Page 2 of Unmask
Didn’t do a goddamn thing but watch me as if I was delicate and breakable when we both knew I wasn’t.
Maddox’s voice cut through the tension. “We had our reasons.”
I whirled on him, on Nash, on Mason, on all of them. “Don’t.” My voice shook. “I don’t want to hear your excuses. They mean nothing to me.” I’d heard what happened to their mother, but the last thing I wanted to feel was sympathy toward them. Not yet. I needed more time to process my problems before I thought about anyone else’s, particularly theirs.
Rusty shifted beside me, his presence steady. “You heard her,” he directed at the Raven Crew.
Kreed’s eyes zeroed on him, dark and unreadable. “Fuck you,” he hissed at him, and the entire warehouse tensed. “If you think I’m going to let her go… This isn’t over. Far from it.” His threat lingered in the air, an invisible weapon pointed at Rusty’s head.
I had to get Kreed out of here before shit hit the fan. I wanted them gone, not dead or hurt. For reasons beyond my understanding, I cared what happened to him; even after he ripped out my heart and betrayed me, I still fucking cared, and that was on me. I’d have to learn how to deal with my feelings, but I couldn’t do that with him here. I needed space to think without Kreed and the Crew clogging my thoughts.
“Walk away while I’m still inclined to let you keep the use of your legs,” Rusty replied, his coal-dark eyes never leaving Kreed’s as the two continued to stand off. I’d never seen Rusty like this. He’d always been like a giant teddy bear to me.
Kreed exhaled through his nose, jaw clenched so tight I swore his teeth ground. “This isn’t over. It’s personal for me, and I’m not my fucking father. Perhaps I’m worse.”
Too many thoughts ran wild in my head. My parents. Kreed’s mother. The Vipers. The Ravens. My life would never be the same. “It’s never simple with us,” I replied sadly. “It never has been.”
Would he let me go?
If I chose to stay with Rusty, would Kreed walk out alive? Would he fight? Would he get hurt? Would any of them? Would Maddox, Mason, and Nash step in and force Kreed to leave?
Why do I fucking care?
After everything they’d done to me, why did I give a shit what happened to them?
Kreed stood in front of me, the two scars under his right eye glowing by the dim overhead lights. His veins pulsed under his skin with barely restrained fury. “You’re really doing it. You’re really going to stay withhim,” he spat venomously.
I swallowed hard. “And the alternative is to go home with the people who kidnapped me. In what world does that make sense?”
He raked a hand through his already disheveled hair. “Things might have started out like that, but it’s different now.”
“Maybe to you.” Doubt lingered in my voice, but I steeled myself against it.
And yet…I hesitated.
Not because I trusted Kreed, or because I believed things would ever be okay between us. But because of something in his eyes, a glint deeper than hurt that made my stomach twist.
“You don’t understand. Shit is so much more complicated,” Kreed said, stepping closer. “This isn’t black and white. I’m trying to protect you. Believe it or not, it’s all I’ve done. If you leave with him, we’re done. I won’t be here to save you, little raven.”
A knife. That’s what his ultimatum was. A blade to my ribs, a final twist that had been bleeding out for a long, long time, because he meant those words.
I forced myself to meet his stare. “Then don’t. The only person I need to be saved from is you.”
Lies.
We both knew it. No matter how much I might want to deny it, there was this pull between us, twisted and toxic and inescapable. It wouldn’t die just because I wanted it to, but I had to do this.
Couldn’t he see that he left me no choice?
What his father had done to me…to my parents…it was unforgivable.
Kreed’s jaw ticked. “Fine.” He took another step, the heat of him suffocating. “But before you go, tell me the truth.”
I swallowed. “About what?”
His voice dropped lower. “About why you’re really running.”
My throat cinched. “I’m not running.”
