Page 101 of Deliria

“I did try to warn you.” He murmurs. “But you wouldn’t listen. It’s why I stayed close, stayed around, why I put up with them.”

I wince, remembering back now, remembering that moment so long ago. He’d come across as an arrogant arse that day in the bar. In fairness, he’d not seemed all that different from Alex. Which was why I’d dismissed him. Why I’d shrugged him off. Oh, I’d done my homework, I knew there was a rivalry, a rift between the two of them and I’d assumed that’s all his intervention was. A chance to fuck his brother over.

Only, I wasn’t going to run like a scared little girl. No, I had my own reasons for allowing a man like Alexander Forster into my life.Havemy own reasons. Even now, those reasons haven’t changed. If anything, they’ve solidified, they’ve grown. Everything Alex has done to me since, every awful transgression will be paid for in blood. His blood.

He cups my cheek, clearly seeing the way my expression has morphed into one of fury, and he plants a kiss right on my lips.

It’s soft. Considerate.

And it rattles me right to my damn soul. I don’t want his kindness right now, that won’t help either him or me. I need that dangerous side. I need that darkness, the despair, that twistedness that echoes my soul.

I snarl, pushing him back. Yes, a part of me wants him badly, wants to lose myself in his kisses and his comfort, to just pretend for a few hours that none of this world outside this room exists.

But it does. It does exist.

And the last time I did that Alex was waiting, ready to shatter that illusion, and shatter me too.

“What is it?” Rafe asks, watching me warily.

“He’s gone.” I say. “But for how long? When he comes back, he’s not going to be forgiving, he’s not going to just smile and let this go. He’s going to hurt me again.”

“No, he won’t.”

“Yes, he will.” I snap back. He might have grown up with him, but I know his brother just as well as he does.

“He won’t because I won’t let him. I won’t let him touch you again. The door is locked. With the storm outside being as bad as it is, he and my father won’t be back for at least a day.”

“And then what?” I ask, trying to keep the hysteria from my voice. “What then? We tell them to shove it and just disappear off into the sunset together?”

I have to know where I stand. Where we are. What we are. God knows I never planned on whatever this thing between us is. Rafe was a means to an end just like the rest of them, but what if he was more? What if, in some miracle we do walk away from this, we do come out the victors, then what?

His lips pull into a half-smirk. “You imagining running away with me, Little Bird?”

“It’s not a joke.” I snarl, clenching my fists. How can he make light of this situation?

“Alright,” He says, sitting up a little. “Say we do leave. As soon as the tide is out, and it’s safe, I’ll take you away and we can just be free from all of this.”

“But we won’t be.” I reply, narrowing my eyes as reality hits me. “We won’t be free. If we leave, they’ll be hunting us. You know that. You know what Alex and your father are like. They’ve got this all set up. They won’t just walk away and forget about everything. Besides, I deserve my revenge after what they’ve done to me, done to my family…”

His hand drops to my stomach, and I almost choke up there, as a voice in my head says there’s technically another name to add to the list now, another person they’ve all but murdered. Does a foetus that wasn’t even formed enough to be classed as a child count? It does to me. It matters to me. Even if it was little more than a few cells collected together, it was something to me.

“Then what do you want to do?” He asks, and I see that flash of violence in his eyes that used to put the fear of God into me.

I draw in a deep breath. So much of me is screaming in my head to run. To escape. To put this damned plan aside and prioritise my safety, my life. But in my heart, I know that I won’t be safe, I won’t be free until this is ended. Until all the chips have fallen and one of us, me or Alex, is dead.

And besides, I’d never forgive myself if I took the passive route, if I just washed my hands of what they’ve done, if I turned the other cheek.

No, my wrath will be felt.

My anger will be sated.

Even if it does kill me to achieve it. Even if it takes everything I have left, I will have my vengeance on the Forster’s. I will make those bastards pay.

“It’s your decision.” Rafe replies. “It always was.”

I guess it’s a moot point right this moment. I can’t leave. Rafe can’t leave. We’re trapped on this island until the storm passes.

Just as his brother and father are trapped on the mainland.

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