until she’s against the headboard and the sight enrages me even more. She looks so comfortable in his bed, like she’s done it a hundred times before. I want to rip her hair out of her head.

“Coming to finish off what we started at the party last night.”

“Nothing happened between us last night.”

“Oh really? Didn’t seem that way when I came all over your fucking hand!”

Beau sighs and puts his knife away. “Get out of my fucking apartment. Give me that knife, Nevaeh.” He snaps his fingers at me when I don’t immediately surrender the weapon to him. I don’t want to give it to him, but I know it’s easier if I do.

“Fine,” I slap the knife into his hand and storm off into the living room. I don’t want to know what they’re going to talk about. I want her gone, but that’s between Beau and her. I perch on a stool at the kitchen counter and wait. I can hear them talking through the open door and when I turn in my seat to listen, I see Beau close the door. My gut turns sour when I see him close the door and it’s hard not to run out of the apartment. A minute goes by and then another and another. What are they doing in there? If she’s getting out of his apartment should it take this long? Are they doing more than talking? Is she convincing him to pick her over me?

He said he loved me. That has to count for more than whatever she can offer him, right? I bite my lip so hard that I taste blood, because I’m not sure. I don’t know where I stand when it comes to Beau’s life. Not when I’m put up against a girl that reminds me so much of Carrie Salt. The papers and gossip said they were an item and that Beau was serious about her before The Reaper took her. Is he serious with this girl too?

What if the twisted thing between us isn’t enough to keep him and I lose him after everything? My hands shake and I have to sit on them to stop the tremors. I might have told Beau I loved him in a moment of bravery but I don’t feel brave right now. Not after facing down The Reaper and Dean. There’s so little left in me right now. I take in a deep breath and then another to calm myself down. Everything feels too sharp and bright right now. I sag forward and cover my eyes with my hands while Beau and Ali stay in his room. I hear a thump and jump in surprise when the door swings open and slams against the wall. I sit up taller when Beau drags Ali out of his room by her arm and throws her out so hard that she nearly falls onto the floor. I’m glad she’s dressed now. She staggers and manages to keep her feet and whirls to face us while she clutches a tote bag to her chest.

“What is she doing here? Are you insane? After what she did to you, why would you have her here and not me?!”

Beau scrubs a hand over his face. “That’s the second time someone has accused me of being insane today and to be honest, it’s kind of getting on my nerves,” he says. “And Nevaeh is here because I want her here. End of story. Get the fuck out.”

Ali’s eyes cut to mine and she lifts her chin. “Ruining four years of his life wasn’t enough for you? You really want the rest of it? You’re poison!”

She’s looking at me like she hates me, but there’s confusion there too. I can hear it in her voice. She doesn’t understand why Beau wants me and not her. That’s why she’s angry. She doesn’t care about him or if I’m good for him or not. She’s angry because she thinks she’s better than me and I’m the one Beau wants.

I don’t answer her, she doesn’t deserve it.

“Out. Now.” Beau points a finger at the door and Ali tosses her hair over her shoulder. She stomps to the front door and opens it but pauses in the doorway and looks at Beau.

“You’re going to regret this, Beau. You really fucking are.”

“I don’t take kindly to threats, Ali. Ask Jordan.”

That makes her freeze and her eyes widen slightly when Beau approaches her. “But Jordan is-”

“Dead,” Beau finishes and grabs the door from her hand. “He’s fucking dead. Be smarter than Jordan, Ali. You were never fucking here.” Beau forces her out with one hand and slams the door shut with the other on her face.

“That wasn’t smart,” I tell him quietly.

“She broke into my apartment. Let her go to the cops, she’ll incriminate herself first and besides,” Beau turns to face me with a smile and presses a hand to his chest, “I have a witness to what just happened. I never said that.”

I lean forward on the counter again and watch him. “Did you really do something to Jordan?” I’d heard the news at the police station. They’d found Jordan when they’d canvassed the area for The Reaper. His body was in the old drainage ditch that ran the length of Greek Row. It surprised no one to find his body there after what they’d captured on the security cameras outside of Morris Hall.

“I didn’t do something to him. I killed him.”

But it hadn’t been The Reaper at all. It was Beau that had done it.

I flinch because it’s still fresh to think that Beau has killed and that he’s done it for me. “Why?” Dean made sense. That was in the moment and forced, but Jordan? Why had he done that? I thought they were friends.

Beau approaches me and stands behind me. He puts a hand on either side of me on the counter and leans close so that his lips brush when he answers me. “He threatened you. I heard all about him chasing you. Nobody makes you scared and gets away with it, Nevaeh.”

I lean back into his arms and close my eyes. “Nobody but you, you mean.”

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