Page 3 of Ravage
But the others do.
The unspoken words hang in the air between us.
“But you’d kill me for them?”
This time, his smirk looks closer to a smile, and I catch the dimple in his left cheek. “No.”
Exasperated, I huff. He never was the verbose one. “So, what am I doing here then, Jack—Jackson.” I correct myself immediately when his nickname slips out by mistake.
He flips a business card out from his pocket and holds it up. “I have a gift.”
It’s a non-answer if I’ve ever heard one. Jackson never lied. He’s not a coward with his words or at saying exactly what’s on his mind; whenever he shares, that is. But it’s been five, no, actually six years, since we were last together.
People change.
I have.
“Not interested. If that’s all, then I’m leaving.” I click the safety back on my gun and lower it.
Jackson chuckles softly and flicks the card at me. When it should fall and spin through the air, it remains flat and steady as it cruises its way over to me. He used to send me his origami animals this way back on the island, using his gift to create a controlled current of air around them and guiding them where he wanted.
It pauses in front of me, and I stare at it. “You’ve gotten better,” I comment, though we both know I’m referring to how he stopped a bullet traveling at a high velocity in a short distance rather than this business card.
“Of course. I’m not the same weak kid you remember.” There’s still a smile on his face, but darkness consumes his gaze when he delivers the words. A darkness that now looms like a shadow. If I could afford to care about him or the others anymore, I might wonder what happened to him in the time we’ve been apart.
But I can’t.
“I’ve changed,” he finishes.
His words only remind me of all the things GE did to me and I did for them in our year apart on the island. Nausea slides up my throat like reflux, and I swallow the burning memories back down.
“So have I,” I deadpan. Ignoring the card still floating before me, I walk out of the room. Thankfully he doesn’t stop me, and I make it out the front door.
I’m not accepting a gift or anything else from him. He may think he’s changed, but he doesn’t know what I’ve been through. Even when I was still within arm’s reach of them, I’d been changed. Broken and remolded into the foundation of who I am today.
I’m no longer a naïve little girl thinking she’s some kind of hero.
I’ve accepted that I’m a villain.
Chapter two
Raegan
Six Years Ago on the Island…
Tick. Tick. Tick.
I fidget under the covers while keeping count with my bedside clock.
9:57. 9:58. 9:59.
A smile spreads across my lips.
Ten o’clock.
I sit up slowly, careful not to disturb my roommates who are already asleep. Tara is still awake in the corner of the room with her flashlight shining on her book. She doesn’t acknowledge me when I slip out of bed. Only she knows where I’m going and so long as I keep stealing books from the library for her, she’ll keep my secret safe.
The hallway is dark and eerily quiet. There are no windows or lights on in this corridor at night. I’m not sure if they think that’s somehow a strong enough deterrent to keep us all in our beds at night, but I’ve never been afraid of the dark.
