36
ELI
PAST
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ava refused to follow instructions and go home.
Ever since she picked up pissing me off as a sport, she’s been an infuriating thorn in my side who’s often scheming with Landon to make my life hell.
In theory, I shouldn’t care about her attempts to rile me up. More so, they shouldn’t even have the capacity to disturb my immaculate control. I have no clue when this change began, when I set her in my sights as a possible target.
It could’ve started the day she so foolishly wrote me that letter. No. I genuinely thought of her as a naive kid who didn’t know what was best for her at the time.
I began to notice her vicious pink aura when she made it her mission to drive away all of the women I fucked after she enrolled in uni. She acted like I was the devil incarnate and insisted on letting me and everyone else know how much she hated me, but then she schemed with Lan to push away any possible prospects.
So I did the same. Eye for an eye and all that.
But truly, I wished to delve into her deeper, see her for the chaotic pink ball of energy she truly is.
I wanted to find her weaknesses and bring her to her knees before me.
However, the more I find, the deeper I want to go. I’ve seen her hide from her best friends just so they won’t witness her at her worst. I’ve seen her smile and laugh while her eyes were screaming for help. I’ve seen her looking in the mirror and reciting her name, age, and her love for cello while seeming as if she were staring through herself.
Perhaps it started then, or when she danced with small-dicked fools while her fuck-me eyes were set on me. She probably thought it was a harmless provocation but it’s backfiring and will have the most dire consequence on her life.
Ava Nash should’ve never planted herself in my path.
She should’ve never vied for my attention.
Because now that she’s got it, the world as she knows it will be flipped upside down.
The reason I haven’t acted on these cryptic feelings to own and punish and possess the living fuck out of her is because I thought they’d eventually dissipate.
Unfortunately for her, they’ve grown into this furnace of chaotic emotions and an urgent need for ownership. And while I still don’t have a full grasp on their meaning, she’s pushed me to act on them.
She can blame herself for what will befall her.
Because here’s the thing. I’m done staying in the background and delivering threats she never listens to.
It’s time she personally witnesses the unpleasantness I’ve promised.
Her friend Bonneville divulged that their silly group of emptiness will be going to an after-party and gave me the address, inviting me over without my having to ask. A privilege of being irresistible, if you will.
Ava nearly had a wreck on her way out of the car park because she’s a reckless little shit who drives under the influence. She should pay me for making sure she doesn’t die in a freak accident.
Before I can follow, I spot the blond guy who was rubbing himself all over her on the dancefloor kicking his car into gear and leaving right behind Ava.
I go after him, keeping a safe distance so as not to be noticed.
He keeps the same pace as Ava, trailing her like a seasoned stalker. The blasphemy.
I’m the only one who’s allowed to stalk her.
The blond guy, Oliver, if I remember correctly, turns off his headlights.
Hmm. I was going to make him disappear like all the losers she fraternizes with, but I’m positively pissed off about the sleazy look I saw in his eyes when they were dancing. The way he was stripping her naked with his gaze. The audacity of him thinking he can touch what I will own.
Yes, Ava has her own sex life like I do, but that phase will soon come to an end.
And by soon, I mean tonight.
From now on, no one else but me will touch her.
Fuck her.
Own her.
She’ll fall at my feet until I decipher the depths of this obsession. Then I’ll get bored like I usually do and discard her like all my previous conquests.
Correction. She’ll be my only conquest. I’ve never had to pursue anyone before her.
Which will make this so much more rewarding.
I tap my fingers on the steering wheel as I fall back farther and take a different turn so Oliver doesn’t suspect anything. I want him to focus on whatever the fuck he’s doing so he doesn’t see me coming.
I want him to enjoy whatever thoughts he’s having about Ava, because they will be his last. Instead of taking the shorter route, I follow the longer one, which sets me back about five minutes, before I turn onto the road leading to the motorway.
The first sight that greets me is of that fucker Oliver pushing Ava against her car and fumbling with her dress.
The view of her shaking uncontrollably ignites a raging fire inside my veins.
It’s so wild and uncharacteristic; I see red for the first time in my life.
Murderous red.
The red I know I can never come back from.
I slam the brakes and bring the car to a halt, then step out with baffling calm. Probably because I’m reveling in the thought that Oliver’s last breaths are within reach. He could’ve disappeared quietly like all the others, but he dared to terrorize her, to touch her with his dirty hands.
He’ll no longer have the luxury of spitting his rancid breaths into a world where she exists.
I’ve never thought about murder before, but plotting it is easier than I presumed.
I have this crushing feeling that this won’t be the last time I do something uncharacteristic for Ava fucking Nash.
The red blurring my vision morphs into a hazy black as she whimpers what sounds like, “Help…”
I’m not a knight in shining armor. What am I am, however, is the only man who’s allowed near her.
After tonight, Ava is fucking mine.
No matter what methods I must use to achieve that.