Page 90 of Made to Be

Hatred burned hot in my chest. “Afraid I’ll curse you?”

The laugh he gave me was hollow with not a shadow of humor to it. Ron used to have such a nice laugh. Nothing like Cam’s which nearly brought me to my knees every time I heard it, but still. It had been one of his traits that had charmed me. That man was long gone, had been for years. Perhaps he’d never existed in the first place. A mere façade, a mask. I was more inclined to believe that.

“If you could curse me, you would have done so by now.” His smile was poisonous as he leaned back in, the bitter smell of cigarettes on his breath making me cringe. “Anyway, curses or not, it won’t matter. I’ve gotten my hands on something that’ll interest you, Vic. Took me pulling a lot of stings to get my hands on it. It’s a little concoction that will, hmm, how do I put this?” He tapped my chin. “Wipe our slate clean.”

Horror sluiced through me, turning my blood to ice in my veins.

“It’ll make you forget all about this pathetic little life you’ve built for yourself here. Your job. Your friends. Your students. That fucker Cam.”

He dug into his pocket and pulled out a folded-up piece of paper. When he threw it to the ground in front of my feet, it opened enough for me to notice it was the photo of Cam and I at the pumpkin patch. Theone where we were smiling at each other so blearily, innocently happy. The photo from my office.

My gut had been right; someonehadbeen in there. And… he’d had to have lingered and gone back after we left to steal the picture. The fucking creep.

“You should be more careful of the people you surround yourself with, Vic,” he commented as he loomed over me, stepping directly on the photo. He knelt so that we were eye level. “That supervisor of yours basically led me right to your office. And your students were so open when I asked about you. How was the music festival? It was really helpful to know you were going to be gone for days so that I could prepare all of this for you, baby.”

“Don’t call me that!” I screamed in his face, realizing far too late that I had revealed too much.

Every reaction I gave him, every response was ammunition he could use against me. Against Cam.

But I couldn't bear to hear that endearing term aimed at me inhisvoice. Not when it belonged to Cam. When every part of me belonged to Cam.

Despite my outburst, Ron remained calm. He didn’t hit me again, didn’t make a smart retort, didn’t outwardly react at all. But the eerie smile on the face I once saw as charming and handsome now became the stuff of living nightmares. Those eyes I had once fallen in love with were dull and vacant, devoid of emotion and darkened with possessive greed.

He stood in a rush and I flinched back. But the strike never came. I watched as Ron turned and strode for a small black backpack resting along the furthest wall.

As he rifled through it, I fought against the pain of the ropes binding my wrists. I had never felt so powerless, so vulnerable in all my life.

But Jinx would find Cam. He had to. I didn’t know how long I’d been out, but dark orange light was bleeding through the cracks in the drawn blinds, so night hadn’t fallen yet. He couldn’t have taken Cam very far.

I should know; Cam was heavy.

Likely the basement, if that was why he’d been down there. If that was the case, I had no idea how Jinx would get to him.

I couldn’t focus on my worry for long before Ron was striding back over to me, a bottle of some clear liquid in his fist.

“This will fix all of our problems,” he told me as I stared at the unknown substance in horror. I immediately clamped my jaw tight, shaking my head. “We can go back to how things were, yeah? Just like before. I still love you, Vic.”

“No,” I choked out, voice pleading. “Please. Don’t do this. Don’t-”

Ron grabbed my jaw tilting my head back and fingers squeezing so hard that my mouth was pried open. He shoved the thick glass between my teethbefore I could react, and the flood of a sickly-sweet syrup coated my tongue. I choked and gagged, refusing to swallow a single drop. The hand on my jaw moved to force my lips around the bottle’s mouth, but I fought and thrashed back and forth, the chair violently rocking beneath me. Like hell would I make this easy for him.

Cool liquid spilled down my chin and neck, and the urge to wretch rose like a tidal wave.

“It won’t take much,” he said in a strained voice, fingers tightening on my jaw so hard I knew they would leave bruises.

The manic look in his eyes was too much, too horrifying, so I shut mine tight and tried in vain to free myself from his grip. But the strength in my muscles was waning fast. He let out a harsh laugh,

“Just a few drops and-”

Metal clanged. Ron’s hands and the bottle fell away from my face. I immediately spat out what liquid remained in my mouth, practically dry heaving to force any remaining taste from my tongue. Leaning forward as much as my arms would allow, I gasped, sucking in a deep lungful of air. When I opened my watery eyes, Ron's body was sprawled at my feet, dark red blood oozing from a severe gash on his head and soaking into the floral pattern of the rug.

My gaze snapped up and my eyes locked with Cam’s, only his were wild and dark with a burning rage I’d never seen in them before.

He was wielding an old spade shovel like some medieval knight with a long sword as he hovered over the still body on the floor. He honest-to-god looked like a noble warrior from one of my stories, shovel and all. I could practically see the cape fluttering behind him, the halo of heroism glowing around his unyielding form.

Oh, wait, maybe that was just my vision blurring at the edges. Was I slightly concussed? Likely.

Jinx darted over, chirping happily as he landed on Cam’s shoulder, thoroughly proud of himself for successfully bringing my savior.