Page 143 of Creep

“Yeah?”

“How did you find me here?”

His eyes took in my face as if he was gauging to see if I could handle the answer. I probably couldn’t, but the not knowing somehow felt just as bad.

“Leo texted it to me.”

“What? Why?”

“Technically, he didn’t text it to me, but to the men he had put on you to keep an eye on you.”

“Leo has men stalking me?”

“He did. I took care of them, not that Leo knows. I obtained their cell phone, giving him little updates on you to keep up the pretense that they were still alive and still doing their job. I needed to know why he had men on you. He texted one of them about your location and told them to keep an eye on you here.”

I shook my head. “You’re lying.”

It was the only thing I could say, even if a part of me knew he wasn’t. I had already suspected Leo had put me here for those men to come by, but?—

He had men stalking me?

“Baby, I’m not.”

He stood up and walked out of the room for a bit. He was only gone for a short while, but there was still a part of me that feared he wasn’t coming back.

What was wrong with me?

I tried not to show the relief on my face when I saw him. He was holding a phone I didn’t recognize.

He untied my bound hands and feet, then he unlocked the phone and handed it over to me with the text message on display.

The one above the newest text was the location of the cabin, the message saying this was where I was, but it was the newest one that caught my attention.

And don’t interfere with me teaching my little Lia a lesson about not lying to me.

Leo sent those men to teach me a lesson because I lied to him about not knowing who my stalker was.

My lips trembled.

Mael was watching me carefully. I could accuse him of lying again, but I knew he wasn’t. With everything out in the open, he wasn’t lying.

I didn’t know what to think or feel anymore, and I just hated,hatedthe way he was looking at me now, as if he thought I was on the verge of breaking and he didn’t know how to help me.

The phone in my hand shook. It took me a moment to realize it was me. I was shaking.

I could feel everything boiling to the surface, and I just wanted to make it stop.

Please make it stop.

With a scream, I threw the phone across the room. I got no satisfaction from the loud clang it made when it hit the wall.

It wasn’t enough. Nothing was enough.

I lashed out. I hit him on his chest, his face, his arms, anywhere I could get my hands on. I didn’t think about holding back. I didn’t care. I wanted to hurt him as much as I was hurting, but it didn’t seem to matter. It didn’t seem to be doing anything to him.

He sat there and took it, not reacting to anything I did, which only made me even more angry.

This wasn’t like me. I didn’t lash out at people, wanting to hurt them, but Mael just had that way of bringing it out of me.

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