Victoria
Sage was still sleeping, but I couldn’t focus on her. I kept eyeing Trenton and his gun. Was it better or worse that he had taken it out? Probably worse. At least he seemed to have calm down a little since he announced that the gun was loaded. Maybe he felt like he was more in charge now. I didn’t know.
But it was time for me to try to make a play, for better or for worse. “I have to go to the bathroom,” I announced.
He had been staring at his gun, but now he lifted his gaze to me. “Go ahead and piss yourself.”
“Seriously?” I snapped. “You really think Sage’s gonna be happy with you letting her mom wet herself?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”
“You let me go earlier!”
“And you should be good. Wasn’t that long ago you went.”
I glowered at him. Did he suspect? Maybe I was telegraphing my plans by looking at the gun too much. Damn it! Time to change tactics slightly. “Do you really want to smell my urine until Grant arrives with the money?”
He glowered right back at me. “The smell would dissipate.”
Damn him! Fuck. My plan to get free had been thwarted. I just didn’t see how I could get my hands on his gun while tied up, and if he refused to untie me so I could pee, then how else could I convince? I doubted there was a way. Shit! If only he would leave the motel room. I wanted to talk to Sage alone again. “Fine,” I bit out. “I guess I’ll do my best to hold it, but don’t you dare complain if the room starts to smell.”
He actually cracked a small smile. “I won’t complain.”
I rolled my eyes, but at least he tucked his gun inside the back of his jeans. If I couldn’t get it away from him, it at least made me feel better to not have it in his hands.
Just then, my phone went off. Throughout our conversation, someone or someones had been trying to get ahold of me, calling every few minutes.
Trenton’s face turned purple. He was starting to get majorly agitated about it as he once again rejected the call. Maybe he should just turn it off already and be done with it.
“What the hell?” he grumbled a little loudly. “Did they put up a new tower or something now that you’re getting good reception?”
I had no illusions that it was Grant calling. He would’ve started calling a long time ago, hours ago. Maybe it was someone from the restaurant. Maybe a problem had come up. The mystery was too much for me, so I couldn’t help asking, “Who’s calling?”
Trenton’s gaze slid to Sage. She was stirring. “Corinne. Why the fuck is she calling you?”
“Oh.” My racing heartbeat slowed. A part of me had hoped it was Grant calling. Where the hell was he? He was coming for us, right? I wasn’t sure how long Trenton had held us captive, but it sure felt like forever. He kept the curtains pulled tight, so I couldn’t tell if it was night or day, and he also unplugged the alarm clock. He’d mumbled something about having a migraine. Guessed the bright light from the numbers didn’t help.
“Why the fuck is she calling you?” Trenton repeated. “I’m not gonna ask you again.”
“I called her a few times to see if she knew where Sage was,” I said calmly. “We got to talking some about her and her boyfriend, and I gave her some advice. She probably wants more.”
Sage stretched and sat up. She snorted and rolled her eyes. “No one wants dating advice from you, Victoria.”
I winced. Sage had gotten so deep into her role of being on Trenton’s side that she was back to talking down to me. Hell, she was so convincing that when she ganged up with him against me, it was almost impossible for me to not take it personally.
And it was even worse to hear her call me by my first name again after she’d called me Mom so many times after I found her. We haven’t been alone in forever—Trenton won’t leave the room and hadn’t had any more phone conversations, and he hadn’t even close the door to the bathroom when he showered so we couldn’t even talk then since he took the world’s quickest showers—so we were stuck using the plan from before with her trying to keep Trenton calm.
“Now, now,” Trenton said condescendingly, “Corinne knows to do the opposite of whatever she says.”
“Corinne probably wants to tell her just that. ‘I didn’t listen to your advice, and I’m so glad I didn’t!’” Sage giggled, but she wouldn’t look at me.
I swallowed hard. I could take the abuse—that was fine—but that didn’t mean that the words didn’t sting, even if I knew—hoped—Sage didn’t mean them.
And wasn’t that sad? That I wasn’t completely certain Sage had truly seen the light about Trenton. No. That was just my being paranoid. Sage had changed. She had learned. Maybe, if something good could come out of all of this huge mess, it was this—that Sage once and for all broke ties with Trenton. God willing, she would avoid all kinds of guys who were Trenton in disguise, and she’d hold out for a good guy, one who deserved her and who would make her happy and didn’t use and abuse her.
