Page 74 of Spark

“Like you’re going to find a way out of this. That this isn’t permanent. Like you will successfully kill me one day.” His voice was dark, his eyes hooded by his brow, giving him a sinister look that made me shudder.

I returned his gaze with the same challenging fierceness. “Everybody dies, Darren. I’m just curious as to how long you think you’re going to survive me in all this.”

Darren suddenly seemed to relax, a tight smile forming in the corner of his lips. “You know; I can’t help but notice that you can’t seem to keep your game straight. One minute, you’re pulling for my trust, claiming to make peace with your life, and the next, you’re back to threatening me with your miscalculated ideas of revenge. You’re not very consistent with your plans, Jaden. You might want to work on that.”

I felt my fists curl until my knuckles turned white. Son of a bitch.

“Well, you could just let me go, and then we wouldn’t have to worry about the threats anymore,” I said through gritted teeth.

Darren chuckled. “Your threats are cute and oddly creative. I think I’d miss them.”

My nails began to dig into my palms, biting into my flesh and reminding me not to give in to his push.

Don’t give him the satisfaction.

“Well, you’ll have to get used to missing them at some point,” I retorted.

Darren laughed again as he took a bite of his dinner. “Careful, princess. Your fuse is showing. Don’t make me light it.”

There it was—my bait. And I fucking took it like a prized swordfish.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

“I would,” he said simply.

Bingo.

“And there’s the admission I was waiting for. How badly do you want to light that fuse, Darren? How bored are you with my constant robotic submission?”

“How bored are you?” he countered slyly.

I scoffed at his rebuttal question but quickly recovered. “This isn’t about me. It’s always been about you and what you want.”

“And I always get what I want, don’t I?”

“Until the day it finally backfires on you.”

Darren shook his head at me. “The longer you continue to tell yourself that, the harder it will continue to be for you,” he warned. “Pretending to be submissive isn’t helping you either.”

I rested my elbows on the table and leaned toward him, practically combat ready. “I’m just a little curious, Darren. In what universe do you think I’ll feel anything but absolute pure hatred for you? That I won’t fantasize about your death every minute of every day?”

Bait and hook.

“The same one where I spare your family,” he nearly growled. “The same one where I grant the ones you love mercy from a horrific and bloody future. One that you’d have to watch.”

I felt myself blanch at the truth in his words. He was sparing them for me, and I was pushing him.

“I do not care whether you love or hate me, Jaden. The only thing I care about is loyalty. I can ensure that through either money or fear, but since your loyalty is the only thing about you I can’t purchase, I will acquire it through fear. Money and fear both work the same way. I can spend more, or I can terrorize more. I told you things could always get worse. I have barely shared with you a glimpse of how dark my world is. Keep testing me, and you will find out very quickly what happens when someone crosses me.”

I stiffened, unable to move at his words while the feeling of defeat washed over me. I felt my eyes wander from his to the blankness in front of me. Goddamn him.

“You should consider the fact that if you continue to fight me and continue to hate me as much as you do, it will only eat you up inside. But if you let go, if you accept your life, if you learn to blur that thin line between love and hate, you might come to find yourself better off in a situation you cannot change. Stockholm syndrome doesn’t have to be all bad, Jaden. It’s just another form of survival; one I think you can appreciate, given the circumstances.”

Unable to contain the rage that shocked me like a lightning storm, I shot out of my chair and chucked my untouched plate across the room where it crashed into the wall, shattering ceramic and food all over the wall and floor. I glared down at Darren, a feral snarl on my face as I prepared to beat the fucking shit out of him.

“I will never love you,” I roared.

It was supposed to be the other way around. He was supposed to fall in love with me. It would be easier to manipulate him that way, get him to lower his guard and sympathize with me like I needed him to. If he thought I was going to succumb to some psychological bullshit to combat my traumatic life, then he was a bigger fool than I thought. I was beyond insulted that he thought me so weak minded.

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