Miss Mayhem (Rebel Belle #2)(37)

I looked back, and he was already heading up the stairs again. “And, Miss Price,” he added before turning back to flash a wolfish smile, “congratulations. You’re one step closer to being a true Paladin.”





Chapter 17


WE LEFT Alexander’s house in silence, me trailing behind David. He jangled his keys in his hand, his jaw set, shoulders forward. I knew that look. That was David’s thinking look, and I had no doubt exactly what he was thinking about now.

Guilt is such a weird feeling, a combination of sad and sick that I was getting too used to feeling. I’d had Ryan set up the wards to block David’s visions because I’d thought it was the best thing for him—I still thought that, if I was being honest—but I knew I should have talked to David, should have tried to make him see that it was only because I wanted to keep him safe.

I slid into the passenger seat without a word, still lost in my thoughts, and David started the car, heading back out toward town.

David’s fingers were curled tight around the steering wheel, so tight that his knuckles were turning pale.

“I’m sorry,” I told him, rubbing my eyes. “I . . . I should have told you what Ryan and I were doing. And I wanted to. I was going to, I promise.”

“When?” he asked, a muscle working in his jaw.

I didn’t have an answer for that, not really, and I didn’t think “eventually” was going to cut it.

And then, David suddenly jerked the wheel, pulling the car off the road, gravel and dust flying up in a cloud behind us as he came to a stop right past the “Welcome to Pine Grove!” sign.

Throwing the car in park, David opened his door and got out, walking a little ways away.

I watched him pace for a few seconds before getting out of the car, too.

“I don’t know what else you want me to say,” I told him, leaning one elbow on the open door. “I’m sorry I wasn’t honest with you, David, I genuinely am, but part of my job is to protect you, and that’s what I was doing, okay?”

David had his back to me, and didn’t turn around as he tipped his head to look at the sky.

“All that time, I thought I was a crappy Oracle. But it was you. You keeping me from being what I’m supposed to be. And the fact is, if you’d left me alone, I might have been able to help you before this whole thing even started.” He shook his head, a quick, angry series of jerks.

It was weird, how quickly guilt gave way to anger. “Did you hear the part about how I was doing it to keep you from going insane? Did you look at any of those Oracle pictures back at Alexander’s?” I flung my hand back in the direction of the house. “Not sure if you noticed, but none of them exactly looked like people anymore, David. They were . . . things.”

David glanced over his shoulder at me, hands low on his hips, elbows jutted out to the side. “But I am one of those ‘things,’ Harper. And you made a decision for me that you had no right to make. And by making a decision like that without talking to me, you pretty much treated me like a thing, didn’t you?”

It had been a very long day, and my head was still spinning with everything that had happened, so it took me a sec to say, “No, right? This is part of what being a Paladin means. Keeping you safe, making hard decisions—”

The lines around his mouth looked deeper than normal and he waved a hand between us. “Hard decisions you didn’t bother letting me in on. Because why would you? This is what you do, Harper, you . . . freaking steamroll everybody. You decide it’s the best thing to do because it’s what you want to do.”

Slamming the car door, I walked over to David, the tall grass brushing my ankles. “That’s unfair, and you know it.”

David watched me warily. “Is it? What about all the stuff you had me do for your friends? Saving Abi from meeting that guy—”

I blinked, feeling his words like a punch to the gut. “That will make her life better,” I snapped, but David threw his hands up, looking at the sky again.

“Will it? You don’t know. You don’t ask people what they want.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but he held up a hand. “Don’t start on the Paladin duty thing again, please. If you want to argue that you were doing what was best for me as an Oracle, fine, whatever. But that’s not all I am to you, and you didn’t take that into consideration at all.” He shook his head. “Pres, you have to admit, us being an us has made things more complicated.”

I wasn’t sure how my heart could be fluttering and sinking all at once, but that seemed to be what was happening, and I wrapped my arms tight around me.

“It’s made things better, though,” I said. “Or has being my boyfriend only been a chore for you?”

David rolled his eyes, looking back up at the sky again. “No, of course not. I’m just saying that maybe . . . maybe we should rethink some stuff.”

“Rethink?” I repeated. This could not be happening. I could not be getting dumped by David Freaking Stark on a country road in the middle of nowhere.

But behind the disbelief was another emotion.

Anger. Lots of it.

“Let me get this straight,” I said, holding out one hand. “I made a call to keep you from having visions that would burn your brain up, and you dump me for it?”