A guy like Grant.
My cheeks grew warm, and Trenton laughed cruelly. “I know you always said that your mom needed to get laid, but, hell, that doesn’t seem to have made her any less uptight.”
“That guy must not be a good lay.” Sage shrugged. “Are you hungry, babe?”
“Yeah. Want me to order a pizza?”
“Sure!”
Yes! Go order pizza and go pick it up!
But damn it all. He didn’t leave. He didn’t even have to make a phone call. He ordered straight from his phone, and it only took twenty minutes for the food to arrive. And before the delivery guy showed up, Trenton fucking gagged me. He pushed me and the tied up chair away so it wouldn’t be visible from the door.
As soon as the delivery guy knocked, Trenton grabbed the food and closed the door in the span of two seconds. Literally. Sage didn’t even have time to yell for help.
Did my level of hate for Trenton have no bounds?
As soon as he placed the pizza box on the bed, without having to be asked, Sage grabbed a large slice form the pie. Trenton sat on the bed, waiting expectantly, and Sage delivered. She walked right on over to him, sat on his lap, and proceeded to feed him a bite.
I had to look away. My stomach was churning. I was hungry, but I wasn’t about to ask for food.
Trenton ate eagerly, licking and kissing Sage’s fingers in between bites. She giggled and hugged him, and if he was anyone else, it might actually have been cute, but that was what Trenton was best at—being two-faced. Cute and sweet and endearing for a few minutes and then the next, cruel and demanding.
I hope you land your ass in jail. I shot daggers at him with my eyes. I hope you get straightened out one day.
And I really did.
Did I think that would ever happen, though?
Nope.
Trenton finished the pizza, and Sage stood to throw his paper plate away. He walked over to the sink and washed his hands when my cell rang again. He really should just turn it off.
I opened my mouth to ask him to do just that, but he removed it from his pocket. Maybe he was gonna do it with my having to mention it.
But he just stared down at it, scowling. “I don’t want her thinking you ran off, too,” he said slowly. “Answer it, but I swear, if you try to give her a hint as to any of this…” He removed his gun from tucked behind his back and pointed it at my head.
I nodded. “You gotta answer for me.”
“You do it,” he snapped.
I glanced at my bindings.
He flushed. “Sage, you gotta keep quiet, okay? Just for a little.” He threw me a wicked glance that made my skin crawl. “I know it’s not easy for you to stay quiet and all, babe, especially when we’re fucking, but…”
I grimaced. If I could kick him in the balls right now, I wouldn’t hesitate.
“I’ll be good,” Sage promised, but she walked over to him and pinched his butt. Everything from the cocky tilt of her head to her lopsided grin oozed of sexual appeal.
Actress is right. A damn good one, too. Maybe she should forget about going into psychology and just head for Hollywood.
Chuckling, Trenton whispered something in her ear before swiping for me and then putting the call on speaker.
“Victoria? Are you there?” Corinne’s loud voice filled the room.
“I’m here.” I cleared my throat. “What’s up?”
“So I did what you said.”
Trenton snorted and covered his mouth.
“What was that?” Corinne asked.
“The TV,” I lied smoothly. “So you…” What had I told her to do? Oh, yeah. “You went out and had a day to yourself. How did it go?”
“Terribly!” she wailed. “I had never been more bored in my life. I am so not meant to be single!”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I watched a few movies on Netflix, but then I remembered that you really wanted me to leave the house, so I went to the movies and watched a romantic comedy, and it was just so perfect and funny and sappy, and my life isn’t like that at all.”
“No one’s is.”
“But that’s what I want,” she said. “I need that. I need the happiness. I need a break.”
“A break from…”
“From everything!” she wailed.
Trenton rolled his eyes. Sage bit her lower lip. She opened her mouth, closed it, and dropped her gaze to the ground.
“Then take a break,” I suggested, staring at Sage. “How did Jack take you having a day to yourself?”
“He didn’t care for it.”
“Why not?” I asked. I was only half paying attention to the conversation. Should I be trying to warn Sage through my talk with Corinne? Or should I be trying to relay a hint to Corinne? But how? Trenton was stilling pointing the gun to me with one hand, the cell in his other. While I didn’t think he would actually shoot me, I also didn’t want to set him off. He had been disappearing into the bathroom a lot more often lately—never for long and he always kept the door open—but his personality would always change then. He’d laugh more, his eyes were glossy, and I had a feeling he had a stash of drugs hidden away. Whenever his high came down, he tended to be either sad or angry.
