“What happened to the camera?” I ask Jay as I stand in the opening of the bathroom door. There’s still a bit of steam on the bathroom mirror and I watch as he wipes it off with his forearm. He looks over his shoulder at me, his hair still damp from the shower as he puts his t-shirt on over his head.

“The camera?” he asks, turning back to the mirror.

A tick in my jaw twitches as he ignores me. “The fucking camera is destroyed.” My blood heats with anger. I’m tired of being a fucking pawn in this game he’s playing. And how he likes to ignore me.

“She broke it,” he says simply. The mention of her, of the sweet woman he’s toying with does something to me.

“She did that?” I ask him with an air of disbelief, but also one of pride. She’s stronger than she knows. She deserves better, so much better.

The past is the only thing that stands in her way. And that’s just what Jay is.

“She fucking loved doing it,” he says and there’s a sense of pride in his voice and it echoes the jealousy in me. I clear my throat, wishing I could shake it off. Wishing I wasn’t caught in between. Wishing I could just walk away.

“She’s doing better,” I say and watch the easiness about him slowly dim as I wait for him to respond.

“She wants you. You know that?” He cocks a brow at me meant to be friendly in nature, but it’s not. I know he wants her. He fucking loves her, and she loves him. But I’d take her from him in a heartbeat. I want her just as much as he does. I can love her better. Treat her better. I can give her so much more.

“She should go now,” I tell him, ignoring his accusation and the way my blood pumps harder and hotter. I can’t look him in the eyes as the vision of having her again and again beneath me flashes before my eyes. She’d love me more.

“You want her too,” he says, and my eyes flash up to his. “You want to fuck her. Marry her?” he asks me with that same wicked grin on his face. “You want to put a baby in her and ride off into the sunset?” he asks and tilts his head, egging me on.

“I’d give her a better life than you ever could.” The words slip between my lips with a menacing growl.

He only laughs at me, then gives a sarcastic grunt and turns back to the mirror. Fucking prick. “You wish you could,” he says beneath his breath, gripping the sides of the countertop as his expression hardens. The real him showing. The anger and the hate.

“You’re using her,” I tell him, feeling the swell of anger rise. I crack my knuckles on my right hand with my thumb, trying to keep from balling it into a fist.

He turns to look at me, waiting for more.

“All you are is using her.”

“Maybe.” A confident smile stretches across his face, and the danger in his darkened eyes is so apparent, so real. “I am using her. And she fucking loves it.”

I can’t fucking take it anymore. I love her. I fucking love this woman who’s caught in a web of lies and hurt.

Adrenaline pumps through my body, burning up my skin. I hear the pulsing thud of my blood loud in my ears.

I won’t let him get away with it. It ends now.

A snarl rips through me as I slam both of my fists into Jay’s shoulders, landing hard and knocking into him with all my weight. I’m not used to this aggression. To this all-consuming rage, but when it comes to her, I can’t hold it back. She makes me feel a side of me I’ve never known. She makes me want more. And I want her all to myself.

Jay’s a fucking dead man.

He stumbles, smashing his shoulder and head against the bathroom wall. Before he gains his balance, I land a blow into his gut that nearly has him doubling over. But Jay’s taken enough punches to know how to handle them. He mutters under his breath, “Motherfucker!” while ramming his shoulder into my gut. My eyes shut tight with the spike of pain that shoots up my body.

My legs lose their balance as my boot backs into the tub, tripping me. I grit my teeth and cling to the shower curtain as it rips the bar down, falling violently with a loud clank into the tub behind me.

I fall hard on my knees and elbows onto the tile with Jay’s muscular frame crushing down on mine. I quickly wrap a leg around his calf and push my weight to the opposite shoulder, forcing him down on his back with me landing hard on his chest.

“She’s mine,” I tell him finally. “I won’t let you hurt her,” I say although I’m winded. He already has. He’s destroyed her and ruined something so beautiful and pure. “I fucking hate you,” I seethe at him.

My fist slams into the floor as I try to gain my balance and focus. It hurts like a bitch and splits my knuckles. My left hand grabs the collar of his shirt as I raise my bloodied right fist, eyes focusing on his pretty boy nose.

My breaths come in pants as he plants a punch on my left cheek before I’m able to gain my balance and take a swing at him. Fuck! I stagger back, both fists immediately going to my face to block any more punches. I land on my ass, but move to my feet the second I see Jay breathing heavy and struggling to get up.

“I hate you too,” he says with a smile. There’s blood coating his teeth as he sways in front of me. “I can’t tell you enough how much I fucking hate you.”

The venom in his voice is all too real, and I feel the same right back.

It’s me or him when it comes to Robin. “Between the two of us, she’ll choose me. Always,” he says as if reading my mind. The smile stays in place as he wipes the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand.

He’s right. My heart beats hard at the recognition. She’d choose him. And I can’t fucking let it happen. She deserves so much more. Someone better than him.

My hands grip around his throat and at first, I feel flesh, real hot flesh that my fingers sink into, but the harder I push, the more I try to choke the life from this bastard, the less it feels real.

My vision shifts and he’s no longer in front of me. My fingers are no longer around his throat, but instead on the edge of the mirror.

“Fuck you!” he sneers and he’s back, his vicious eyes piercing into me with a threat of death and I smash my forehead against his.

Glass splinters against my forehead, it smashes around me. I hear the crack, I can fucking feel it, but when I open my eyes, he’s there staring back at me. A smile on his face as he bashes his head into mine again and again and again.

A punishing abuse until I’m standing in front of a broken mirror, clinging to the edges of it and his image fades, leaving only my reflection.

My heart races, and my head’s dizzy with pain throbbing and shooting through me.