It isn’t locked, and it isn’t closed.
No.
But maybe Ria didn’t leave. Maybe she stayed. Maybe she…understood.
I flip on the light at the top of the stairs and jog down them, calling Ria’s name, my voice hoarse.
Silence answers me.
She’s not sitting on the bed. I flip on all the lights, looking around the makeshift bedroom, slamming open the bathroom door, the small closet.
Nothing.
She didn’t take any of her clothes, but there’s no one in here. I head back to her bed, rip off the sheets.
No note. No…nothing.
She’s gone.
I pull my phone out of my pocket, call the guard. They answer on the first ring.
“Have you seen anyone leave?” I hold my breath, waiting for the answer. But I already know it.
I know it in the slight pause. The tentative, “Who?”
“Anyone!” I slam my fist against the wall. “Fucking anyone?!” But Sid left before. She snuck out through Lucifer’s backyard.
The smart girls always leave, and I think about my girl downstairs. How many minutes do I have before she goes, too?
“N-no,” the guard on duty answers me.
I throw my phone across the room.
She’s fucking gone, and they’re going to get to her. They won’t trust me, not after what Lucifer did. They’re going to find her and they’re going to hurt her, or they’re going to force me to make her…mine.
Which means…
Goddamn Ella. I swipe my hand over the dresser, sending the lamp I’d brought down crashing to the floor, the bulb bursting. I don’t care. It isn’t enough.
I kick the mini fridge with my bare foot, something like a scream coming from my throat. I tear down the stupid fucking posters on the wall I’d hung up for Ria; poetry and bullshit and things that don’t matter anymore. A map of Alexandria.
I storm into the bathroom, my blood pounding in my ears as I rip down the shower curtain, right off the stupid fucking metal hooks.
Fuck them both.
Ella fucked this all up. She’s taken Ria away, she’s put her in danger, and she’s…she’s fucked herself, too.
I head up the stairs, wanting nothing more than to put my hands around her fucking throat. I tried to tell her my secrets couldn’t be shared. I tried to give her everything she could possibly want this past month; fucking food, sex, my entire goddamn house. She’s had the run of this place while I wasn’t home. She’s been able to do anything she wanted. She doesn’t work. She doesn’t have the stress I have. She isn’t keeping secrets as if her fucking life depends on it.
She goes to the stupid fucking Ark, fucks around with boys like Connor. Comes home and does fuck all except wait for her mom to give her scraps of food and fucking attention. And, oh yeah, when she feels like, she lets her mom’s boyfriends fuck her in the ass.
Something she still hasn’t let me do.
Fuck her.
She’s right where I left her, sitting on my goddamn couch in that same fucking position she was in before I found out she fucked me over.
I grab her arm, yanking her to her feet.
She jumps, blinking as if I’ve woken her ass up from a daydream.
“What the fuck did you do?” I can barely breathe, let alone speak, but I know she heard me.
Her eyes meet mine. They’re narrowed in anger, and she tries to jerk her hand from me, but I tighten my hold on her wrist.
“What the fuck did you do?” I ask her again, losing my fucking patience which I already didn’t have. “Where did she go? What did she say to you?”
She doesn’t speak.
I grab her by her shoulders and shake her. “What the fuck did you do, Ella, fucking answer me!” If she doesn’t start talking, I’m going to fucking make her.
Her lips are pressed together, jaw tight as if she’s the one that’s pissed.
I press my forehead against hers. “Ella,” I breathe out, “I swear to God, if you don’t start fucking talking, I’m going to—”
“To what?” she whispers. She looks up at me through her dark lashes, and my hands slide down her arms, gripping her above her elbows. “Lock me in the basement?”
I squeeze my eyes shut, breathing hard. “You have no idea what—”
“You were keeping her here.”
“Ella—”
“You were keeping her here, too.”
Too? I open my eyes, speechless, the anger momentarily turning into confusion. What?
“You were keeping her here while I was here. You were hiding her away. To play with her when I was gone? At The Ark?”
My brow furrows, all thoughts of finding Ria slipping from my mind as I try to figure out just what the fuck she’s trying to say to me.
She shoves me, hard, and I stumble back, surprised, my calves hitting the coffee table. I windmill my arms, steadying myself. She takes a step toward me and shoves me again. I catch her arms, and we both fall back, my fucking back landing on the coffee table.
“Ella, what the fuck—”
She’s straddling me, her hands pinning my wrists to the table. I don’t fight her back because I have no idea what the fuck she’s thinking.
“You kept her here, too. What about me, Maverick?” She leans down close, her breasts grazing my chest. “What about me? You kept her here all this time you were…you were fucking me and feeding me and sleeping with me!” She’s screaming, her breaths coming out in pants, and it suddenly dawns on me what the fuck is happening.
“You’re jealous.” I can’t believe it. “You’re fucking jealous that I…that I had a girl locked in my basement? You’re jealous?”
She lets go of me, hops off and I scramble to sit up. “I can’t believe you—”
I grab her arm and pull her back down on top of me, pick her up by her thighs so they’re wrapped around my waist as I sit on the edge of the coffee table, hoping to God it doesn’t break underneath me. “You’re jealous.”
She doesn’t answer me.
I pin her wrists down by her sides. “Say it, Ella. You’re fucking jealous because you’re fucking insane.”
Her lip curls up in a snarl. “Fuck you.”
“You crazy fucking bitch.”
“Fuck. You.”
“Where did she go, Ella?” I push her down on the carpet, flip her over so my chest is against her back as I pin her to floor. “Where did she fucking go?”
She doesn’t answer, just tries to press herself up to all fours, but there’s no way she can do that with me on top of her.
I wrap her hair around my fist, pull her head up. “We can deal with your insecure bullshit later, Ella. But I need to know, where did the girl go?”
She smirks at me, twisting her head to face me. I let her, hoping she’ll speak. Hoping she’ll say something. I need to find Ria.
I need to find Ria.
But my dick is swelling against Ella’s back and with her pinned underneath me like this, all I want to do is fuck away all of that jealousy, shut her up with my dick in her mouth.
“She’s gone,” she finally says, staring at me. “She’s gone, Mavy, and now all you’ve got is me.”
“You’re insane.” I push her head into the carpet, pull her panties to the side and shove down my shorts. “You have no respect for me, do you?”