Cage stood in the doorway for a second. He pressed his lips together tightly and glared past Nick and right to me. Every cold look was always directed at me, it was infuriating. Furious and breathing heavily, Cage didn't move at all for a few moments.

And then he punched Nick in the face.

I winced as Nick, taken by surprise, stumbled back by the force of the blow. As he clamped a hand over his mouth, I saw blood start to drip out. Damn. Cage had really good aim.

Perhaps my plan had worked out in the way I wanted. It certainly got Cage's attention. It wasn't the best idea, I suppose. There were a million other ways I could have approached this situation. However, that glazed look of anger and jealousy in Cage's dark green eyes, his fingernails biting into the sensitive palm of one lacerated surface of skin, those dangerous tempers of his, made those few seconds of lip-locking with Nick worth it.

Nick glanced at Cage and then back at me, to where I sat and to where he stood. His face gave away anger as he held his broken jaw. I knew Nick was going to hate me for the rest of my life. He was starting to figure out what I did. Stratagem of the century, huh? I suppose none of that mattered now.

Nick coughed, spitting out blood onto the marble floor, and then opened his mouth to say something and was met with the barrel of a gun.

I sat back and watched with a fixed blank expression as the scene unfolded. Dear God, where had my decency gone? How could I just sit back and watch as Cage killed off another one of his best friends? The answer was rather simple.

I just didn't care anymore.

Cage kept his gun pointed at Nick, but his eyes were on me. I met his glare with a dangerous one of my own. As long as there were at least a few feet of distance between us, I wasn't scared of Cage. It was just when he crossed that line of flirting to something darker that terrified me. I didn't want that. I wanted a nice teenage boy with not even a speeding ticket on his record...not a notorious criminal king with murder on his.

Teeth locked, eyes hard, and rationality gone, Cage turned his attention to Nick. "You are dead to me."

"I wasn't-"

Cage wouldn't let him speak. "And you're about to be in the literal sense too if you don't take these precious few seconds to get the hell out of my sight or so help me God, I will put a bullet in your fucking head. I killed Micheal, and that was only because he was a threat. You-" The gun made a clicking nose as Cage turned the safety off. Nick visibly paled. "-are one traitorous motherf-"

I decided to butt in before Cage really did kill him. "It's not his fault, you know." I sat back against the couch, resting the tips of my toes against the coffee table. My eyes flickered back to Cage's seething ones, and I cast Nick a grin. "I wanted it. I-" I leaned forward. "-wanted him to fuck me harder than you fucked your darling Vivian. Tell me Cage, was she any good?"

There was absolute murder in his eyes. "Better than anything you could give me, princess."

His words hurt me more than I'd ever tell anyone. I tried to hide how much it destroyed me to hear him say that. And if my words had an effect on Cage, I'd be damned if he ever showed it. The anger that grew in my chest was making blind courage appear to speak the first things that came to my mind. "Then maybe you should go marry the bitch. You know, if she's so special."

"I don't do love, November." Cage smiled, knowing exactly how that was going to make me feel. "I don't do marriage. I fuck and then I leave. Vivian knows that better than anyone. Maybe...she's still there, in those pretty white sheets-"

"-Maybe I'll do the same with Nick." I blocked out the stinging lash of Cage's words and focused on not breaking. "Maybe I don't want you, Cage. Maybe I do want a rough screw and maybe...it's not going to be with you."

"Who says I want you?"

"You did, Cage." I sat back again. "Through your actions. If you really didn't give a damn about what Nick and I did, you wouldn't have burst through that door like the damn Hulk. So if you don't want me, then leave. Let Nick and I continue what we were doing. Don't ruin our fun because of your ego."

"Fun?" Nick growled. "You're about to get me killed."

"It was fun before Cage came in here." I pointed out. "He can run back to Vivian again, for all I care."

"You do care, November."

"Agree to disagree."

