Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“But I don’t want to leave,” I tell him. “I don’t have anywhere to go.”
“It’s that or the woods, Teagan,” Eli says. “Your choice.”
“Hey,” Rhett says from the doorway. “What are you doing? Let’s go.”
“Just having a friendly chat with Teagan,” he says, standing up and making his way toward the door. “You get some rest.”
Rhett makes eye contact with me as Eli brushes past him to the hallway. His eyes narrow, searching my own for somethingmaybe some kind of hint as to what I might have been discussing with Eli.
“Was he bothering you?” Rhett asks.
“No.”
He narrows his eyes. “Okay I’m glad you’re okay, Teagan. Do you want the door closed?”
“Yeah,” I tell him. “Please close it.”
I close my eyes, and, even though I can hear the concert going on through the concrete walls that separate me from the rest of them, I still fall in and out of sleep for the next hour and a half between my check-ups.
And in that space in between, I think of the first time I saw them on stageof how magnetic Declan was, how his voice still sends chills up my spine.
The only thing I’ve ever wantedmy drug of choice, as Declan called itis freedom. Specifically, the freedom to exist and move through life the way that I want. Free of judgment. Free of the expectations of others.
Before I met them, I thought the only way to have that was to be alone. I was at peace with the idea of living in solitude.
A month later, the idea of going back to being lonely crushes me. But if Eli is right and my only other option is the woods, maybe I should go while I’m still breathing.
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“You said that already, Riv,” Luca says. “I can take care of her; she’ll be fine. She looks so much better than she did earlier.”
“I do feel better,” I tell her, taking a drink of my soda. After the concert, Riv finally told me I could eat since I wasn’t throwing up, and Luca sent the driver through the line at Del Taco.
I fucking love Del Taco, but it’s never tasted so good. Even the diet soda is like a delicacy.
“Are you going to finish that red burrito?”
“It’s all yours,” Luca says, passing it to me. “See? She’s fine. Take a key if it makes you feel better.”
“Fine,” she says. “But take it easy Luca.”
“We’ll cuddle,” he tells her. “And watch one of those docuseries Teag likes where people murder each other. I’ll rub her feet.”
“Really?” I ask. “You’ll rub my feet?”
He shrugs. “Of course I will, baby.”
“Fine,” she says. “Good night.”
“Good night, Riv,” I say. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” She pauses in the doorway before adding, “You two have a problem. You realize that, right?”
I am fully aware, but I don’t tell her that. I look to Luca, waiting for him to answer instead.
“Yeah,” he says. “I do.”
“What are you going to do about it?” she asks.
“Um ”
He pauses, running his hands through his hair. I know Luca is used to Declan being the one in chargethe one who makes the rules. I can tell he’s uncomfortable now just as I could see he was remorseful earlier, even though he’d said on the bus that he couldn’t get involved with whatever was happening between Declan and me.
“I’ll talk to him when we get to Dallas. I’ll keep them separate until then; it’ll be fine. And then, after a couple more stops, Teagan and I are going to take a long vacation. Right, Teag?”
I smile and nod.
Sure. As long as I don’t decide to run for it with Eli.
“He’ll move on; it’ll blow over,” he adds.
That’s not what he said. He said he’d never let me go. Still
He’ll move on. The words shouldn’t feel like a knife to the chestI’ve had enough of that latelybut they do. But maybe he’s right. Maybe if we spent some time apart, he’d forget about me. He’ll find someone new to hunt, and I wouldn’t have to leave them.
But even if I weren’t hunted, I’d still be haunted. He’d still be thereunder my skin, just like he has been for a while now. After all, I have a permanent reminder just in case I ever try to forget.
River looks apprehensive. “I hope you’re right,” she says before closing the door.
“Hey, baby.” He leans toward me on the bed and kisses me on the lips. “Mmm, I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” I tell him.
He pulls away, cleans up the fast food mess on the bed, turns off the lights, and then hands me the remote.
“All right. Give me your feet,” he says.
I pull them out from under the blankets and give them to him; he kisses each one before massaging them.
I hide a smile in the dark and put an old episode of Dateline on the television.
“I’ll never leave you,” I tell him.
“Were you thinking about it?” he asks.
“Yeah. But I won’t do it.”
He doesn’t say anything; he continues rubbing my feet while I watch my show until my eyes get heavy, and I can’t keep them open much longer.
“I’m tired. I’m going to go to bed.”
“Maybe we could get married,” he says.
“What? Why? Do you really want to?”
He shrugs. “Why not? River and Hazel are married. It might be fun. We could do it on vacation and keep it a secret. I could call you wifey, but only we would know.”
“Luca ” I smile and shake my head. “I think your brand of crazy is my favorite. You’re my drug of choice.”
“You want to?”
I nod. “I like the idea of us having something like that as a secretsomething just for us.”
He moves beside me, pulling me into him before he brings the covers over us.
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.