Taking What's His

Chapter 16

I stood frozen in his hold, afraid to even move a muscle. The sound of my heartbeat pumping through my ears deafening me to the sounds of my family that sat in the living room just down the hall from us. So close and yet they couldn't help me.

"You're going to go back over there and say goodbye. I'm going to wait in the car and you better be sitting in the passenger seat buckled in within the next two minutes or I'm coming in after you." He whispered into my ear, the feeling of his breath blowing against my ear making a shiver run down my spine.

"Two minutes mate." He said again before releasing me, pulling away and I couldn't help but stumble back a step when I finally caught sight of his face. His eyes were glowing red and the fury they contained within them made my heart skip a beat before going into overdrive and thundering so hard against my ribcage his eyes flickered down to it.

I forced myself to move though it felt like my legs had turned boneless. I walked back into the room trying my best to school my expression so my family wouldn't see how terrified I was.

"I have to go, there's an emergency in his pack." I said, not even giving them the time to get up, hugging them all quickly as they watched me in bewilderment before rushing out, ignoring them as they called out to me.

I pulled the door to his car open and sank down in the seat, closing the door behind myself. My trembling hands made doing up the seatbelt difficult and it took me over three tries to get it. I could feel his gaze burning into me but he didn't make a move to help, merely waiting until I had done it before stepping on the accelerator immediately.

I didn't dare turn back to look at my house, catching one last glance of it from the side-view mirror as he took a sharp turn out of my driveway. The atmosphere in the car was suffocating, his rage felt like a thick fog that had settled between us and I couldn't get even a single breath through it. My head was beginning to go light before we even merged onto the highway but I didn't have the courage to move a single muscle let alone open my window.

Cold sweat began to bead at my forehead and upper lip as I wondered what he knew. Was it possible he somehow knew about the conversation between my mom and I, though we had been careful to text? Perhaps he had heard me reassuring Nora that I was okay and connected the dots. I feared to even consider that he knew about the letter.

I couldn't imagine what he would do to me if he knew I had received a letter from Ethan or that I had sent one back. I didn't want to think about what he could do to Ethan.

I snuck a glance at him from the corner of my eye, hoping my curtain of hair would keep him from noticing. He was staring straight ahead, tense as a rod and grip so hard on the steering wheel his fingers had indented it.

My breathing grew more constricted at the sight and I didn't dare look over again. My palms grew clammy but I kept my hands folded tightly in my lap, clenching them together so hard it hurt but it was my only source of comfort as we grew closer to his house.

He was driving so fast the other cars were merely a blur and as terrible as it was I hoped fervently that we would hit into someone. Anything so that I wouldn't have go into that house with him again and incur his wrath.

I knew I had to get it together, if the worst case were true and he knew about the letters then I had to convince him not to go after Ethan, no matter what that meant for me. I'd do anything to protect Ethan from him because I knew if he got his hands on Ethan he wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than killing him.

All too soon he was taking the exit and getting off the highway, we would be at his house in minutes. I tried my best to steel my nerves but I couldn't help the way my heart raced or the tremor in my hands that would become obvious if I even slightly loosened the clasp of my hands around each other.