"There will be no more of this, November." Cage's voice suddenly took on that authoritative tone that even made me swallow my courage and listen. He could intimidate anyone when he spoke like that. Even Nick looked uneasy. "You have caused enough damage around here." He turned to Nick. I saw the mullet of his gun press into Nick's chest before being pulled away. Cage lowered his gun and fixed Nick with the iciest expression I'd ever seen. "Get the fuck out."

Nick, holding his broken jaw, glared at me one last time before quickly walking out of the room. The door slammed shut behind him, much harder than necessary. His anger was justified, I went for the lowest blow of all.

Now that Cage and I were alone, he turned his attention back to me.

Still feeling the after effects of my dangerous high, I smiled.

He didn't smile back. "If you weren't recovering from a near death, I would kill you right here."

"We both know you wouldn't do that."

"Do not test where my boundaries end. You are unbelieveable, November. First Micheal, and now Nick. What are you trying to achieve?" Cage took a step towards me, his knuckles white with how hard he was gripping his favourite toy. "What do you think they'll give you that I won't? Love? Affection? A vanilla fucking? I know you much better than you think. And I know that's not what you want. Not the last thing, anyways. I am so tempted-" Another step. "-to just give you what you've been asking for."

"So why don't you?" I didn't back down from his advance. "Live up to your words, Cage. Be the big, bad man everyone says you are. Do what you should have done from the very first night we met...either kill me or let me go. And I don't mean to take me back to Ivey. I want you out of my house and out of my life."

Cage took a deep breath. I noticed his fingers trembling when he went to put his gun down on one of the glass tables. The palm of Cage's left hand, the one where he cut himself with the knife, had no bandages. Clenching his fist caused the laceration to open up again. I don't think he even noticed he was doing it. Before Cage could dig his fingers back into the wound again, I reached over and took his hand into my own, effectively stopping him from unintentionally hurting himself.

"That's why, November." His voice was soft and hoarse. "That's why, and what you just did only exemplifies my reasons for wanting to stay." Cage opened his palm and laid his hand on top of my own, the scar there for the whole world to see. It was as angry as he was. "You cause me more pain than anyone ever could. But at the same time, you take that pain away and turn it into something dangerous. You make me feel so much better than I ever could be, and I've grown addicted to that feeling. It's hard to break away from things that make me feel like...I'm a good person."

"But you're not, Cage." I said softly as he took a seat beside me. Cage took a few tissues out of the box sitting on the coffee table and clutched it in his bleeding hand. "You're not a good person. You never will be. We are polar opposites. I will never be the girl you want me to be, and you will never be the man I want you to be. Maybe Vivian can."

Cage nearly lost his temper when I said that. "Vivian Barsille is nothing."

"She was something when you slept with her." I couldn't hide the stinging lash in my words.

"The only reason I slept with Vivian was for you, November!" Cage growled. "I gave her what she wanted so I could save you. I did it so I could save your life. Do you think I liked it? Is that why you're so angry? I hate myself more than you could hate me. Understand that. Believe that."

"But I didn't ask you to do that, Cage. I didn't ask you to get me the antidote or save my life! I am grateful that you did but do not mistake my gratitude as acceptance. Thank you for saving my life, Cage." I stood up. "I appreciate what you did you get it, and I am sorry for everything I've done."

"Why do I feel like you're saying goodbye?" He inquired quietly.

"Because that's what I'm doing. I'm leaving. I'm going back to Ivey with my sister and her daughter. Please don't come along. We've had enough adventures for a lifetime together."

His eyes flashed at my words. "What do you want?"

"What do you think I want?"

"I think you want me to hurt you."

"I think you're right.''

Before I could walk away, Cage grabbed my arm at the last second. "I want you, November. I need you. And not just your body. I want all of you. That's why I was so angry when you started flirting with Micheal. And then when you tried seducing Nick, it was too much for me. Everyone has a limit. You test mine everyday. And sometimes you break that limit and I want to hate you for it, but I can't. Because even if you point a gun at my head, I will still adore you, November Jones. You are made of the stars and complete insanity."

