STUCK 2

Chapter 48

"You thought I wouldn't know what happens behind my back?" she felt his hold loosening on her poor cheek, holding her neck. His other hand gripped her waist, bringing his lips closer to her ears. Her collar bones dug into his hard chest, as if he could no longer suffer the painful distance between their hearts. 

"What happened at the mall?" he asked without beating around the bush. He had wanted to ask the question since Ron's call in the afternoon. He remembered casting the glass on his table across his office, watching it shatter down to countless pieces as he clutched the phone to his ear, listening intently. 

At first, Donavan didn't know whether monitoring the cameras was a wise decision, whether it would make her feel watched and uncomfortable. Therefore she didn't need to know. He let Ron keep it a secret that she would be watched every single second.

He regretted nothing when he watched the recording Ron sent. He did not want to react, he wanted to believe that there was a story behind the curtains that Tara would inform him the moment they meet. And with an eager anticipation he had seen her, looked into her eyes and waited. Not only was she willing to hide the truth from him but was adamant on climbing on his nerves instead. 

Something about the mall conversation must have been triggering, it must have involved him. There was no other way around it. 

The only thing he most worried about was 'how'. How worried should he be? How farther was she in in her obviously dangerous mission?  How hazardous was the unknown storm? How broader were the consequences? 

He turned his phone on with his finger print, not loosening his hold on her delicate waist before pushing the screen in her sight. 

Tara watched horrifyingly as the twenty minute clip of her little gateway played in front of her eyes. She watched as Inaya was brought out in the arms of the young woman, as Tara made it to the frame of the door, quickly throwing a glance at the far camera before turning to someone inside the changing room. She waited patiently as the clip moved forward. She could feel her heart beating in her throat, his deleterious arm lingering dangerously around her waist.

She became aware that he was just in his towel. Water was dripping on his chest from his wild curls, imitating her sweat trickling down her neck.

The clip abruptly ended the moment Tara left the dressing room, no video of the person she was talking to. She turned to him when he threw the phone on the bed, looking down at her with an impassive face.

She wanted to ask whether he saw the woman that she was talking to. 

"No clip of the motherfucker you're snitching with"

And now she knew what he was thinking. She was the culprit all over again, she was the villain, she was the wrecker. She wasn't surprised to find that madam had covered her tracks. There was no record of her face on the entire planet's data, never will be. 

"What are you up to this time?"  he asked without emotion, putting a strand behind her silky hair. He didn't feel hurt this time, just angry, furious, "What is your next plan of the great escape?"

"Trust me I-"

"SHUT THE FUCKK UPPP"

She flinched when he screamed on her face, catching her off guard. For the first time in a long time, she was afraid of him. Her hands inadvertently went back to grip the edge of the window, watching as he made a sinister advance, towering over her like a lion over its little prey. 

"Don't you dare utter that word from your filthy mouth!! Was that why you were irritated at me? Because your partner told you there's no escape?" he looked inhuman when he pinned her, no part of him touched no part of her, but she felt suffocated in the shadows of his darkness, in the damp insufferable truths of herself.