Collide (Collide #1)(149)

After brushing her teeth, she moved into the living room and sank into the couch, her body still trembling. Gavin had stabbed her in the heart. He carefully ripped through her chest, exposing the pulsing red tissue with his lies, and no amount of sutures could close this wound. She surrendered who she was for who she thought they were going to be together. Nevertheless, none of it was real; it was all an illusion. She trusted him and thought she had decoded him. But now, the truth was simple to her. She'd been Gavin's puppet for a night, and she had danced to the beautiful melodies he had played. However, she would never allow him to hurt her again.

Never.

Throughout the day, she ignored numerous texts from him, proclaiming how excited he was to see her tonight. At one point, he called, but she sent it straight to voicemail. Without listening to the message, she cleared it from her phone. It was obvious to her that he didn't know he'd been caught, and all it did was sicken her further.

As her mind continued to wrap itself around everything, a subdued knock came at the door, temporarily pulling her from the nightmare Gavin's lies had created. With dulled reflexes, she rose from the couch. Upon opening it, her heart suffered another devastating blow as her eyes met with Dillon's. He wasn't supposed to be back until tomorrow. She wanted to ask what he was doing there, but the words froze in her brain as the stretching silence between them enveloped the room.

His words came out soft and reluctant as he stared into her tear-soaked eyes. "Please...talk to me."

Unable to move, she simply stared at him without a coherent thought able to pass through her lips. He tentatively lifted his arm, placing an unsteady hand on her cheek, and wiped away her tears. Her feet remained planted to the ground, but she broke out in hysterics as her body and mind fell apart under the pressure of two men. Dillon reached out to steady her, his hands gripping tight around her arms, as he pressed his forehead against hers. She stumbled back from the door, the sound of it snapping closed echoed through the apartment.

"Em, I'm so sorry, baby." Dropping to his knees, Dillon circled his arms around her waist, pressing his face against her stomach as he, too, began to cry. Emily shook more, the ache in his voice and his crying nearly killing her. "Baby, I swear, I'm gonna go get help. I'm gonna stop drinking, Emily. God, please, I can't lose you, baby. I can't."

Emily believed, without any interventions, that she was losing her mind. At one point, Dillon was the reason she was still alive, but here and now, he was one of the two reasons she felt like she wanted to die. She didn't want to give him power through her tears, and the worst part was knowing that the man who was on his knees before her actually loved her. Gavin - on the other hand - tried, tested, and tortured her with his cruel and lying tongue, but her heart still ached for him. Her mind was firing off conflicting thoughts in every direction. There'd been a time when Dillon was picture perfect, but that had shattered, and all that was left were fractured pieces - a collage of what he'd once been in her world. As she struggled to stay afloat in the poisoned waters that the day had sunk her in, she knew she couldn't deal with any of it.

Backing away cautiously, she looked down to him. "I can't...I can't talk about this right now," she whispered, her body trembling. "You have to go, Dillon. Please. You have to leave."

Still on his knees, he buried his face in his hands. His sobs piercing Emily's ears sent a shiver straight down her spine. "Emily, please. I won't make it without you. I won't. I'll f*cking kill myself if you leave me."

He rose to his feet, his body shaking, as he stepped toward her. He slowly lifted his hands to cup her dampened cheeks. "My God, baby, please give me another chance. Look at yourself. When I walked in, you were just as f*cked up over us as I am. We need each other."