Page 38 of Lost to Thievery
“I have to go. I have some loose ends to tie up,” Liam said, his jaw clenching as his eyes lingered on my neck before he disappeared out of the room.
I turned to Owen, and we just stared at each other for a moment.
“Are you okay?” he whispered, his eyes looking pained.
Tears welled and I didn’t have the strength to stop them andpretend. I wasn’t.Gods, I wasn’t okay.
I shook my head, my chin trembling.
Owen pulled me down onto the bed with him, wrapping his arms tightly around me. And I wished I could feel comfort from it, but all I felt was the void in my chest deepening as Grayson’s words echoed through me. I turned the wood carving he had made for me, over and over in my pocket until my fingers felt numb. The Aegis pin was gone. I had searched through the entire art installation, thinking it might have fallen, but it was nowhere to be found. Grayson must have stolen it out of my pocket without me even feeling it. Like the heartless thief he was.
“What did he say to you? He whispered something to you. What was it?” I asked after a while.
“Nothing,” Owen answered, his body stiffening beside me.
“Tell me, Owen,” I said firmly.
He sighed. “Then I’ll just wait till she comes running up here in about three minutes and thirty seconds to put a bullet through both of your heads… And you say I don’t know her,” Owen recited in a flat tone, shifting uncomfortably. “That’s what he said. And I’ve never been so scared in my life. Because I knew he was right. I knew you’d come running. And you came running through the agents almost exactly three and a half minutes later.” He snorted, shaking his head, watching his balled-up hand. “What did he say to you?”
I was quiet for a moment, finding the courage to say it out loud without shattering again. “In a nutshell, that I’m stupid and pathetic for thinking he ever loved me, and that I should get a life because he’s tired of me chasing him.”
Owen didn’t respond for a while, then his voice broke as he said, “I should have left you alone. You were safe in Bentley Cove.”
“Butyou’renot safe, Owen. You understand that Grayson was just toying with us today, right? He could have killed you before you even knew he was there. And hewillkill you. When he sees you again. He told me. And Grayson might be a lot of fucked-up things, but he keeps his word. He always had.”
Except when he said he’d never let me go. Or maybe it’d been nothing more than another clever play on words.
He might have told me to get lost, but a part of me would always stay trapped in his claws. And he knew it. He’d just pointed it out to me, so smugly.“Down to your fucking soul, baby. All of you.Mine.”
“Please stop pursuing him,” I whispered thickly to Owen. But as soon as the words left my mouth, I already knew what his answer would be.
“You know I can’t do that, Ava,” he whispered back, sounding just as broken as me.
“Then I’m staying too.”
“Ava…”
“If you’re hell bent on risking your life to catch them, I’m staying. I’m helping. I can’t lose you too.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, mask them.
Owen placed his fingers underneath my chin, lifting my head so he could see my face, and it made me want to die.
“Look at me, Princess. I want those eyes on me.”
Owen stared at me, seeing every shameful emotion stirring in me, while Grayson’s face, his voice and his touch flooded through my mind.
“You didn’t lose him, Ava. You can’t lose something you never had.”
I clasped my eyes shut as Owen’s words cut through me.
Oh, gods. Why would he say that to me? Why would he be so cruel?
A sob broke loose from my chest, and I tried to push away from Owen, but he caught my arm, holding on to me, flinching at the effort.
“You point out how he had threatened to kill me, but he had done the exact same thing to you, Ava. More than once. Why do you ignore that? Have you looked in a mirror recently? You don’t dothatto the woman you once loved,” he bit out. “I wouldneverhurt you like this. I care about you. He never did. He said so himself! Why can’t you believe him? Why can’t you accept that? He’s a manipulative psychopath, who destroys anyone he feels like. Who uses people to get what he wants, no matter the consequences to them. Because he doesn't care! He never cared, Ava! He never loved you.”
“Gray?”
“Hmm?”