“None of his friends were around, so he was forced to have a day to himself, too,” she said.
“Maybe that was a good thing,” I said. “You could both see how you were alone and—”
“I’m not sure he was alone,” she said quietly.
“What do you mean?”
“I think he cheated on me.”
Sage made a low sound from her throat, and Trenton shot her a warning glare. She clapped her hands over her mouth and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.
“Do you have any proof?” I asked. Why had Sage reacted that way? Just because she was upset that her best friend might have been cheated? Or because it struck a nerve closer to home?
I couldn’t help myself. I glowered at Trenton. Had he ever cheated on her? Sage hadn’t always told me the reason for their many break ups. I had assumed they would just get into fights, but maybe cheating had been involved.
Asshole.
Trenton leveled me a cool glare back.
“I…I found…” Corinne sniffed.
“What did you find?” I asked gently. Forget trying to send a message. Corinne was hurting. Even though I was tied up and kidnapped, I might still be able to help her.
“A condom,” she wailed.
I hesitated. While I didn’t want details, I kinda had to have them. “How do you know it wasn’t for you?”
“Because it’s the kind with spermicide. I can’t use that kind. Allergic to it. Why would he have that kind of condom unless he was cheating on me?”
“Might it have been from a previous relationship?”
There was a slight pause. “I don’t think so.”
“Come on, Corinne. You’ve…” I trailed off. Mentioning all the guys she’d been with over the years might not be the best way to go about making her feel better.
“The condom was in his top dresser drawer. It hadn’t been there before.”
“Does he have a roommate?” I suggested. I couldn’t remember. One thing I did have to give Corinne credit for was that she didn’t move in with all the guys she dated. She kept her own apartment. She might not actually spend a lot of time there, but if she needed to, she did have a place she could go to.
“No.” She sighed. “I know you’re trying to make me feel better, but shouldn’t you be telling me to dump his ass?”
“I think you should talk to him. Ask him about the condom. Don’t confront him about it. See what he has to say about it. Then decide if you believe him or not and figure out what you wanna do after that.”
There was another slight pause. Trenton was tapping his foot. He gestured with his hand holding the gun for me to wrap it up.
“I can’t just ask him—”
“Why not?” I demanded. “A relationship is about trust. You need to trust him—to tell you the truth, to not be cheating on you. A relationship is also about communication. You have to talk to him. Don’t you want to know the truth?”
“Maybe it’s better not to know.” She sounded torn.
“No,” I said firmly. “Being in the dark isn’t ever good enough. You can’t have a real relationship if one side is keeping secrets. I get that you’re scared, that you don’t want to learn that he’s cheating on you, but—”
“So you think he is cheating on me.” She blew out air. “Damn it. Where the hell is Sage? I wanna talk to her. We need to go out and get drunk and—”
“You wanna go out, go out.” I avoided looking at Trenton, but I could still feel his irritation and anxiety rolling off him in waves. He was getting worried. Afraid I’d slip up. I wasn’t gonna slip up, but I might try to plant some seeds into Corinne’s head. “I know you think I’m all dried up, that I don’t need sex like you do,” I started, “but that’s not true. I’ve been having some lately, and—”
“You have?” Corinne perked up for the first time since we started talking.
“Yes. And it’s actually with a friend of Trenton’s. The guy in charge of the—”
Trenton shoved the gun’s barrel into the middle of my forehead.
I gulped. “Anyhow, we’re not just fucking. We’re not just having sex. We’re making love. And there’s a difference.”
“Yeah, yeah. I know—”
“Do you?” I pressed. “Because sometimes it can be confusing. Find someone who loves you and that you love back. Find someone to make love with. Find someone you can talk to without fear about any topic. Find someone you can do more than just spend time underneath the sheets with.”
Corinne hmmed. “And you think I need to find myself first before I can find someone like that.”
“I’m not saying you have to find someone new. For all we know, that condom means nothing. Or maybe it does. Maybe Jack isn’t the guy for you. You deserve a fairytale, Corinne. You deserve happiness. Don’t settle.”
I sure hoped Sage was listening despite being in the bathroom. She needed to hear this, too.
