“Princess,” he repeated, smirking cruelly. “Princess, princess, princess—”
I whacked his chest again and then rounded his body. My leg slammed against a crate of knives, and I screamed, “FUCK!” as I limped away from him. I went to grab at the mattress, but Miles was there before me, pushing me back. He picked up the mattress, and then a knife from the crate it was on, and then he tore it up, slashing it up and down from top to bottom until it was confetti on the floor. My mouth dropped in shock as he did it with that pleased look in his eye.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” I hollered, feeling my eyes well with tears. Why was he doing this? “Just stop it, Miles! Leave me alone!”
He sheathed the knife and threw it back down into the crate. “I gave you a few days to feel sorry for yourself, but now you gotta fucking stop. You’re building walls—”
“Why the fuck does it concern you what I do—”
“Because I ain’t giving Hunter half of his old lady back!” he cut in, glowering now. “He told me what you do, Skye. You build those walls, you grow cold, and it takes everyone around you to pull you out of it—you gotta learn to pull yourself out of it!” He slammed a hand against his chest. “Stop depending on everyone around you to do the work!”
Too stunned to speak, I just stood there, staring at him, my breath held tight in my lungs as he angrily stormed out of the room. “I want you to fucking bathe!” he ordered before he left. “Put on another change of clothes—there are some old ladies’ batch of stuff in the first bedroom. You ain’t allowed out until you smell clean and have your hair brushed. And when you’re fucking done looking like a human fucking being, you’re going to suck it the fuck up and cook us something good to eat.”
*
He didn’t want us eating food in the kitchen. Instead, he cleaned up the patio in the back which had a picnic table. I found a can of spam and baked beans. It wasn’t anything special, but it was food in the belly.
My hair was still damp when we sat down to our plates. He dug in without a word as I glanced at him and then our surroundings. I couldn’t see any mountains here. We were under some shade, but the heat of summer was still raging, despite it being close to September. A few flies buzzed around, and in the distance, I could hear a wolf’s howl, which I thought odd because it wasn’t evening yet and they weren’t usually out so early.
“Hunter—”
“If you’re asking about him, I swear to fuck, woman, I will explode,” he cut in with a warning, his eyes meeting mine for a brief moment.
My lips flinched as I said again, “Hunter will like it here.”
His shoulders relaxed, like he’d expected a throwdown. “Yeah, he will.”
I moved the fork around on the plate, saying quietly, “Leo won’t.”
“Not fancy enough for the rich fucker?”
“Too isolated,” I explained. “He was born to shine.”
Miles shot me a curious look. “What about you?”
I looked back at him. “What about me?”
“Did you shine with him all these months?”
I didn’t answer, but my brain raced. I felt a strange tremble in my fingers, like I wanted to bunch them into a fist because…I couldn’t explain my feelings his simple question triggered in me.
It wasn’t pain.
It wasn’t sadness, either.
No, it was…it was rage.
“I didn’t shine,” I let out.
Miles paused eating, seeming surprised I answered at all. He stared at me, his expression loaded with questions. As if a weight was released from my chest just from that admittance, I took my first bite of food in days.