Page 103 of Once Upon a Fable

“I hate you,” she spat as I relinquished her hands.

“That makes two of us.” Turning, I grabbed her keys again and opened the pen knife dangling from the chain. Using the knife, I sliced off the rest of the rope, leaving a small leash to drag her by.

Glancing up, I made the mistake of looking at her face.

Fury didn’t begin to describe her. Disbelief definitely, hate certainly, but something else swam inside that made my heart fist with daggers.

She was hurt.

She’d been stupid enough to believe something had happened between us. Something good. Something that would protect her from her fate.

Then again, I’d known she was stupid from the first moment she’d offered herself to me. This was just further vindication.

Eventually, she’ll learn not to trust me.

Even I learned that lesson.

Her nostrils flared as she tried to get her temper under control, swaying in the rain, naked apart from the colorful rope tight around her wrists. “Why?”

A tiny, three-letter word but one that asked so much.

“Because I have no choice.” Looking down at the keys in my hand, I flinched. They had the power to take her away from me. They could give her back her life and take mine away all in one go.

She can never go back.

She knew too much now.

She could never be trusted.

And...I want to keep her.

I’d lost everything.

Everything I had ever cared about had been snatched from me.

This time will be different.

Her keys had to go. They had to fly far away from here so she could never find them.

She cleared her throat, shifting on the spot as if nervousness siphoned through her. “Don’t...don’t do what I think you’re going to do.”

I looked up.

Her hazel eyes were deep brown to match the darkness around us. No green shone. No light. No sweetness. Once again, she could read me. How that was possible, I didn’t know. But something had alerted her to the fact I hated her keys. I loathed her car. I wanted to shove both off the cliff and watch them burn.

Walking into me, she landed her bound hands on my naked chest. I’dripped off my shirt halfway through the hunt. It was back on the trail somewhere, wet and abandoned.

“Please, whatever your name is. I beg you. If you’re so concerned that I’ll tell people about you, come with me. Stay locked by my side and censor every word that comes out of my mouth. Just...pleaselet me go home. If you allow me to see my mother and brother, to give them peace of mind that I’m okay...I’ll-I’ll...” She gulped and forced herself onward. “I’ll come back with you. We’ll drive back here together. I’ll come and stay with you for a while. Two lonely people living in one house instead of two.”

I sneered. “You honestly expect me to believe that once you’re back in society you wouldn’t turn on me in a second? That you wouldn’t find some way to have me arrested?”

“You have my word.”

“Your word means nothing.”

Anger fired up her cheeks. “No,yourword means nothing. You said I’d survive another day. That you wouldn’t try to kill me.” She glanced at the mud where we’d battled, where body indents scarred the earth, leaving behind a symbol of the sex we’d shared and the misery we’d caused. “That if I did what you asked, I’d live.”

Bending over her, I held her stare and murmured, “I’ll make you a new deal. You were right when you said sex with you felt different. It could’ve been the eleven years of celibacy that made it so fucking intense, or...it could’ve just been you.”