Page 43 of His Dark Vices

"I wanted to pick up my things real quick. That's okay, right?" I gesture to the stairs and make motion to head over, smiling lightly at him.

"Yeah, that's fine, go ahead." Sam waves me along, looking a little confused.

"Thanks! Sorry it's such short notice, I just wanted to quickly get them and go."

I walk briskly through the room and over to the stairs, feeling him following slowly behind me. But he doesn't come up with me.

"No problem," he calls after me, sounding preoccupied. "Sorry for not reaching out to you, I've been a bit busy."

I rush into his room, happy he didn't come with me. It's like we're strangers, like he forgot all about me after sending me home. I feel like I've been punched and like a fresh wave of tears will come at any moment. I can't cry now, though. I take a steadying breath and look for my tablet and anything else I left lying around.

He doesn't seem angry or even annoyed about my date. It feels more like I caughthimwaiting for a date. Whatever he's doing, he's not reacting the way he should if he suddenly started losing control over our situation, whatever it is.

I stuff my tablet into my purse, feeling defeated. I'll only be leaving here with another wound.

I trudge back down the stairs, thinking only about getting out of here. If he's waiting on a girl, I don't want to see her face. I look around the room once I get down there. He's standing near the couches, his back to me as he looks down at something.

"Got my stuff. I'll just get going now," I say, trying to keep the emotion out of my voice.

But then he turns around. And there's nothing but barely contained anger in his face. I feel my face fall as his eyes meet mine. And I know what he's looking at on his phone, beyond the shadow of a doubt.

That's when I really feel stupid.

I was so caught up in trying to catch him in a lie that I didn't think about what would happen when I successfully provoked him, the man who has been spying on me and controlling me from our very first meeting, the man I suspect values control over our relationship above all.

And then, as he takes a step toward me, I feel fear.

CHAPTER 16

Bree

My eyes dart to the elevator behind him, betraying my thoughts. I can't help it. I need to know how fucked I am in this situation. I tighten my hand around my purse, feeling myself shrink under his gaze.

I don't know what Sam is capable of. I never knew.

"So why are you picking up your things again?" he asks me after a few moments of staring me down. "Didn't you say it's convenient to have that here when you come stay with me?"

The only reason I'd be taking my stuff back is because I'm pulling away from the relationship, and he thinks I'm pulling away because of my date tomorrow.

But how do I get him to admit that he knows about my date? That's what I'm here for. That's what this confrontation is about.

I try to swallow down my fear of him and grope around internally for the motivation that brought me here in the first place—I'm trapping him.

But it's only a trap if I can get out of here alive.

"If I spend more than a couple of days with my parents without my tablet, I go crazy," I say with a laugh, bringing attention back to his slipup. Did he even realize he shouldn't have known about that? "Oh!" I point to the left and dart toward the couches, rounding the far end of it so that he's no longer between me and the exit. "Wait, that's not my charger."

"Plans for the weekend?" Sam continues casually, studying my every move as he turns around.

"Why, am I back in your good graces again?" I snap, turning around to face him but still inching backward toward the elevator.

"How about we talk things over tomorrow?" he offers innocently.

A little too innocently.

"Is now a bad time?" I fire back, aware that he's waiting for someone else. That makes him go pale, his anger forgotten. "I guess it is."

I watch him struggle to come up with something to say, but I already have the proof I need. He's upset about my date, no doubt about it. He's spying on my Companion data. There's no other reason he'd be mad like this unless he was a control freak on the verge of losing control. And I'm about to tell him I don't have a date, about to demand that he show me his phone.

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