Page 65 of Dare (Fighting Fate)

On the outside, I tried to keep my expression as calm as possible, but on the inside, my heart was ready to burst out of my chest. I thought I’d seen someone look at me with hate before, but I had been so very wrong. Hate—genuine hate—was as scary as hell.

Drawing in a deep breath, I tried to think how I could get myself out of this safely. I couldn’t believe I’d accidentally hung up on Eli. I almost swore when the call had ended. If I could manage to unlock my cell without Zac noticing, I might be able to call him back. Or maybe call 9-1-1.

Zac took a few steps to the side, his gaze never leaving me, even for a second. Slowly he shook his head. “You ruined everything,” he snarled. “Everything I’d been working toward for the last four years.”

My brow involuntarily creased, and Zac’s snarl rose into a sickening smile.

“Does that surprise you?” he asked sourly. “To know that Wyatt and I have been lovers for that long?” He tilted his head side to side a little. “Of course it would. You girls are so full of self-importance. Yo

u think you’re all so fucking irresistible that you blind yourself to the possibility that a guy might find another guy more attractive than you.”

With slow steps, he kept moving around me, circling, preying on me like a vulnerable animal.

“All you had to do was be happy with what he gave you,” he spat out. “He gave you more fucking time than he did me. But no. It just wasn’t good enough for you, was it? You girls always have to be so fucking needy and demanding, don’t you? It’s just never enough.” He shook his head. “I told Wyatt to dump you—that you weren’t worth the effort—but there was something about you that sucked him in. He chose you over me!”

His jaw clenched hard, his eyes growing harder, almost resembling steel they were so cold.

“It was me he loved! Not you,” he bit out. “You were just a part of a game he was playing. You were like the pretty fucking curtains, there to distract from who his really is. But it was me. I loved him! I had our future planned out for the rest of our lives. We were supposed to start our own firm and everything was going to be perfect.” Meeting my gaze, he sneered at me. “You tricked him. You confused him. Turned him against me. You got in his head and made him believe that you were his future and that he needed to make sure you were happy. You made him distance himself from me.”

“I didn’t—”

“You did!” he roared. “Don’t fucking tell me what you did or didn’t do! I was fucking there! I was the only one who was there for him. I was the one he complained to every time he had to fuck you. I was the one who listened to him when he was worried about how his family would react if they found out. I was the one who tried to work out a way we could be together. I was the one who tried begging him to come out of the closet with me, but he refused. Because of you! You gave him false hope. You made him think he could make it work! You filled his head with lies! It’s your fault I’m in this mess now!”

Clutching my cell in my hand, I desperately tried to work the screen without looking, but I had no way of knowing what I was doing. If I could just distract him a little, I might be able to pull it off. “Then why drug me?”

His expression turned bland, as though I was boring him in some way. His quick switching of emotions from hot to cold scared me even more than the hatred I felt emanating from him. “I needed time. Wyatt wasn’t listening to me, and I needed to make him see how ridiculous he was being. He refused to come to me, so I decided to find a way to come to him.”

Anger swelled inside me. “So you thought drugging me was the best way to do it?”

He shrugged. “I came across one of my old college bed buddies after one of our arguments over you,” he said, taking a few steps to the right. “He had this little party drug he said wiped him out, and that got me thinking. If I could just slip something like that into your drink, Wyatt would still technically be spending the night with you, but I’d get to be with him too.”

As his words started sinking in, it all began to make sense. I shook my head, barely containing my anger. “You could have killed me,” I said, teeth clenched.

Dropping his gaze to the dirt, he gave another shrug. He seriously didn’t care. “You broke up with him the next day, so it was a win for me. I’d never been happier. I thought, if only I could make him see that it didn’t matter—that he didn’t need you—we could still do what we were doing, and I’d eventually be able to show him that we didn’t need to hide who we were.” His gaze hardened. “But then he only distanced himself from me more. He went back to Portland for the break and turned off his cell.”

Running his hand over his head, he glared out at the trees. It was my chance to make the call, but I only got as far as my contact list before he was glaring at me again. I pushed a button anyway.

Zac took a few steps toward me. “He was different after that. When he came back, he avoided me like the plague, and when I finally caught up to him in the parking lot, he told me it was over.” Coming closer still, he lowered his head, his gaze penetrating mine like a knife. “You ruined everything. You took away everything I had to live for. You left me with no choice but to out him.”

Movement over his shoulder caught my eye a split second before Wyatt stepped from the trees. “Don’t blame Jess for the choices you made, Zac. You’re the one who fucked up. You had no right to make that kind of decision about someone else’s life,” he said, striding forward.

Surprised, Zac spun. “I had no choice! It was the only way I could make you see that we could be together.”

Wyatt skirted around Zac until he was standing closer to me. “Oh, you had a choice, Zac. We all do. Every day. And I know why you did it, but it was wrong. Deciding who to disclose my sexuality to and how, is something I should’ve been able to decide on, but you took that away from me.”

Zac’s shoulders tightened even further. “I did what you didn’t have the guts to do! Because of her!”

“Jess has nothing to do with it, Zac,” Wyatt said. “I was using her to live a lie. She was a victim of circumstance. I broke up with you because I don’t love you, and, after you drugged Jess and decided to take all my choices away from me, I no longer respect you. How could I possibly be with anyone who treats someone I cared about with such contempt?” he said, shaking his head with sadness.

As we each stood staring out at one another, tension heated between the two of them, and I thought how sad love could be, and just how crazy it could make us. It was like a thread two people held onto, each trusting the other to treat it right and keep it from decaying. But if you both didn’t have the same idea of what that thread meant, it could start fraying at any given moment, becoming so fragile that it would only take a word to snap.

Wyatt raised his chin at Zac. “I don’t think I can ever forgive you for what you did, Zac. What you did to Jess is unforgivable. But I can tell you one good thing has come from it, which I am thankful for. I’ve finally found someone who likes me for me.” Slowly, he shook his head. “He’s good, honest, and loving, and most of all, he’s accepting. I hope it was worth what you threw away.”

No sooner had he said those words, a blur streaked in from the left, taking Zac down to the ground in a rolling heap. I had barely enough time to comprehend that it was Noah pinning him facedown, before Eli had me in his arms, sweeping me to safety behind the trees.

We’d hardly stopped moving when he grabbed my face in his hands, his gaze raking over every inch of it. “Are you all right? I was freaking the fuck out.”

I nodded through my limited movement. “I’m okay. Wyatt kind of took the pressure off me a little,” I said, giving Wyatt a thankful smile as he slowly moved toward us.

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