"Don't." I pulled myself out of his grip.

His eyes were icy. "Don't what?"

"Don't touch me, and don't say things like that."

"Funny. I remember saying the same thing to you." Cage stood up, again using his height to dominate. I don't think Cage realized how intimidating he really was. His hand wrapped around the hem of my shirt and he tugged me towards him. "And I also remember how you ignored that."

"You are nothing if not corrupt." I whispered angrily as Cage wrapped one arm around my waist, pinning me against his body. I could feel every inch of his skin against mine, every muscle, every indent, every secret.

Cage bent down, making sure his words were heard. His lips brushed my ear, blowing strands of my hair back. His voice was as hard as how he held me. "I can forgive you for this because I know this is not you who's talking right now. The side effects were a bit more...unexpected. But the next time you pull something like this, I will make sure you do not have the incentive to continue. What you think I will do, I will leave to your imagination.''

"Oh, I'm terrified." I couldn't help but let the tempting words slip out. "I'm just shaking in my shoes."

Cage closed his eyes, breathing heavily. He was trying to restrain his temper and the effort he was putting in was truly remarkable. For a man who had one of the worst labels in the world, Cage had more control than anyone I've ever met. "You need a filter on your mouth, November. One of these days, it will get you killed." He used his free, wounded hand to grab my chin roughly. "And I promise I will be the one to do it."

His eyes said what he didn't voice. I stared hard at Cage, our eye contact stronger than how he held me. Challenging green eyes focused a mixture of both frustration and anger on mine. He wasn't breaking. Cage's shield was complete steel. He would never be the one to crack first. That position was always saved for me. There is a lot you can tell about a person just from looking into their eyes. When I looked into Cage's, he didn't back down from the fight I initiated. He didn't look away. He didn't let his feelings get the best of him. I wondered how long that look had been in Cage's eyes. It must've taken years to build up an empire and keep it running, crushing any obstacle with one pull of the trigger from his gun.

Was I an obstacle? An animal he wanted to tame just to be able to sleep calmly at night knowing there was no one more powerful than he was? That nothing could dare disarrange the absolute supremacy he created over the last decade? What exactly did Cage see when he looked at me?

Maybe he saw a girl.

Or maybe...he saw something else. Something that I was not but masqueraded to keep from breaking. In the end, Cage was the one who knew that best. A darker version of the 'fake it til you make it' mentality. A persona adopted until the true self melted in, and suddenly, you had no idea who you were anymore. There would be no more separation from the good to the bad. Cage was just...bad.

I didn't want to be that. Even if it made me feel better, I didn't want to be bad. I was a good person, wasn't I? Everything I did, I did to make myself be able to keep walking the next day. Cage was just ruined. It took ten years for that to happen. What if, in the next ten years, I ended up just like Cage? Without all the materialism, of course, but the same psychology adapted? After all, Cage's future was set because of his past. One traumatic event to kill the man he could have been.

And one event to kill the girl I would be.

Or maybe it already happened. Maybe my ten years were over, and it began when I was seven. My traumatic event was my parents' death. Was I now as damaged as Cage was? Did that- no wait, could that justify what I had done?

"We all have our scars. Make sure you don't end up with more."

"The only way that can happen is if you leave." I smiled. He knew it wasn't a nice one.

"Then you better make sure you have lots of Band-Aids on hand."

"That's not fair, Cage."

"I never said I was, November."

"You won't win."

"I'm not playing a game. But if that's what you want it to be-" Cage pressed his lips against my temple. It was a hard kiss, one that crushed the butterflies in my stomach and bought the burning anger back. "-then I will make sure you lose."

I kissed his jaw. His stubble pricked my mouth and irritated the cut on my lip from the aluminum can. "I hate you."

"I wish I could say the same."