“Good advice. Sage’s been right.”
“About?” I felt shocked, and Trenton looked shocked himself.
“You needing to get laid. You’re actually giving really good advice. Huh. So you’re getting some. What’s his name again?”
I can’t risk it, and Trenton’s lifting the gun so it’s level with my forehead. “I gotta go,” I said in a rush. “My guy’s gonna be coming along soon, and—”
“Say no more! Thanks, Sage’s mom!”
Trenton disconnected the call. “Why the fuck did you—”
“I didn’t mention his name,” I said calmly, doing my best to ignore the cool metal pressed against my forehead. “And it’s not like his name would cause an issue anyhow. Corinne’s not gonna do any digging.”
Actually, I was kinda hoping Corinne would be nosy. That she’d find out Grant. That she might try to find him and ask for details. Because if she can hunt him down, at least Grant would know I’m all right. It was a stretch, but my options were so limited right now that I would take what I could get.
Trenton cocked back his arm. Was he gonna hit me with the gun again? Better that than him firing it.
“Trenton,” Sage called from the bathroom. Her voice sounded a little shaky.
Uh oh. My stomach twisted nervously. She wasn’t gonna start deviating from the plan, was she? For the most part, it was going well.
“What is it, babe?” Trenton called, his arm upraised yet.
“Can’t I go and see Corinne?” she pleaded. She walked out of the bathroom, and Trenton immediately lowered his arm, but he didn’t out the gun away. Her eyes were puffy, and her nose was red. She held a wad of toilet paper to her nose. “She needs me. Jack is—”
“An ass. I hated that guy from the start. Tried to tell you both. If you would’ve listened to me, none of this would’ve happened.” Trenton scowled.
Sage took a deep breath. She was trembling. Uh oh. I had a bad feeling about this. Really bad. Sage, you don’t wanna provoke him. Not when he has his gun out. I tried to catch her gaze, but she was staring at the worn carpet.
“You’re right. She should’ve taken your thoughts into account,” Sage started.
I winced. Yeah, because every girl cared about what her best friend’s guy thought. Somehow, I refrained from rolling my eyes. “Maybe,” I said, but before I could say more, Sage cut me off.
“I know you never cheated on me,” she continued, and I felt marginally better, “and I never cheated on you, but Corinne…She’s been through so much. Let me go and—”
“You aren’t leaving,” Trenton said coldly. A muscle in his jaw jumped, and he was tapping his gun against his thigh, like he wanted to remind us that he had it.
“Corinne will be fine,” I said.
I stared at Sage, trying to give her some of my strength. She just needed to hold out a little longer. Just a little longer. Grant had to be coming. He had to be. Traffic must’ve held him up, but he would make it through soon.
I hoped. I prayed.
“So will we,” I continued. “We’ll all be fine. We’ll walk away and—”
“And what?” Trenton snapped. “Go back to our happy lives? Don’t you see?” he hissed. “Nothing will be like it was.”
My gaze shifted to the gun. “No it won’t,” I said a little coolly. Damn. Even I was losing my composure. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t all survive this.” Fuck. My voice cracked a little. If I couldn’t remain strong, how could I expect Sage to be?
“Baby,” Sage said, coming over to Trenton and holding onto his arm.
Good. She needed to calm him down. His face was red, and if he were a cartoon, smoke would be coming out of his ears. She had worked magic on him earlier. She could do it again.
He jerked away from her. “Don’t touch me,” he growled.
“Two hours,” she begged. “That’s all I need.”
Oh, Sage. Stop. He won’t let you go. Stop asking for it. He’s just gonna get more pissed off!
“No.” He sat down on the edge of the bed, his hands on his head, the gun pointing toward the wall. As long as he had that out, I couldn’t breathe right.
“Then the phone,” Sage pleaded. “Let me call her and—”
“No!” Trenton jerked to his feet so suddenly, so swiftly, Sage stumbled backward.
“Why not?” Sage caught herself, straightened, and narrowed her eyes. Her tears had dried up, and now she was pissed.
Fuck. Fighting fire with fire wasn’t going to go over well at all.
“You let her talk to Corinne.” She gestured violently toward me. “Why can’t I?”
“Just do what I say, and it’ll all work out,” Trenton growled, his voice low and menacing.
