TWISTED FATE (Twisted Path Book 1)

Chapter 37

Shane

For a long moment, neither of us moves. The only sound is my own breathing—too sharp, too uneven—as I stare at the space where Amanda just stood. Her final words still hang in the air, thick and suffocating.

"If I can't have you, Shane... then neither can she."

A cold, sinking feeling settles in my chest.

Becca.

Amanda wasn't bluffing. That wasn't some empty threat. She meant every word, and now, the girl I love is in more danger than ever.

My jaw tightens as the weight of her words presses down on me.

I have to find Becca.

Now.

I turn, ready to walk out and find her—ready to fix whatever damage Amanda just did. But before I can take a step, Nick moves in front of me, blocking my path.

"Where the hell do you think you're going?" His voice is low, sharp—filled with simmering frustration.

I grit my teeth. "Move, Nick."

But he doesn't. He stands firm, arms crossed over his chest, eyes narrowed with a quiet intensity.

"No. Not this time."

I meet his glare head-on, my patience already threadbare.

"Nick, I swear to God—"

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" he snaps, his voice cracking with something dangerously close to desperation. "I fucking warned you." His voice rises, raw with anger. "I told you to stay the hell away from her. And now? Now my father knows. Now Amanda knows. Now the whole goddamn school knows!"

My hands ball into fists at my sides.

"You think I don't know that?" I bite out. "You think I don't feel the weight of it? I do. But it changes nothing. Not a goddamn thing. Because there's no way in hell I'm walking away from her. Ever."

Nick growls under his breath, dragging a hand through his hair as he begins to pace. His movements are tense, frantic. "Jesus Christ, man. Do you even understand what you've done? What happens next? My father is going to come for her now, Shane. He will destroy her, just like he destroyed Miranda."

The name slams into me like a punch to the chest.

Nick stops pacing, his breath sharp and ragged, his shoulders rising and falling with the weight of everything he's holding back.

"You should've listened to me," he says, his voice lower now, heavy with something almost resigned. "You should have left her be."

Something in me breaks.

I exhale hard, my vision blurring, my pulse hammering against my skull.

"You don't fucking get it," I grind out, my voice thick with emotion I can't hold back. "She's not just some girl to me, Nick." The words tear from me, unchained, unstoppable. "She's everything. She's the air in my lungs, the fucking blood in my veins. She's the only goddamn thing in this world that makes me believe I might still have something worth fighting for." My chest tightens, but I don't hold back. I can't.

"I would burn this whole fucking town to the ground before I let anyone touch her. Before I let your father or anyone else take her away from me."

Nick stares at me, his expression frozen and unreadable. The silence that follows is thick, almost unbearable. Then something in him shifts. The fire in his eyes doesn't disappear, but something cracks beneath it. He seems to deflate before my eyes, and in that instant, I know he gets it. Because it's exactly how he felt about Miranda.