Page 96 of Breaking Ophelia
I slide my hands up her arms, over her collarbones, thumb the pulse at her throat. It’s fast, panicked, alive.
She lets out a shaky breath. “Promise me you’ll never let them take me.”
I bury my face in her hair. “I’ll die first.”
She turns her head, eyes searching mine. “You mean it.”
“I do.”
She nods, slow, and for a second, the air is just us, thick with threat and want.
My phone vibrates, slicing through the quiet. It’s a number I know by heart.
She feels me tense. “Who?”
“Rhett,” I say. “Stay here.”
She doesn’t move as I answer and step onto the back patio, the warm wind hitting my cheeks.
The voice on the other end is pure venom.
“You’re a fucking idiot, Montgomery,” Rhett says. No greeting. No wasted syllable. “You know what you did?”
“Yeah,” I say. “I saved a life.”
He laughs, high and brittle. “You torched your own legacy. The Kings want your head. Board is melting down. My father’s already threatened to unperson you.”
“Not the worst threat I’ve had lately.”
“You’re a joke, man. You think you’re a hero? You think that girl’s worth dying for?”
I let the silence stretch. “Yeah. I do.”
There’s a long pause. I can hear the click of his lighter, the slow drag of a cigarette.
“You always were a psycho,” he says, quieter.
“Takes one to know one.”
He sighs, heavy, like he’s breathing out the whole world.
“You got a plan?” Rhett asks.
“Hide. Wait. See who comes.”
He grunts. “If it’s my father, run.”
I smirk, knowing the brother of the Vicious Kings Don was one to be feared. “Noted.”
Another pause, then: “They have my runner chosen. My Hunt begins in two months. You want me to burn it all down, or play the game?”
He’s giving me the choice. The one thing none of us ever had.
“Claim your girl,” I say. “Live. Even though I despise those animals, they gave me O, and I can’t hate them for that.”
“You sure?”
I look through the glass at Ophelia, her forehead pressed to the window, fists balled at her sides. The world is so fucking ugly, but she’s the only thing in it worth saving.