“Work out? You’ll pay off the drug lord and then what? You’d have to skip town, get a new place, find a job…What do you wanna bet that there won’t be any jobs? Then what? Gonna go back to selling drugs?” Savanah was fuming mad.
I had to try to stop this. “I’m sure he’ll be able to find a job doing…”
But they both ignored me, not that I could think up of a job.
“What do you mean?” he asked slowly.
“What do I mean? Come on, Trenton! You can’t expect—”
“A mechanic!” I shouted. “Trenton, you could be a mechanic. Just think about the amount of money you could charge per hour! It would be perfect! You like motorcycles, right? You have to be handy with them.”
He didn’t even glance my way. The look on his face as he stalked toward Sage left me terrified. “What do you mean I’ll have to skip town?” he asked, his voice terribly cold.
I tried to jerk my wrists, twisting and yanking, trying to loosen the impossibly tight restraints, but I was bound too tightly. I couldn’t get free.
Sage backed up. “You…You don’t listen to me,” she said, her voice quivering.
He advanced more. “You don’t listen to me half the time.”
She bumped into the TV as she kept backing up. “You don’t care about my friends.”
“You never cared for mine.” He narrowed the distance between them.
By now, Sage was as far away from him as she could get, trapped in a corner.
He stood in front of her, arms up, pining her there in place. “You aren’t planning on leaving me, are you?”
There was a raw edge of pain in his voice. Despite his loudness, despite his threats, despite his anger, he cared, almost too much. He had made Sage his whole world, pinned all of his faith and trust in her. Too bad he didn’t know how to treat her right so that she’s stay by his side.
“Trenton,” she said desperately.
I had to say something, anything to get them to stop. “I have to pee!” I shouted even though that tactic hadn’t worked earlier.
Neither looked at me.
“Well?” Trenton demanded.
“I…I don’t…”
“Don’t what?” His grip on the gun tightened. It wasn’t pointed at her, but how long would that remain the case?
“Fire!” I shrieked, desperate enough to try screaming again. “Help! Someone call the police! We’re being—”
Something hard slammed against my head. For a second, my vision darkened to total blackness, but then I blinked and lifted my head.
Trenton was staring down at me. “You pull that shit again, and I swear I’ll kill you.”
My head was pounding, and my ears were ringing. I knew I mouthed the word, “Fire,” but whether or not I actually said it, I didn’t know.
He brought up his arm again.
Sage grabbed his arm and pulled back. “Don’t you hit her!” she shrieked. “You stupid fuck. Don’t you see you ruined everything? I thought I loved you. I wanted to live with you, to marry you, to have our lives be one. I didn’t need money. I needed you! But you had to go and get sucked back up into the darkness. You had to go and fuck it all up.” She took a deep breath, and I thought she was going to burst into tears, but she just narrowed her eyes and slammed her fists onto his chest. “You—”
He grabbed both of her wrists with one hand. “‘Loved,’ huh? You mean to tell me you don’t love me anymore?”
Her eyes went wide, and she twisted around to look at me.
Tell him you love him still, I tried to tell her with my eyes.
“I…” She hesitated.
“Don’t look at her!” Trenton shook Sage.
She shrieked. “You’re hurting me!”
“Do you love me?” Trenton demanded.
“Do you love me?” Sage countered.
Good. That might work.
“Or do you love your drugs or money more?” she continued.
Fuck.
Trenton went to strike her.
I lunged forward, and the chair tipped over, clattering to the ground with me still tied to it.
Trenton, cursing under his breath, put me back upright. He kept his face inches from mine. “You did this. You twisted her against me.”
A sudden wave of lethargy washed over me. “No,” I said, my speech slurring slightly. “You did that yourself.”
Sage was back to crying again, like she had when I first came. Had he broken her? Damn it. This wasn’t good. What the fuck could I do to get us out of this mess?
“Trenton,” I said desperately.
“Shut up,” he directed toward Sage. He turned back to me. “That goes for you, too.”
I glowered at him. Who the fuck did he think he was? The sympathy I might’ve felt for him was swiftly disappearing. At some point, you had to stop using your upbringing as an excuse and start taking responsibility for your actions. And his actions weren’t of a man in love. More like a man who desperately wanted some measure of control. “Trenton, you have one last chance,” I said. “Let us go. I’ll give you some money. You can create an alias and start over fresh, away from the drugs and all of that crap. Or you can wait for Grant to come. Because you know he’s coming. And it won’t be with the money.”
