Taj is easy to spot when I enter the loud nightclub. He has his own taped off area near the bar, with a few people surrounding him. The guards stand in front of me not letting me through when I walk up to him. Taj’s voice of approval comes from behind them, and they step clear, letting me through. He smirks then averts his eyes to my hand. Standing from his seated position, he walks over to me holding his hand out, waiting for me to place the contents in his.

“You won’t go after him?” I ask. Taj knows who I’m talking about.

“He was the one who made the copy, she’s too dumb for that.”

I nod my head because I know it as well.

“But no... for you, as an apology, I won’t.”

I smile at him. My eyes roam him then stop on his hands, those very deadly hands that were wrapped around my throat not too long ago, ready to end my life.

“You won’t see her again,” he says in a deadly voice.

He waves at me in dismissal.

The guards wrap around him, but I can just see his dark eyes.

“If you were smart, Jaya, you would make him leave with you, and never look back.”

“I feel like every time I see you, you’re telling me to leave.”

He turns and disappears before he reappears between the two men who are ready to usher me out.

“If you listened when I first said it, you wouldn’t have had any of this to worry about. Now, look where you are.”

“If I listened, I probably wouldn’t have remembered in the first place.”

He smirks at my words then waves his hand at me. “Try to have a good life, Jaya. I expect you to live it to the fullest, and I hope to never see you again.” Then he disappears from sight. If I cared for him the way I cared for Syler that may have hurt more than it should, because it felt like he was telling me to live my life and not trying to scare me off. No, he did that already with his hands around my throat. But that just proves one thing: Taj puts himself first and always himself even if he likes someone. And that’s fine for him to do, as long as you don’t love him, which I don’t. Because that would be a really fucked up relationship, and I already have one of them to deal with. Or whatever you want to call us, because I don’t even know anymore, I just know it’s not what we thought would come of it.

Turning, my body slams into a strong torso, his hands are on me, and he’s pulling me in the direction of the dance floor. Mixed with everyone else, his smell is the first thing I notice, it’s always his scent.

“Syler.”

“Shhh...” he whispers, pulling me close to him.

“What are you doing here?”

I feel his mouth near my neck, hear his intake of breath as he breathes me in.

“I’m choosing you, but someone still has to choose her.”

Looking past him, I see Taj in a heated discussion with another man. Then I see Toska’s wild red hair, and dressed exactly as she was when I saw her leaving for work.

“What are they doing with her?” Her hands are cuffed behind her back, cuffed the way she should have been the first time I met her, and what I can make out are the detectives as they take her away.

“She’s going to get help now.”

Toska’s mouth moves in screams, but no one steps in to help her. Her eyes move around the room frantically until they land on us. Syler isn’t looking in her direction, but she knows it’s him straight away because her back straightens up, and she tries to move our way. I watch her doing nothing, as she’s pulled by the officers. Her top lip spikes up in anger, and I know if I were within hearing distance she’d be cursing me out right now.

As his hands drop down to my ass with the slow motion of our hips rocking, she disappears and is taken outside. Staying where I am, I wait for him to say something, anything. But nothing comes out. I need answers. He can’t expect me to say nothing. As I go to pull away from him, he pulls me back, so our bodies are flush.

“Jaya, Syler,” Taj says from behind us.

Syler lets me pull away this time, but keeps a hand on my waist as I turn to face Taj. He eyes Syler.

“Nice move with that one. I must say I didn’t expect it.” He sounds impressed.

“You think I’d let you kill her?”

Taj laughs and shakes his head, his fingers wiping at his jaw before he drops them, staring him down. “No. I guess I didn’t.” Taj looks to me. “I just fig

ured you’ve woken up.” Taj’s eyes go back to Syler.

“It wasn’t a matter of waking, Taj, it was a matter of it not being your place.”

He smirks like he wants to laugh, then shakes his head. “Goodbye, Jaya,” Taj says, then walks away leaving us standing in the middle of the dance floor.

“He wants to fuck you again,” Syler says more seriously than I’ve ever seen him be with me before.

