Once I have enough footage of him manhandling her, I stop the video and smile in triumph. Even my heart problem fades away.
I start towards the cabin to stop Xander.
A shadow blocks my way.
I cease to breathe when I stare up at my nightmare.
Chapter Three
Aiden hates me.
He loathes me.
I can imagine him playing my death in the back of his mind.
Why?
I don’t know and I never asked.
Because I have a rule: Never try to understand bullies.
They’re entitled arseholes who use their power to humiliate others, what’s there to understand about them?
But as I stare up at Aiden’s punishing eyes, my earlier thoughts shrink behind my trembling, defective heart.
He scares me.
Call it instinct or an intuition, but something terrifying lurks behind that easy-going smile and football star image.
“What did you just do?” His voice is calm and quiet with a slight huskiness.
An outsider would find it welcoming, but I know it’s one of his multiple façades.
The voice the devil would use to lure his victims.
I lift up my chin, even though my hand clutching the phone trembles. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He extends his palm in front of me. “Give it.”
I start to bypass him. Aiden sidesteps in front of me. He’s stupid tall. Stupid broad. Stupid everything.
He blocks my vision of Kim and Xander.
But he’s not done.
Aiden advances into my space. He’s so close that I can make out that small beauty mole at the corner of his right eye.
I instinctively step back with every stride he takes forward. My throat dries, and I hate how I shrink in front of his attack.
He’s just too damn tall and has this unreadable mask on his face. The only available image of Aiden is the one he shows to the outside world. Aside from that, he’s… nothing.
A dark secret.
A deep hole.
An endless abyss.
My back hits a tree trunk, and I wince. When I attempt to walk past him, his arm shoots up and slams on the tree by the side of my head.
I’m imprisoned, just like the first damn day I met him.
Since then, Aiden has never gotten this close. He’s the ‘King’ after all. All he has to do is issue a decree and the entire kingdom would bow. People do his dirty work for him – including bullying.
He still smells of body wash and something entirely his. It’s strange how certain things never leave our memories.
He extends his hand again. “Give it, Frozen.”
Frozen.
I’m just that nickname to him. It’s another form of bullying and intimidation.
But I’ve already decided that I’m done with being a victim to Aiden’s unjust war. I’m tired of being the one who always breaks eye contact first and hurries in the opposite direction.
We should give back.
Kim’s words play in my mind.
If it were the old me, I would’ve done everything in my might to avoid confrontation with Aiden and stay as far away from his vicinity as possible.
I’ve always tucked my ghosts between my defective heart and my ribcage, but he needs to learn that the world doesn’t revolve around his stupid last name.
I fold my arms over my chest and jut out my chin. “No.”
He narrows his left eye. “Who do you think you are, Frozen?”
“Just a human being who deserves to be left in peace.”
He cocks his head to the side, watching me with his demon eyes. “Not all human beings are in peace. Why should you be?”
“Are you freaking serious?”
“Give me the phone. I won’t repeat myself another time.”
“No.” I mimic his tone. “I won’t repeat myself another time.”
He does something unexpected then.
Something I would’ve never seen coming.
His fingers wrap around my wrist that’s clutching the phone.
Something in my stomach twists in a painful, strange kind of way.
Aiden never touches me.
The last time was two years ago when he wrapped his hand around my throat.
His touch is still… the same.
Calloused. Rough. Smothering.
He’s not cutting off my breathing like the other time, but the air around me crackles and then ceases to exist altogether.
He reaches towards the phone, but I’m out of my stupor before he manages to snatch it.
We struggle for a few seconds. Or more like I struggle to block him. He’s like a bull going after the red cloth.
An unstoppable, murderous bull.
Panting, I yank the phone close and hug it to my chest.
Aiden doesn’t waver and shoots for it.
Why the hell had I thought the arsehole had boundaries?
Trying to block him with one hand, I loosen my ribbon enough to have an opening then tuck the phone in my bra.
I smile in triumph, tipping my chin at him.
Aiden’s smoky eyes glint with something unreadable. “You had to screw up.”
“What?”
“You really think that will stop me?”
Aiden dives straight to my shirt and undoes the first button. I’m so shocked that I stare with parted lips without reacting. It’s not until he gets to the second button that I push at his chest.
“W-what the hell are you doing?” I shriek.
He pauses, tilting his head to the side with that manic expression. “Are you going to give me the phone?”
“N-no.”
He continues his ministrations with the buttons of my shirt. My throat closes and I feel myself about to start hyperventilating. I push him, but his hold is steel. Impenetrable, hard steel.
“S-stop!!”
There’s a strange rush flowing through my veins and tightening my muscles. I have no idea how to explain it except that Aiden needs to get his freaking hands off me.
I push at his chest again, but he already has the three first button opened so the edge of my bra is visible.
My lips part when I realise what else is in full view.
My surgery scar.
For years, I did everything in my power to make sure no one saw it. I never wore low-cut shirts. I bought one-piece swimsuits that hid my chest. I don’t even like showing it to my aunt. Kim probably saw it twice and even then, only by accident.
And now, Aiden is staring at it.
No. He’s not only staring. He’s devouring it with his gaze as if it’s some sort of wonder.
He stops unbuttoning my shirt, but he hasn’t removed his fingers from the fourth button. In fact, he undoes it so the shirt is open to underneath my bra and he has a full view of the diagonal scar at the top of my left breast.
Ugly.
Long.
Faded.
The reason I started hiding it is because of the pitiful looks people gave me. Even Aunt Blair gives me that look sometimes.
However, Aiden’s expression is anything but pity.
I didn’t expect such emotion to exist in his black soul, but I thought there would at least be a softening of his devilish heart.
I couldn’t be more wrong.
His eyes were murderous before, but now he seems like he wishes he had a knife to slice my scar open and rip out my heart.
Twigs crush underneath nearby footsteps.
I shake myself out of my stupor, push him away, and turn around to re-button my shirt. My breathing shortens despite my attempts to regulate it.