Page 85 of The Devil's Tattoo

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Chapter20

Jason stoodat the end of the alley, hands in his pockets, a smile on his face that did nothing but chill me tothebone.

He hadn’t changed much since the last time I’d seen him. Same messy brown hair, same broad shoulders, same playful demeanor. Except now, I knew it was a mask hiding something else. Something that had always been there.Somethingdark.

“I saw your gig tonight,” he said, taking a steptowardme.

Instinctively, I took one back, but it was only into the darkness of the blindalley.

“How’veyoubeen?”

“How’ve I been?” I spat in disbelief. He was askingthisnow?

“Yeah.”

“Awful,” Ihissed.

“Yeah, so am I.” He seemed to take my barb the wrong way. I meant I was awful because of him. I was broken because of what he didtome.

“Zoe, I…” He frowned, stepping closer. “I broke things off with Deb. We’re gettingdivorced.”

“Good for her.” So her name was Deb. He left me for someonenamedDeb.

“I realizedsomething.”

“That you’re adouche?”

Anger flashed in his eyes, but it was so fleeting that I wondered if I had imagined it. “No. I realized I should never haveleftyou.”

Well, this was news. He should’ve thought about that for the six months he was off sleeping with this Deb chick behindmyback.

“I don’t wanttoknow.”

“Zoe, I want you back. We canfixthis.”

What the hell? Was he deluded? Was he high on something? “Did you break her arm, too?” I asked, my voice hardly audible eventome.

“What did you just say?” His eyes were suddenly full ofastonishment.

“I said did you break herarm,too?”

“Zoe, I didn’t breakyourarm.”

Rage suddenly flared up inside me, and I couldn’t hold it back. “You cheated on me for six months, and then when you finally had the guts to come clean, you hit me and then pushed me down the stairs.You left me there!You’re nothing but a heartless fuckingprick.”

“Zoe, I apologized for hitting you. I didn’t mean it.Ididn’t.”

I had no patience for his attempted lies. I was so angry that tears began to fall. “I lay there alone in the dark with a bone sticking out of my arm in fucking agony! You lied to everyone and destroyed my life, Jason. I feel nothing buthateforyou.”

“Zo, you need to calm down.” I barely registered that he was glancing around warily as if someone would come along and bust his arm or, God forbid, find him out for the liarhewas.

“You want me back?” I scoffed. “The only reason you don’t have a criminal record is because there were no witnesses. You knew it the moment you decided to run, and here you are, the moment I get it back together, trying to worm your way in.I’m not a victimanymore.”

“Shut up,” he hissed, stepping toward me, anger flaring up in hisexpression.

“Stay away from me, Jason. If I ever see you again, you’llregretit.”

That was the wrong thing to say. His expression contorted as he lost control of his rage, and before I could get out of the way, his fist came through the airtowardme.