16. 16

16

Ember

I had a headache when I woke up, but that was only the first detail that quickly sank in for me. I was on a bed, but it wasn’t mine, and that momentary loss of memory had me panicking, and checking my clothes hadn’t been messed with. Had someone hurt me? Why couldn’t I remember?

“You’re fine, just on my bed, because I had no fucking idea what to do with you after.” I sat up in a rush at Ethan’s voice, and spotted him sitting on the floor with his back to the wall, beside the closed door of his room.

Now that I knew I was with him, that relief about being fully clothed, and untouched, was replaced with disappointment. It wasn’t that I wanted him touching me when I wasn’t aware of it, but didn’t he want me at all? It felt like he did when he kissed me.

Ethan was watching me as I sat up and looked around his room. My head throbbed with the movement and I groaned, reaching up to cup the side of it.

“I had no choice. You were going to kill her,” he said quietly, looking about as low and listless as I’d ever seen him. Gone was the smartly dressed, professional man I’d known. His crumpled t-shirt and jeans, coupled with bare feet, scruffed up hair, and that stubbly beard, were so alien to me, because it was the opposite of the way he’d always appeared when he came to my house.

“Ethan?”

He dragged his forearm across his face, more specifically across his eyes.

“I had no choice, Em. You gave me no choice, but I never wanted to hurt you. I had to stop you.” Clearly he’d done something to render me unconscious, but it was the reason for it that bothered me the most. He did it to save her.

“Do you love her?” I asked, feeling my heart already breaking in two at the mere words. If he loved her, then he’d never love me, would he? I was just this foolish kid who’d misread every signal, every touch and kiss, and now we were both paying the price.

A sudden thud made me jump, drawing my attention back to him. His palm rested on the wooden floor, but he was glaring right at me.

“That’s what you care about? Not that you were about to murder a person, but do I love her? You realise it’s technically none of your business, right? This isn’t… we’re not in a relationship or something, Ember. This is some twisted mess we’re both stuck with, but, Jesus, no, okay? I don’t love her. I’ve never been interested in her. She was a friend. Someone to have a few drinks with now and then.”

“She’s a woman!” It didn’t make sense that there weren’t feelings involved, especially when I’d seen them kissing.

“Men and women can be friends, you know,” he said, with a slight twitch of his lips at those words.

“You were kissing her,” I reminded him, even though I wished I could sear the image from my brain, so I didn’t have to see it ever again.

Ethan sighed, scratching the top of his head for a moment.

“She kissed me. She caught me off guard that night, but I’d have pushed her away. You didn’t give me the chance to do that though. You put a brick through my window instead.”

I scooted to the edge of the bed, wanting less of a vast distance between us for the most important conversation of my life.

“You never told my family that part. You never mentioned me coming here at all. Why?”

He lifted his shoulders in a shrug.

“Who knows. Maybe I just wanted them to help us keep a distance between us, because it got out of hand. I never expected it to lead to all of this, but this is where we are now.”

I slipped off the end of the bed, moving onto my knees a few feet away from him, frowning when he flinched a little, and moved his legs up and away from me. Was he afraid of me? Disgusted by me?

“And where is that, Ethan?”

He hugged his legs tight against him as he closed his eyes.

“I have no fucking idea, Em.”

Ethan

I’D brOUGHT HER TO my house, but the longer she was here, the more I was expecting a visit, either from the police if Suzy reported her, which technically she really should, or if her dads found her here.

Since I’d literally choked a young woman out and carried her against her will into my home, I had a feeling the outcome would be dire, no matter who showed up first.

“Will your dads find you here?” I asked finally, no longer dreading my death at their hands, because what was left to live for? Maybe it’d be a relief when it was over, because I’d no longer be fighting what I wanted, or grieving for what I’d lost. I’d be free.

Ember gasped, lifting her phone from her pocket, and dialled a number on it on speaker. What the hell was she doing? I lunged in her direction to snatch the phone, but she dodged me, moving back to sit against the foot of my bed.

“Yo. What now?” I heard a guy ask, but it wasn’t either of her dads by the sound of it.

“Blaze, is anyone tracking me right now?” Fuck. I stared at her while she chewed her lip, and I realised that the likelihood was clearly higher than I’d thought.

“Just me. Why, do I need to tell someone where you are?” He cursed a moment later, before she could answer. “You’re with him, aren’t you? Is he keeping you there against your will? I’ll fucking kill him, you know I will!” Jesus Christ.

Her brother sounded about as fucked up as her dads, and her, for that matter. Were they all psychotic? What did I get myself into when I took this job? Clearly, my destruction.

“Blaze, will you shut up? I needed to talk to him, but I need to know our dads aren’t going to show up here.” Was I holding my breath, waiting for help to come from this savage young man? You bet your ass I was.

A frustrated groan preceded his response.

“Fuck, okay, I won’t tell them, but don’t make me regret this, because I agree with them, and you should stay away from this sick fuck.”

“I-”

Ember waved at me to be quiet, and I actually did, because what was I going to do? Argue with Blaze, and say I'm a good guy really? Pretend that I didn’t choke his little sister out, and carry her to my bedroom against her will? What the hell would he think of that kind of behaviour? He was right. I was clearly a sick fuck.

“Look, Em, I’ll stay quiet for as long as I can, but remember something important. Dad Dory knows how to do this stuff too. Who do you think I learned it from? If you used mum’s car, he’ll have a tracker on it. Probably several. He could find you anytime from whatever tracking he has on that. I just tracked your phone, but that’s not the only way, get it?”

Shit! “Where would trackers be on the car, Blaze?”

Ember looked deadly serious, but Blaze just laughed.

“Yeah, I’m not stupid enough to tell you that, sis. Say what you need to say to your perv teacher, and get home. I’m checking in with them in an hour, and if you’re not back, I’ll tell them to look there for you.”

Ember ended the call, and switched her phone off, shoving it in her pocket.

“I need to check mum’s car for trackers, before my dads find me here.”

“Or you could just go home, like Blaze said. I’m not the man for you, Em. I’m literally the worst possible man for you. Look at me. I have nothing. No career, no money, no future. I’ll be homeless soon, and I’m too old for you anyway. Too old, I was your teacher, I couldn’t be more wrong for you.”

She tossed her hair back and glared at me.

“I don’t accept that, now stay here while I check the car. Once I know the trackers are disabled, or thrown away, we can go somewhere else. We can talk, without the threat of them finding us hanging over us.”

She was running down the stairs even as I was still trying to find a response for her comment. Go somewhere else? Where the fuck would we go? I had no other options. What did we need to talk about anyway?

I paced my room, waiting for Ember to return, wondering why the fuck I was letting myself get caught up in her again, but see the thing is… I have nothing left to lose, and the cause of my destruction? She’s in my grasp. I could just… take her, keep her, enjoy her.

She’d pushed me to my limits, she’d destroyed my life, she thought she wanted me, so maybe she should get me.