Page 54 of Cruel Revenge

He hisses, pulling out the gun and pressing the cool metal to my temple, even as the pressure around my neck eases. “The stabbing, Skyla. Now.”

“He cornered me at a café and told me to leave you and go back with him.”

Joshua smirks and keeps the gun to my head. He leans in, his face hovering inches from mine as he braces himself with his forearm against the wall. “You like me that much?”

“No. I hate him that much. Stabbing Logan had nothing to do with you.” I put my hands on his chest, trying to push him back a step, but he doesn’t budge.

The gun presses against my head, making my heart race.

He drops it after another long moment.

He is going to kill me one day.

Maybe I’ll kill him first.

But I know I won’t because the thought makes my chest tighten.

Still, I take out the knife before he knows what’s happening, putting the flat of the blade against his neck’s pulsing vein. “Hold a gun to my fucking head again, Joshua, and see what happens. You might be used to women you can push around, but not anymore.”

He swallows hard, lust at war with irritation in the look he gives me.

The air around us seems to spark with electricity and for a moment, neither of us moves.

Then his hand surges to mine, grabbing my wrist and jerking it away from his neck and high above my head.

Joshua slams my wrist into the wall hard, but I keep my grip on the knife. “You want to try that shit again?”

“I will if you don’t tell me what you’re hiding from me.”

He digs two fingers into my pressure point, pain surging through me until I have no choice but to drop the knife.

It clatters to the floor, and he kicks it away.

“You want to talk about secrets, we can talk about secrets.”

I clamp my mouth shut, glaring at him.

As much as I want to know what the hell Logan was talking about, I have too much to lose if he forces me to talk. Including him.

The staring competition lasts for a beat longer before he drops my hand and takes a step back.

“I’ll handle Logan.”

“And what about the things he says you’re hiding from me?”

“What about them?” Joshua’s tone is devoid of emotion as he sees straight through me. “This isn’t a relationship, but you’re acting like it is. You have no right to any part of my life, and you’d do well to remember that.”

The pain that hits my chest takes me by surprise, and my eyes prickle, but I don’t let him know how much what he said affects me.

Without another word, he storms out of the house, the door slamming behind him, shaking the wall and leaving me with a sick feeling in my stomach.

Why did his words cut so deep into me?

I don’t know what the hell he’s hiding from me.

But then again, he has no idea what I’m hiding from him.

If he did, he would never look at me again. And I’m starting to think I would have a hard time surviving that.

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