“You think Grant’s gonna save you, honey?” He laughed long and loud and obnoxiously. “Grant doesn’t give a damn about anyone.”
A shiver ran down my spine. I didn’t believe what he was saying. I couldn’t. Grant did give a damn—about me, about Trenton even.
“If you thought he doesn’t give a damn about me,” I said slowly.
He started to nod. “Then why the whole ransom bit? Just in case. I’m running out of options, and that makes me desperate.” The guy actually stroked his gun, petting it.
I swallowed hard. He had crossed the line into madness. Whether or not it was drug-induced or full blown, I didn’t know and it didn’t matter.
Think, Victoria! How can you calm him down?
Talking about the past was out. That would only get him to remember bad memories. Talking about the future was out, too. Money issues would only cause him more stress. What about right now?
Thinking about Corinne made me think about the beach, and I blurted out, “What about a destination wedding?”
Sage burst into a fresh round of tears, and I did my best not to grimace. Yeah, dangling her before him might not be for the best, but Trenton wasn’t the only one running out of options.
“You could pick an island. Get married on the beach. Start a new life. Trenton, you don’t have to do this!”
He kneeled down in front of me. “Oh, but, Victoria, here’s the thing: I already am. And aren’t parents supposed to encourage kids to see things through until the bitter end?”
“The end doesn’t have to be bitter,” I said softly.
Trenton glowered at Sage over his shoulder. “It already is.”
Fuck. If he thought things between him and Sage were really over, it would only make him that much more desperate, that much more unpredictable.
“Yes, it is,” Sage said. She continued to cry, but she seemed angrier now. “How can you expect me to want to be with you when you would tie up my mom? Threaten us with a gun?”
“I was doing this all for you! Can’t you see that?” he asked, almost pleading, although his tone was getting edgier and angrier, too.
“I think—” I started, but neither of them were paying me any attention.
“You’ve always been so demanding,” Sage said.
“Me? What about you? You always wanted me to buy you shit like that stupid dress that made your ass look huge.”
“There’s no need for—”
Again, they ignored me.
“Maybe if you had been truthful about how the dress looked on me—” Sage started.
“It’s not about the fucking dress!” he shouted.
“Damn straight it’s not. It’s about how you couldn’t be completely truthful ever. I liked you right from the start because you were mysterious, you were a bad ass, and you had charm. But you took forever to open up to me to shed the mystery, you could be just a plain ass, and you were charming only when you wanted to be.”
“I opened up to you,” he protested, his voice not quite so loud this time.
Sage was breathing heavily, but she also seemed to be calming down a little. “Yes, but even that was like getting you to pull teeth. You only give me little bits here and there, and honestly, Trenton, I’m still not sure I have the whole story.”
“You do,” he said, but he lowered his head, no longer looking at her. At least he put his gun away—that made me breathe easier, although I still didn’t have a good feeling about things.
“You know my whole story.” Sage sniffled some.
“I do.” Trenton nodded. He reached toward her, but then he lowered his hand. Good. He better not touch her.
Because Sage slid me a glance. She was back to acting again, I could tell, but if he touched her, that spell she was weaving might crumble. How in the world had she gotten so strong?
“So how could you have done this?” Sage asked quietly. “How could you have turned to drugs when you know my mom did that? She picked drugs over me, Trenton.” Her voice was low, but intense.
“I didn’t—”
“You did. You’re using again. Damn it, Trenton! You said the last time would be the last, and I believed you!”
What the hell? Sage knew he’d used drugs recently? Why hadn’t she told me? Why hadn’t I been a better mom that she would come to me with that kind of info?
“I was clean for—”
“What, five months? Trenton, we’ve been together how long? Why—”
“You’ve never done drugs,” he said, snarling. “You don’t know what it’s like.”
“And I don’t want to know! I’ve never wanted to know! Drugs ruined my mom’s life. She’s in jail because of it, and I’m glad!”
“Is that what you want for me? Is it? Huh?” He stalked toward her.
Sage didn’t back down. “I think you need help.”
“Help?” He moved so quickly Sage didn’t have time to react—he backhanded her.
She gasped, and her hand went to her cheek.
“Don’t you dare hit her!” I yelped.
The gun came back out, and, eyes wild, he stared me down. “Don’t you dare tell me what to do!”
