Page 83 of Moth
Chapter Twenty
Idon’t know how long I stare after him before I finally manage to leave. In a daze, I wander down the next few blocks, and it seems as though I reach my apartment in record time—but the second I touch the doorknob, I falter. A smell tinges the air near my door, one that sets every nerve in my body alight.Run. I pivot on my heel, my sole focus on moving.
The door flies open before I can even go a step. A hand lashes out, grabbing my arm and dragging me inside.
“Just hear me out,” Branden demands. He lets me go but blocks the door with his bulk. One-handed, he closes it, twisting the lock. “Don’t I deserve that fucking much? Or are you going to stick your nose up at me too? Turn your back on me like everyone fucking else?”
“Branden…you’re shouting,” I croak. The light is on, casting his face in half-shadow. Part brother, part stranger who glowers at me with piercing eyes. “My neighbors will hear you.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” He winces, but his jaw doesn’t lose the defensive tilt. He’s not really here to forge a truce. “Get your stuff. Now. You’re coming with me.”
“Branden, it’s late—”
“And you seem to be verybusyat night these days, Hannah.” His eyes rake over me with chilling intensity. “You make it seem so fucking hard just to take a picture of yourself lately. Could it be because you’re naked, fucking some asshole—”
“Branden!” I grasp at the nearest wall for balance as the room starts to spin around me.
“An asshole whom you’ve aided and abetted after acrime,Hannah. You sheltered him here. You don’t think I know where you’ve been? His club? His fucking shop?”
Those words… They’re too specific. Too cold.
He knows.
“Deny it,” he goads, his upper lip drawn tight, revealing his teeth. “Go on, Hannah. Like the little lying whore you are—”
“How?” I ask, my voice weak. “Are you following me? Stalking me?”
He scoffs. “I don’t have to.” He cuts his gaze to my bag, and a grim realization freezes me to my core. The phone. Has he been tracking my cell phone all this time? “How can I trust you when you lie?” he demands. “When you fuck around with a criminal? You need me, Hannah.”
“I saw Karen Winacott,” I blurt without realizing why. Maybe it’s like Rafe said? Some sick, twisted part of me can’t stop playing with fire. “I spoke to her.”
“W-What?” Shock makes his jaw go slack, and his hands shake, tearing through his hair. “And what did you tell her?” He cocks his head suspiciously, stepping forward. “What the fuck did you tell her?”
I nearly trip over my own feet in my haste to back away. At the same time, my voice comes out stronger than I’ve ever heard it. “What if I told her the truth? That youmademe be friends with Lexi. That you had me lure her into the woods. And then you—”
He moves so quickly, though my brain processes every frame in slow motion. His snarl. His hand forming a fist. Him raising it…
Pain.I see white. Black. When my vision returns, I’m on my knees, blinking until the blurred image of my apartment comes back into focus. Droplets of red drip from nowhere to speckle my floor, reminding me of Rafe’s. But this time…
It’s coming from me. My head. I feel dizzy when I attempt to stand. I can’t without pitching forward, and my hands shake as I brace them against the floor in a desperate bid to stay upright.
“Oh, shit. Han… I’m sorry.” Strong arms go around me, but they don’t smell like smoke. They reek of cologne instead—a spicy wrongness that makes me twitch. Recoil.Run.“I’m so sorry,” Bran croaks against the nape of my neck, stroking through the hair gathered there. “Why did you make me do that, huh? Dammit. You’re bleeding, honey.”
His hands ghost over my shoulders, finding my cheek. It’s throbbing, and more blood drips onto the floor as he tilts it so that I face him.
“I’m sorry,” he says, still stroking my hair back. “I never want to hurt you, you know that.”
“Then, why do you?” My lip feels heavy, my muscles aching with every breath. Every blink. It should be easier than ever to stay silent. Endure. Suffer.
But for the first time in my life, I look at him, and I can’t.
Use those pretty words,a mocking voice echoes inside my skull.Explain.
“Why do you do this to me?”
He frowns. “Han…”
“Why do you control everything I do. Why track my phone? Why—”
