“You'll let me go willingly?”
“If that's what you want, Rachel. I'm bored with playing the big, bad guard. If you don't want to be here, you can leave. It's as simple as that.”
Shit.
This was all falling apart quicker than I could handle.
I didn't want to leave.
Did I?
I didn't know what I wanted, but Dante was making it clear he wasn't fighting for me anymore.He had to pull me along every step of the way, and I guess he was sick of having someone so unwilling around him. The only time I willingly went along was when we were fucking. Seems like that wasn’t enough for him.
I don't know why that filled me with so much hurt.
He always said he didn’t want to lie to me, or pretend to be something he wasn’t. Which is why he had always shown me the worst version of himself. But I had never lied to him either. Once we were past the initial stage where I retreated behind my blankness, I never lied to him either. I showed him what I was really like, and I was honest that I didn’t want to be here.
I guess honesty was a one-way street. And it also meant that my question had been answered.
Head vs heart.
My head was confused. My heart was hurting.
But emotions shouldn’t be ruling. Crash was right.
“So, what do I do? Can I leave during lockdown?”
“You can leave whenever you're ready. If you want to go now, I'll see if Vienna or Hacksaw can drive you. I'd recommend staying at a hotel for a few nights.”
“Okay. I'll go get my things together. I'd like to leave tonight. There's no point putting off the inevitable.”
My pride wouldn't let me back down. If he was letting me go, I was going. There was no way I was going to let myself be vulnerable and tell him I wanted to stay.
I had been rejected by so many people in my life, I genuinely couldn’t stand it if he rejected me too.
Dante would never fucking reject you, and you know it!
“Okay.”
I nodded and turned away from him, too late to pay heed to the inner voice screaming at me to listen to reason.
My hand had barely pulled the door open an inch before it was slammed shut, and two large hands were spinning me around, and Dante's huge body was pinning me against the wood.
“You stupid, stubborn bitch,” he hissed at me, his eyes wild with anger. His huge hand came up to my face, his fingers digging into my jaw as he pushed my head back and forced me to look at him.
My body came to life.
An angry, feral Dante I could deal with.
Chapter 14
Rachel
“When are you going to stop running from me, Rachel? When are you going to put your pride aside and admit you want to be here?”
I said nothing. I just looked up at him through my lashes.
This wasn’t feral Dante. There wasn’t a smidge of anger on his face.
