Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“No one’s looking for youfor any of you. You’ll be fine, Teagan.”
I take the hand resting on my leg in mine and lace my fingers between his, holding it tightly, trying to focus on breathing.
But his pulse is racing, too.
“I think I’m going to puke.”
“Please don’t.”
I keep my eyes closed, my face buried into his shoulder, until I feel the car roll to a stop. It’s still rainingnot the same heavy rain from earlier, but the misty kind that makes it harder to see in the dark. I can barely make it out, but there’s a plane sitting on what I assume is a runway; the lights are on in the cabin, but I don’t see anyone around.
“Let’s go,” Sebastian says, turning off the car. He releases my hand and reaches for the door handle.
I grab his forearm, digging my nails into the skin. “If they’re not here, don’t leave me.”
“I won’t,” he says. “No one is leaving you, Teagan. Okay?”
I nod, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Okay.”
I let him go, reach for my own door handle with shaky hands, and step out of the car. I open the back door to get my bag, but Sebastian places his hand on mine and moves it away.
“I’ve got it,” he says. He takes my suitcase from the car, looks at the wet, floral dress on the floorboards, and says, “I’m keeping the dress.”
“Okay.” I choke on the word. My heart drops into my stomach, and I sob again.
“Hey,” he says, cupping my cheeks in his hands. “Get your shit together. You’re supposed to be a killer, Teagan. Look aroundthere are no cops, no one is shooting at us ” He nods over my shoulder. “And there’s your boyfriend. No one is leaving you.”
I look back at Declan, relief washing over me before my old panic is replaced by a new one. I press my palm against his heart, but I can’t find the words, so I grip his shirt and pull him into me, kissing him hard enough that I feel his teeth on mine.
And when he pulls away, I feel Declan’s hand on the small of my back. “You ready to go home, kitten?” he asks.
I nod. “I’ve been ready.”
“Thank you,” he says, extending his hand to Sebastian, “for saving her and bringing her here.”
Sebastian stares at it for a minute before taking it and shaking Declan’s hand.
“If you wanted to come with us, I wouldn’t tell you no,” Declan says. “We’re family.”
“No,” Sebastian says. “I’m not.”
Declan shrugs and takes the suitcase from Sebastian. “Okay. Come on, sweetheart.”
I take a few steps away from Sebastian before I turn back and jump into his arms, wrapping my legs around his waist and burying my head in his neckright beside his Oscar Wilde tattoo. And I finally find the words.
“You will always be fond of me,” I quote to him. “I represent to you all the sins you never had the courage to commit.”
“Yeah,” he says, holding me tightly against his body. “You do.”
“I love you,” I tell him. “I’ll miss playing monsters.”
“You deserve better than just playing monsters, Teagan. You need other things.” He presses his lips to mine. “But I love you, too.”
“Bye, Sebastian.”
“Bye,” he says, setting me down.
I walk back to Declan’s side and take his hand.
“Take care of her,” Sebastian says.
Declan nods. “Always.”
I squeeze Declan’s hand tightly in mine as we approach the planeas if he might disappear or leave me again if I were to let go. Once we reach the stairs, he ushers me ahead of him. My legs feel like jello as I climb the staircase. And when I look over my shoulder, Sebastian’s car is still there waiting, just in case.
But like he said, there are no police sirens this time, no gunfire. No one shoves me down in the dirt, and I’m not alone. I step onto the plane and see Luca there, sitting in the row closest to the door.
“Hey, baby,” he says.
I smile through tears, wrap my arms around his neck, and sit in his lap. “Hey, Luca. Am I hurting you?”
“Are you kidding?” he asks before pressing his lips to mine. “No.”
Declan steps onto the plane, and one of the pilots takes my bag from him before returning to the cockpit. The engines start up just after he disappears.
“You okay, Teag?” Declan asks.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” But I’m not so sure. There’s a new hole in my chest nowa fresh bruise to press on. And I think I’m going to feel it for a while.
As if on cue, Luca presses his thumb into one of the bitemarks on my chest.
“Ow!”
“What’s that, Teagan?”
“Luca, leave her alone,” Declan says. He pulls a blanket from the overhead compartment and wraps it around my body. “If he doesn’t want to be nice, you can curl up in my lap, kitten.”
He smoothes my wet hair away from my face and kisses my cheek before sitting across the aisle from us.
“I’m being nice,” he says. “I’m always nice to you, aren’t I, Teagan?”
“Yeah, you are,” I tell him, relaxing against his body again.
“You were mine first.”
I look at Declan, who raises an eyebrow and shakes his head, mouthing the words no, you weren’t.
I smile at him. “Yeah, you’re right, Luca.”
The lights in the cabin turn off, and the plane starts to move down the bumpy runway. Luca tightens his hold on me, and I turn to the window, keeping my eyes on those two headlights. The car doesn’t move until the plane is off the ground. I watch it reverse, turning around before disappearing again on that dark, dirt road.
“Are you asleep?” Declan asks maybe an hour later.
“No,” I say, opening my eyes. “I’m too nervous to sleep like in the hotel in Vegas.”
“Well, come here. Let me roofie you.”
“No. Fuck no.”
He laughs. “I’m kidding, Teagan. But come here curl up in my lap, kitten.”
Holding the blanket around my shoulders, I slip out of Luca’s arms and cross the aisle to Declan, sitting in his lap and resting my head against his collarbone, in that space right under his chin.
“That’s better,” he says. “What’s going on in your head, Teag?”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.