Page 181 of Chaos Kills

“How can I get you to forgive me?” She heaves her head slowly up, as if it weighs a million pounds. “What can I do?”

I just want to go home.

That’s really all I want, but there’s no way she can make that happen. She said she already asked her father, the attorney general, and it was a no-go. I’m going to prison for a long-ass fucking time for attempted murder.

“How about when you get out…” She doesn’t finish her sentence, a flush of red blanketing her face in what appears to be embarrassment.

“What?” I mutter into the phone, watching her through the thick glass of the visitation room. She looks beautiful, her light brown hair curled around the soft features of her face. Her backpack is still wrapped around her shoulders because she just came from school.

“When you get out of prison…we can be together.”

My eyebrows knit. “Cairo.”

She’s been with him since they were twelve.

He loves her—did love her. He tells me he doesn’t anymore, but I think he’s just angry after what she asked me to do.

“He’s being…mean to me,” she claims. “He’s so angry and hurtful, Oz.”

“He’s mad.”

“Why?” Her voice steeps into almost a shrill tone, causing me to pull the black phone away from my ear a bit. “I was the one…” She lowers it. “Raped.”

My eyes close on their own at the thought of Kyle Bowman forcing himself on her. Holding her down while she screamed and thrashed. How we weren’t there to save her at the party.

“He’ll come around,” I emit which gets her to roll her pretty brown eyes.

“He won’t. He said we’re over.” I shake my head. “Yes, that’s what he said. And you saved me, Oz. He’ll never come around me again.”

“I didn’t kill him, though.”

Her lips quirk in a smile. “You did. He died at the hospital.”

“Why the fuck are you in our house, Vivian?” Torin drawls, too drunk to even make a threat to kick her out. Too in the clouds to notice I’m on the verge of having a full-blown panic attack.

She did more than those prison visits.

She received more from me than what she was worth.

She fucked me up so bad that her voice is torture.

“Sit down, Wildes, before you fall down,” I hear her say in that haughty tone as if she rules the world.

She ruled mine.

She did for a really long time, and I think she still does.

“Hey.” The female voice close to me is deeper, quieter, as my head and eyes get on board to search for it, I find Bay standing in front of me, blocking Vivian from my view. “What’s wrong?”

“Get the fuck out,” Cairo barks out, malice laced in every syllable of his words. “I told you I’d pick you up.”

“I didn’t want to—is that, Ozzy?”

I can’t breathe.

She’s getting closer. I can imagine it in my head. The perfectly styled hair, her nails painted red like they always are, and an expensive pair of heels. I hear them clicking against the cement, but my own feet feel like cement blocks, not able to move because she holds me still. She demands I stay for her to do whatever it is she wants with me.

“Stay the fuck away from him, Vivian.” The dip of violence in Reeve’s tone would impress me if I wasn’t malfunctioning.

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