Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
I step into the elevator, and before the doors close, a hand shoots out, stopping them, and they open again.
Alana steps into the elevator, dragging a suitcase behind her.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“I’m leaving,” she says.
“What? What do you mean? Like forever?”
“Yep.”
She stares straight ahead. Sunglasses cover her eyes, but a tear runs down her cheek.
The doors open, and she steps out. I follow, grabbing her by the arm. “Well, wait! Why? They’ll be upset.”
“Will they?” she asks. She shakes her arm free of my grip and lowers her voice to a whisper-hiss. “I’m leaving because I don’t want to end up like Layla. I’m in love with him, and I don’t want to fucking die, okay? And if you were smart, you’d leave, too. He’s moving on to you, you know. I can see it. I recognize it. It fucking happened to me, too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Declan,” she says. “God, are you stupid? I’m talking about Declan.”
“Declan isn’t moving on to me,” I tell her. “He can’t stand me.”
She raises an eyebrow, looking me up and down. “I suggest you start paying attention. Declan won’t just fuck you and cage you like Luca; he’s in it for the mindfuck. He’ll work his way under your skin, so slowly at first that you won’t even notice itnot until he lives there. And then you’ll be in trouble because once he knows he owns you, he’ll get bored, and he’ll want the same thing he got from Bridget and Layla.”
But she’s wrong, right? Declan isn’t trying to get under my skin.
But my mind replays the events of the past weekthe times when he singled me out, when he got me alone and shared secrets with me, when he threw that guy out of the party after he knocked me over.
When he brought me down to the library and talked to me about books.
When he spanked me in the dining room and then told me if I stayed, he could give me what I really wanted.
“Putting it all together now, aren’t you? Maybe you’re not as dumb as you look.”
“No,” I tell her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Sure, you don’t,” she says. “I’m leaving. This family is a lot smaller than the one I joined. You’re dead if you stay. Luca is going to kill you or Declan is going to make you kill yourself.”
Behind me, I hear the elevator ding. Alana looks over my shoulder and whatever she sees makes her turn and almost run toward the front doors.
Behind me, Hazel, River, and Brady step out of the elevator.
“Hey,” Hazel says. “Where’s she going?”
“Um she said she’s leaving like for good.”
“What?! Why would she do that? Alana, wait!” she calls as she runs out the doors after her.
“What happened?” River asks. “Did she say anything?”
“Um, no,” I lie. “She didn’t say anything. She just said she was leaving.”
“Well, Brady, you should go after her!” River says. “You’re her best friend! She’ll listen to you.”
Brady shakes his head, stuffs his hands in his pockets, and walks off. “No.”
“What? What do you mean? Why not?”
“I can’t,” he says.
“But ” Tears well in her eyes, and I watch her run out the front doors, too. Once they close behind her, I follow Brady into the hotel restaurant. I fill a cup of coffee, pile some food onto a plate, and then spot him at a table in the back corner.
“Can I sit here?”
“Of course,” he says. “Why would you even ask?”
I pull out a chair and sit down. “I’m not sure if you like me.”
“I’m just tired, Teagan. It’s got nothing to do with you.”
“Okay.” I take a drink of my coffee, grab my fork, and stab at my sad hotel eggs. Brady reaches for me and takes my left hand in his.
“I’m sorry, Teagan,” Brady says. “When I look at you, I just think about digging that grave. That’s all.”
“I’m sorry, too,” I say softly.
I follow his eyes to the entrance and see Hazel and River crossing the room. They sit beside us; River hangs her head and weeps with her head in her hands, and Hazel wipes away a tear from under her eye.
“She just got in a cab and left,” Hazel says. “She said she loved us and that she was sorry, and then she just left.”
“Well, we’re all free to come and go as we please, right?” Brady says. “We have to respect her decision.”
“You knew she was going to do this,” Hazel says, her tone accusatory.
Brady shakes his head. “No, I didn’t. I knew she was upset. She slept with Rhett and me last night; she was crying. She just said it was about Layla.”
Hazel turns to me next. “Well, she was talking to you, Teagan. What did she say?”
“She said that I should leave, too.”
Hazel scoffs. “Unbelievable. I literally can’t fucking believe this. I’m going to text Declan.”
“Do you think she’ll come back?” River asks Brady. “Maybe she’ll change her mind.”
He looks at her like that’s the dumbest shit he’s ever heard. “No, River. I don’t think she’s coming back. Just wish her well and be happy for her.”
She turns to me. “Are you staying?”
“Yeah. I’m staying.”
She rests her head on the table. “Thank god.”
Hazel sets her phone down on the table forcefully.
“What did Declan say?” River asks.
“He just said what Brady said. He said it was fine,” Hazel tells her. “I’m going to get us some food. Okay, babe?”
“Okay,” River says. “Fuck.”
We eat quietly for the most part, and when I go to return my tray and refill my coffee, my phone buzzes in my pocket.
I pull it out and see Blakely’s name flashing across the screen. I swipe to answer and bring it to my ear.
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.