Page 50 of Addicted

He was holding a pair of pumps in his hands, “I know our agreement is done.” He turned to face me. “You can obviously stay here for as long as you need—”

I blinked at him, adjusting the hanger in the dress.

“Wait, I’m confused.”

“We made the agreement for a reason.” Hugh looked at the suitcase before grabbing the bag and tipping it over, moving to sort its contents.

“We did,” I replied.

“I want to move at your pace. I’m ready to talk whenever you are.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Good,” he replied, matching up pairs of shoes and setting aside wrinkled slacks.

“No, I mean, okay. I’m ready now.” I clarified.

He looked up from his neat piles and gave me an incredulous look.

“I didn’t mean now. And I should probably—”

“We work together.” I cut him off. I needed to say the words I’d been rehearsing in my head for the last hour. “I wanted to avoid making a mess of what we had. And yeah, it’s gotten messy, but it’s a good mess.”

I reached out to grab his hand.He cleared his throat while his hand tightened on mine.

“Stop.” Hugh’s tone was sad, almost vulnerable.

I opened and closed my mouth. Hugh leaned closer to me and took a steeling breath.

“Before you keep going, I need to tell you the truth. About Switch.”

CHAPTER 30

HUGH

Grabbing her hand, I pulled Denise to sit down on the bed. She was confused. As much as it hurt me, I let go of her hand and scooted back to give her some space. I’d never done this before, the whole naked honesty thing, but I knew she deserved to know before she made any decision about her path forward.

“You asked me about my tattoo, and I said that it was Switch.”

Denise nodded, confused and unsure of where I was going with this.

“I was angry when my mom passed. I blamed everyone for her being gone. Grams tried to take me to church, she took me to psychologists, but none of that helped. There was this darkness in me that no light could touch. Only darkness could and I let it in."

She was silent.

I didn’t expect her to understand. Darkness summoned darkness. There was never any real temptation for me before that. The second that angry pit filled my soul, it was a siren call to those around me drowning in their own fury.

“I fell in with some bad people.”

Wasn’t that always the story? One misstep, one glance and suddenly I was in a crew, and they were my new family. They knew and accepted my rage, while also using it to their advantage.

“I hurt people. For them, for us, and because it felt good.”

I was looking past Denise, now. I couldn’t bear to see her reaction. I would lose my nerve. And I needed to get through this. To say the words and show her the real me. The one that sat behind a door that was cracked and oozing drips of inky black that blended with the vibrant green that she’d slipped in without me realizing it.

“Switch—Switchblade—was sneaky and stayed in the shadows. No one expected a kid to come for them. I carved people, maimed people. Most of them were guilty, but a few weren’t.”

That was the part that hurt the most to remember. Hurting bad people, that was easier for me to accept, to comprehend, because they were a part of that life. But the people that just got caught up, the fear in their eyes, was something that still haunted me.

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