I shake my head. “Just leave, Lan. I have some work to finish up.”
“Not so fast.” He blocks my path, seeming to have gained height as he stares down his nose at me. “See, I know you swapped me for Jeremy, and while I’m wounded in my little black heart, I let it happen because you can help me bring him down.”
“You…knew?”
“About your feelings for me?” He grins. “You couldn’t more obvious, Ces.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“You didn’t; why would I? Besides, it was only a phase, no? Because you somehow got on Jeremy’s radar and you grew to like it. I rooted for you. I even encouraged it. In that fight, I noticed he was looking at you and I wanted to test him, so I said, ‘How does it feel to fancy someone who loves me?’ Kind of got beaten up for it, but confirming he has feelings for you was worth it. The mighty Jeremy in luuurve. Isn’t that poetic?”
I gasp.
So that’s what happened that day. That’s why Jeremy was so mad.
“I don’t love you. I never did,” I say with determination.
It was only a crush. A stupid one that I shouldn’t have had, but I allowed myself to feel it so I could try and forget about the whole Jonah thing.
If I had secret crushes and attraction, then that meant I was alive, or at least, that’s how my brain categorized it.
“That’s what he thought, though.” Lan grins. “Sorry, I mean thinks.”
“Doesn’t matter.” I push past him to organize the opposite shelf. “We’re no longer together, and even if we were, I would never help you hurt him.”
“Are you sure? Because he has a blonde bombshell hanging off his arm and pasting herself to his side like superglue. There’s her mute clone, too.” His voice darkens at the last bit. “The Sokolov sisters are vying for his attention, and if you don’t do something about it, one of them will have him.”
My fingers tighten on the edge of the shelf, but I slowly release it. “He can do whatever he wants. And don’t call her a mute. That’s not nice.”
“I’m not nice.”
“Shocker.” I roll my eyes. “Also, Mia is only around to watch her sister. She didn’t look to be interested in Jeremy.”
“Or that’s what she wants you to think while she slithers around him like a snake.” His voice has lowered to a strange range I’ve never heard him use before.
Lan might look like a charming god, but he’s emotionless, cold, and calculating. This is the first time I’ve seen him show interest or change his tone at the mention of someone.
“Point is, get Jeremy back.” He grins. “This is the last courtesy I’ll offer you before I slice his throat open and sculpt him into the ugliest stone.”
“I’m not helping you, Lan.”
“I don’t want you to help me.” His voice lowers further. “Just take him off the market.”
“Oh. I get it. Is this about Maya? Maybe Mia? Both?”
“Don’t worry your pretty little head about that and just resume whatever weird thing you had with Jeremy.”
I release a sigh. “I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“He’s not interested in me anymore.”
He stares at me as if I’ve grown an extra head. “Not interested in you? On what planet have you been living, Cecily? The guy stalks you like a creep and actually smiles while he does it—honest to fucking God thought he didn’t know how. He’s also developed some bizarre fetish about removing anyone who poses an obstacle to you. That teacher who was giving preferential treatment to his friend’s kid? Jeremy was the reason he asked to transfer. Those American football players who stole and slashed your textbooks? Jeremy eliminated them. Those guys at the club who danced with you? Jeremy beat them the fuck up and put one in a coma. Oh, and news fucking flash, he tortured Jonah to near death by waterboarding him and threatened to kill his parents, brothers, sisters, and everyone he cared about. Then he proceeded to tell his family about all the scandals he could get them into by airing some of their dirty laundry. That’s the only reason Jonah turned himself in. He still gets beaten up in prison every day because Jeremy and his whole fucked-up entourage have the ability to pay off people who can do it. Inside England’s prisons, which should be far away from their territory, but isn’t. You still think that’s not called interest?”
My jaw nearly meets the floor.
The onslaught of information swirls inside me, barely allowing me to absorb anything.
I frown. “How do you know all of that?”
“I have someone who follows him, just like he has someone who’s following me.”
“Following you?”
“Yeah. You think he knows by now that I’m here?”
“Lan, whatever you’re planning, stop it.”
“I need you with him, Ces. I’m not asking.” And then he grabs me by the cheek.
I know where this is going, what he’s planning, and I want to stop him, but my reaction is delayed.
His lips are reaching for mine, and I try to push at his chest, but before I can do that, Lan is shoved off me.
Not by one set of hands, but two.
Jeremy punches Landon in the face, and when he falls to the ground, a very angry, very beautiful blonde stares down at him with a murderous expression.
Then she kicks him in the nuts. With her giant boot.
31
CECILY
I’ve never been more stunned than as I am at this moment.
The scene happens in slow motion, yet it’s so fast that I can’t keep up.
It’s like staring at the world through blurry lenses while riding a roller coaster.
Landon grunt, groans, then rolls onto his back, sporting a bloodied lip and a red jaw. However, he has the happiest, most genuine grin I’ve ever seen.
“Hi, mouse. Miss me?”
Mia continues glaring at him, and it looks anything but menacing, in view of her poufy dress, the ribbons intertwined in her hair like snakes, and her generally regal presence.
However, her kick was definitely painful considering the echoing sound. She flips him off and signs something to Jeremy. I don’t understand what she’s saying, but there’s a lot of energy behind it.
Mia strikes me as the type of person who simply can’t be defined by her disability, fashion sense, or spiky personality. It’s like she flows and flows, unable to put a halt to the flood of what’s inside her.
While she talks to the man who’s grabbing me from behind, a violent chill covers my skin as I glance back.
I’ve seen Jeremy exactly two times since he cruelly and indefinitely removed me from his life. Once when I drove by the cottage and saw him going inside.
The other time was when I allowed Ava to drag me to the fight club and watched him nearly be beaten to death by Killian.
It was one of those off-championship fights that happens every night, and it looked like he had a death wish.
I left before the fight was over.
Now, I regret looking at him, because nothing could’ve prepared me for being this close to him.
In a way, he hasn’t changed. He still has sharp, masculine features that drip with savage intensity and the build of a warlord who gets off on conquering lands and people.