“Trenton!” Sage shrieked. She didn’t back away yet, and she visibly tried to gather her bearings. “Sometimes…Sometimes you have to let someone g-go…”
He said nothing, his gaze shifting back and forth between us, the gun somewhat gestured in my direction.
Better me than Sage.
“Sometimes you have to let someone go when you love them,” she said, her voice trembling.
“That’s bullshit,” Trenton said. “You never loved me, did you?”
“Of course I did!” Tears streamed down Sage’s face, but silently. She wasn’t sobbing.
“You never cared about me. You’re all the same. No one…” Trenton shook his head, crossed over to me, and pressed the gun to the middle of my forehead.
“Do it,” I taunted him. “Do it and you’ll never be with Sage again.”
He pressed harder, and I did my best not to wince. Hell, did that hurt! “I’ll do it. I’ll off you. Off her. Off myself. We can be together,” he breathed. “You and me, baby. Together forever.”
“In life, Trenton,” Sage said, sounding the scariest she had yet. “In life, Trenton, not death!”
“What kind of life will we have, Sage? Tell me that. I’ve fucked it up. I’ve fucked it all up. I know that.” His hand was shaking, but the gun was always facing me. “We can’t have a life together.”
“You…You don’t know that…” Sage dashed forward and yanked on his arm.
“If Grant comes with the money,” I said.
“I don’t think he will.”
“Why not? You’re a part of Devil’s Horns, right? You’re a part of his family. He would never hurt—”
“He cares about you,” Trenton interrupted me. “You’re his family now. And I crossed the line. I know I did, and I did it anyway. I’m screwed. Either Grant will come for me or the drug lord will, and I’m gonna end up dead either way. I’m a dead man.”
He turned toward Sage, but I could still see his face. There was love there and fear—so much fear.
“We don’t all have to die,” Sage whispered.
Just like that, the love in his eyes died.
Desperation rolled over me, and my stomach was so twisted and knotted that I thought I was going to throw up. “Grant doesn’t think of me as family,” I argued. “We fucked a few times, yeah, but that’s it. We’re nothing serious.”
Trenton wasn’t even looking at me. “You would rather live without me than with me.”
“Because of the stunts you pulled lately, well, yeah! I know people make mistakes, Trenton, but this…” Sage started to sniff. Back to the angry crying. “This is bullshit, Trenton! Let me and my mom go!”
“I can’t. I can’t. You…Sage, I know I screwed up—”
“Shut it, Trenton. This isn’t something you can fix with words or money or sex. We’re…”
“Don’t you dare say it,” he growled.
“We’re done!” she shouted.
Trenton lunged toward Sage. She darted to the left, but he grabbed ahold of her hair and yanked her backward. Fuck. He still had the gun!
I jerked and twisted and jerked some more, and my chair moved slightly toward them. Sage was clawing at Trenton’s face and arms, and he yelped and threw her away from him and onto the floor. He didn’t point the gun at her, though. It was pointed back to me.
Sage’s eyes went wide. “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Wouldn’t I?” His eyes were wild. “I have nothing to live for if I don’t have you. There’s no going back now.”
“There…” Tears streamed down her face, and I could barely make out what she was saying. “There won’t be if you kill my mom. If you ever want a chance for us…If I ever meant anything to you…”
Trenton’s hand began to shake. “I can’t handle this,” he muttered. Sweat appeared on his forehead, and he was shivering. “Sage…” He had pinned all of his hopes and dreams and happiness on her, but she hadn’t been enough for him. He was too damaged. No girl would’ve been enough. That was the thing. One person can’t equal your happiness. You had to create happiness within yourself and without, too. You needed someone to balance you out, someone who challenged you, someone who opened your eyes to new horizons. You needed someone who made you a better person.
Trenton sure as hell didn’t do that for Sage considering how many fights she and I would get into after she spent some time with him. Trenton had no respect for authority, not after the stunts his parents pulled. Grant had tried to straighten him out, and Sage had done some, obviously. I never would’ve thought Trenton would have talked to me like he did earlier. Then again, those other sides of him, like when he hit me with the gun, that was the asshole who needed to get the hell out of our lives pronto.
These thoughts flew through my head in seconds. Sage lunged forward toward Trenton.
Trenton jerked away.
I tried to move my chair more, but it was caught.
The gun when off.
Sage screamed.
I did, too.