Page 121 of Pretty Little Threats

thirty-six

DARE

The door closesbehind Rose and my chest rips open. The air is kicked out of my lungs, and I bowl over, grinding my teeth and resting one hand on my thighs. Gregory says something and I mumble a response. I drop into a low squat in the middle of the foyer, dragging my fingers through my hair, as if I can rip the past few months of memories out of my mind.

Somehow, in a matter of weeks, Rose eclipsed . . . everything.

Rose held my heart in her hand, and whether she knew it or not, every seed of doubt her father sewed, every time she looked at me like I was the enemy, even those last minutes where she was certain I betrayed her, stabbed through that dark organ I need to live.

Gregory’s voice cuts through the line, clear and crisp, as he maps out his plan to get my sisters to safety.

I swore to protect them. It’s the whole reason they’re in hiding. My one weakness nearly cost their lives. Notknowing if I wish Rose would come back or that she’d never come in to begin with, I stare at the door, the phone clenched in my grip so tightly, the glass screen starts to fracture.

My chest screams for air, lungs burning, but that pain is preferable to the agony that’s coursing through my veins.

“Dare?”

She’s gone.

And I know she has to be. My sisters almost died because she was so jealous over those text messages. I can understand why Rose would immediately assume I was cheating. Part of me is happy she was jealous. She was so mad at the idea of me with someone else.

She wanted me all for herself.

“Dare?”

She threatened to kill the woman she’d made up in her head. That sort of possessiveness comes with strong emotions. The love she was too afraid to admit to. Still, her dad manipulated her, and she fell into the dance he choreographed, executing each move just as he intended. She really believed I hurt Irene, of all people.

That may be the part that hurts the most.

That some part of her still thinks of me as that heartless monster. I’d never kill an innocent person. But all Joseph had to do was show her some security footage and make up a story?

She’s so tied up in his control, I never had a chance. My head pulses from how hard I’m clenching my teeth. Breathing, I force the muscles to relax.

And as much as I love her, I can’t let her cloud my judgment. Things can never go back to the way they were. Not with her dad hunting my sisters. Not with her questioning me at every turn.

I never thought I’d have to protect my family from the woman I love.

“Dare?” Gregory shouts.

I pull the phone away from my ear, shaken out of my thoughts. “What?”

“Did you hear anything I said?”

Sighing, I drop my head into my hand and rub my temple. “Sorry. Let’s go over the plan again.”

Maybe it’s better to forget about love. All it’s ever done is cause me pain.

Gregory talks. I bury the sorrow of her loss beneath the anger and rage. Those are feelings I can embrace. Those I can handle.

And if I live my life fueled by spite and hate, just to avoid the agony of losing her?

So be it.

thirty-seven

ROSE

After a sleepless nightin my ghost of a home, I sip my coffee, but the taste is ash on my tongue. There’s no comfort in this place I used to call my own. This house is a reminder of what I had and what was ripped away by my own hands. I sigh and pinch my eyes closed.

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