I pull away from him, trying to put distance between us. “That doesn’t matter. It’s who I want to fuck that counts.” I cross my arms over my chest. “What did you do with Toska? Tell me, Syler.”

The music, all of a sudden, seems to become louder. He grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers, then starts walking, pulling me with him as he goes. We step to the front, past the bouncers. Syler yanks me around the side of the building, slams my back into the wall, then traps me with his hands, one on either side my head.

“You really want to know? You want to know how I chose you. How I’ve been choosing you. Is that what you want, Mouse?” His words shock me, my eyes go large as my palms stick to the wall while I take fast breaths.

“If I bought bullshit I’d be buying yours right now. Unfortunately, I’m all out of cash and not buying today.”

He laughs at my words, his head drops back, his hands staying where they are around my face. His neck, it’s in clear view, and I think about all those times I’d kiss that neck. The feelings flush through me, and I want to do it again. Right now.

“Are you telling me within twenty-four hours your body has gotten over me? That if I touched you right now you wouldn’t succumb to my every will.” His hand moves and drops, sliding down until he reaches between my legs, cupping my pussy over my jeans. He presses hard, putting pressure, making my clit throb at his touch.

“My body may be stupid, but my mind knows better.”

He shakes his head. “I don’t think it does. You should have left, several times... yet, here you are as always, right where you belong.”

“You’re acid and acid burns. I want something alkaline, maybe milk. I want anything but damn acid.”

He gets my reference, he always does.

“But the burn will be imprinted on you. You’ll never forget me, Mouse.”

Turning my head, I stare down at the ground. “What did you do to your sister?”

“I traded her for you. No, that doesn’t sound right. Oh... actually, it is.”

My eyes snap back up. “Trade?”

He nods his head. “Your father, he came to my house.”

My eyebrows squeeze together tightly, his words don’t sound right.

“He suggested, in order to protect you, I should turn her in.”

My mouth drops open, and he leans in and kisses my lips, taking advantage of my moment of shock. Stealing my mouth as if it was his to take. His taste is addictive, his mouth is demanding, his bite lethal.

A truly toxic combination, which is my downfall.

Because I kiss him back.

Lips bruising, tongues dancing, we can’t seem to get enough of each other.

Then I take that much-needed breath. The one that pulls oxygen back into my brain, and I realize I’m falling back into that pattern, that one where we’re unhealthy for each other. The one where we’re not right. And I pull away, breaking our kiss.

Looking up at him, his lips are swollen, his perfect jaw churning as he tries to work out why I pulled away. My fingers touch my bruised lips, the place only reserved for him.

Taj was a mistake, I know that now. I thought he was what I needed to get over Syler. But once you’re burnt by acid, it’s hard to recover. It makes it impossible to get back to that neutral place, the one where everything is just basic and simple. Instead, that acid becomes imprinted on you, even when you attempt to remove it. It becomes a stain or a scar, eating away at you until it’s all you know and all you want.

“Mouse...”

I take his moment of silence, and slip myself out from his grasp while putting much-needed distance between us.

“You’ll end up hating me, I’ll end up resenting you...” I shake my head and step back again.

“I wouldn’t.”

“You would! You had to be forced into it. It took me almost dying more than once for you to choose me. That isn’t healthy, none of this is. We aren’t good for each other. We’ll keep on burning until there’s nothing left.” Stepping back again, I’m not clear where my car is, but I know it’s not far from here.

“We need to stop, Mouse. I’m ceasing the ellipses. No more pauses or question marks for me. Now it will just be full stops.”

I want to smile at his editor’s metaphor.

I want to ravish in it.

I know better, though.

“I’m full stopping it, Wolf! Before I fall deeper down a rabbit hole where I cannot escape.”

“I’ll chase you, Mouse, right down that rabbit hole.”

Turning, so I’m walking away, I look back only once.

“I hope you catch me, I really do. But this time you may not.”

Once I reach my car, I open the door and slide in and do my best not to look back as I drive off.