Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“Does that mean you’re staying with us?” River says.
“Yes,” Luca says.
“No,” I tell them. “Declan said I have to leave. I’m, um, I’m going to the airport tonight when we get to Seattle.”
And I mean it. Even if Declan didn’t tell me I had to go, I’d be leaving. I have a life to get back to, I have bills to pay. I know what happened to Bridget, and I have a feeling Heidi, the girl they found in the woods, must have seen something like what I saw and made a run for it.
I got what I came for. Even if the answers aren’t quite what I wanted. Maybe they aren’t killers, but they are dangerous. Luca is dangerous, too. I know that.
Even if he did kind of ruin me with his tongue and his cock.
He pulls back, looks me in the eyes, and shakes his head. “You can’t,” he says softly.
Perhaps sensing the tension, Hazel interjects, “Well, if you do stay, you’ll have to learn how to cook and start helping us around here.”
She sets a stack of plates in the middle of the table and begins bringing over food.
“She won’t have to do anything,” Luca says. “I’ll do it for her.”
“Has she seen you angry yet, Luca?” Alana asks.
I feel his posture stiffen; his fingers dig into my hip bone.
“Yeah,” I answer. “I have.”
I take a sip of my coffee.
Declan walks in in only sweatpants, his hair disheveled. I’ve never seen him look anything less than completely put together or downright menacing, and it’s jarring.
As his eyes settle on me, his expression hardens. I sink further into Luca as he rounds the table and sits in the empty chair beside us.
Declan fills a plate and, without looking up, says, “Luca, you and Eli need to go to the studio today and get some things ready. The bus will be here at three.”
I check the time on the microwave. Four hours. Only four hours until I can have my phoneand my lifeback.
I wonder what that will feel like. It’s a relief, but
I reach up and run my hand over Luca’s stubbled cheek and kiss the other one.
Maybe I’ve grown a little attached to the monster. I blame the sickness in my bones.
We eat like thatmostly quiet. After I help everyone clean up and do the dishes, Luca and Eli leave, and I go upstairs to dress and pack.
I pull Luca’s t-shirt over my head and look at the spread of new clothes laid out across the bed.
This is crazy. I can’t fit all of this in my backpack. Not even close.
I slip into those black jeans with the slits on the upper thighs and a cropped long-sleeved top. I go to the bathroom and fix my hair and makeup, trying to decide what I should do about the clothes. I could ask Luca for a suitcase. He said he’d get me whatever I needed, right? But
I go to the closet and, sure enough, there sits Layla’s pink suitcase.
Is it wrong if I take it? It feels wrong, but it’s just a suitcase. I’m sure it meant next to nothing to her. And what would they do with it now anyway?
Fuck it.
I grab it by the handle and bring it to the bed; I barely look at it while I throw the clothes inside, quietly apologizing to her as I do.
“She wouldn’t have minded.” I jump before I turn and see Declan leaning against the doorframe with his hands in his pockets. “She was always very selfless.”
He enters the room and sits on the edge of the bed. I don’t respond, continuing to pack the bag, feeling him watching me. When I’m finished, I grab a couple of books I’d taken from the library and set them on top, closing and zipping the bag slowly, waiting to see if he’ll tell me I can’t take them.
“What about this one?” Declan asks, holding up the Lovecraft book he’d given me a couple of days ago.
“I finished it the other day,” I tell him.
“You didn’t like it?”
“No, I liked it. I thought about it a lot, actually.”
“What’d you think about?”
“I wondered what would happen if your world were discovered. If it became uninhabitable.”
“It’s already been discovered,” he says. “These mountains aren’t what I hide behindit’s wealth. We pay people not to look. But someday, society will return to its violent roots, and real power will actually matter againand the people who are willing to take it. If I had one wish, it would be that I’d live long enough to see it.”
“Well, good luck.”
“And it’s not just us, Teagan. There are thousands of us, and our reach is infinite. If you’re leaving, you need to know that.”
“Is that a threat?”
“Yes.”
“I thought you said I had to leave.”
“You can stay,” he says, “if you want.”
“What? Why?”
“Because I think we can give you what you want.”
“How do you know what I want?”
He shakes his head. “You told me, Teagan. Don’t you remember? Freedom.”
“Yeah,” I tell him. “I remember.”
“We’re staying at a hotel downtown tonight. If you are going, let me know when you book your flightI’ll have a car take you to the airport.”
“Um thanks.”
He stands and starts toward the door, then doubles back. He bends down, picks something up from the floor, and then takes it with him.
It’s the bearLayla’s bear. The one she said he won for her at the fair.
“Hey, wait,” I say.
He pauses at the door’s threshold, waiting.
“Why didn’t you tell her you loved her?” I ask. “When she was dyingwhy didn’t you say it?”
“Because I cared about her too much to lie to her, Teagan,” he says, then walks out, closing the door behind him.
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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.