Page 46 of Ravage
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demand, my voice rising and my foot pressing more heavily on the gas.
“This! I don’t know what I was thinking. It was stupid—”
I grind my teeth. Hanging out with me was stupid? She’s regretting this already while I was dumb enough to fall for it, for her, again.
The car skids against the curb and slams to a halt. “Here you go. Either stay and stop talking stupid shit, or get out if that’s what you really want.”
Her mouth pops open as she stares at me. “Here?”
“I’m not your chauffeur. Either you’re riding with me, or you’re out of my car. Pick one,” I growl. I’m done playing games. Part of me hopes she proves me wrong. That she’ll tell me that it was all a bad joke and she’s staying. The other part knows that there’s no way she’ll stay. She’s already backed out of what we had. I was a mistake.
Raegan’s eyes narrow at me and my ultimatum, and I hate that the neon lights are illuminating her just right to give her a hauntingly blue glow. She looks like a dark goddess hellbent on ruining me, and my chest constricts until I can’t breathe.
I know then that I’m never going to love anyone else. I’m cursed to love someone who betrayed me and who I’m supposed to hate. I’m already addicted to the way she makes me feel, even when she does shit like this, and I know I’ll be hunting her down for more when I need my next hit.
I wait her out, impatient for her to make her decision.
Pick me, my inner voice roars, but my lips remain sealed. This is her choice. This will tell me what she wants.
“Fine,” she concedes sharply. She throws the door open to get out. Her head swivels, to find any familiar landmark, and when she finds none because we are outside of the city center, she picks a direction and starts walking without looking back.
I clench the steering wheel until my knuckles are white and the leather creaks.
There’s my answer.
Again.
I throw the car in gear and slam my foot down, speeding past her in my fury.
It’s mere minutes of racing through the city streets before I’m pulling into the parking garage attached to the Tower. The looming skyscraper lined with steel and glass is just as cold and empty as I feel when I take the elevator up to the Loft where my brothers and I live.
The Tower was already decked out with most of its fancy features when we took it over two years ago, but Aiden and Dane made a few special enhancements of their own. Our Loft received the biggest changes.
I scan the tattoo on my wrist when the elevator reaches our floor for it to open. When Dane had first thought of using tattoos for access to this floor, I’d thought it had been a joke. I mean, the GE scientists had tattooed our skin with barcodes to keep track of us. Like we were products to be made and sold. And he wanted to do the same thing?
But this one was different. It was hidden within the sleeve of tats that extended from my chest, over my shoulder, down my arm, and to the back of my hand. Unless you knew the exact tattoo to look for, you wouldn’t know it was used for this at all.
The doors open into a foyer and then another door uses facial recognition to unlock and bring me into the living room. It’s late, so I don’t expect anyone else to be up, but Dane is cooking something in the kitchen with his face drawn tight in thought. Aiden is sitting at the dining table with a coffee in one hand and his phone in the other.
I walk further into the room and find Jackson sitting on the balcony railing, floating origami animals above one hand and sending them into a dance around one another.
Aiden looks up first and then blinks as if I’ve surprised him or something.
“What?” I growl.
Dane brings plates of French toast to the table and then looks me up and down. “Where’s your pacifier? I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen you so far from a bottle.”
Shit, what had happened to it? Did I leave my spare in the car?
Well, I’ve no interest in them digging too deeply into that, so I stride to the liquor cabinet and grab another bottle out.
To ease their worried souls.
“Finished it on the way up.” I toss the cap over my shoulder, grinning at Dane’s glare, then drag a chair out at the table and sit before taking a drink. “So. Did we already talk about Rapunzel escaping his tower and putting us all at risk today? Or almost killing one of us?”
Not that Dane would have actually followed through with it. I know he’s angry, but I also know his history with Raegan. I don’t think he’d do it.
Doesn’t mean I appreciate him testing that theory.
