Chapter 158 Your Lunatic
I frowned. “That’s not funny, mi Ravial?”
Ravial didn’t even look at the road. His hands stayed loose on the steering wheel, but his voice came out low, calm, and ice-cold, the kind of calm that made my stomach drop.
“I’m not making a joke,” he said flatly. “If that boy keeps texting you and making you laugh like that, I will make sure he stops breathing. Simple.”
My eyes went wide. “What? Yu can’t just say dat!”
“I can,” he replied, still staring straight ahead like we were talking about the weather. “And I will. He’s not important. You are. If he becomes a problem, I remove the problem. End of discussion.”
“Mi Ravial!” I turned fully in my seat, heart racing. “Yu no can kill someone just because he text mi! Dat’s crazy! He’s just a friend from school!”
Ravial’s jaw flexed, but his voice stayed dangerously even. “Friends don’t make my wife giggle and forget the world around her. Friends don’t make her smile at her phone while I’m sitting right here. So yes, little lamb, I can. And I will.”
I gasped, Shocked and angry. “Yu wicked! Yu no can threaten people like dat! Mi no belong to yu like some object yu can lock away!”
“You do belong to me,” he said softly, almost sweetly, but the smile on his lips was pure devil. “Every laugh, smile, and breath. Mine. And I don’t share what’s mine.”
Ravial’s voice stayed flat, calm, like he was discussing the weather. “Because if Ethan keeps texting you and making you laugh like that, I will kill him. Slowly. I’ll make sure he feels every second of it so he understands exactly why he should never have looked at you twice.”
My eyes went wide. “Yu crazy! Yu can’t just say yu going to kill people because dem text mi!”
“I can,” he replied, still not looking at the road. “And I will. He’s breathing the same air as you. That’s already too close.”
“Mi Ravial, yu no own mi like that!” I snapped, turning fully in my seat to glare at him. “Ethan is just a friend from school. He no even know about yu or any of this. Yu acting like a madman!”
His lips curved into that terrifying little smile. “Good. Let him think I’m a madman. Maybe it will keep him alive longer.”
“Yu no listening to mi at all!”
“I’m listening perfectly. You laughed at his voice note. Twice. I counted.”
Before I could shout back, Avery leaned forward from the back seat, voice tight with panic. “Guys, can we focus on what matters here? Our lives?”
Ravial and I both turned to her at the same time.
“Stay out of this,” we said in unison.
Avery blinked hard. “Woah.”
She sank back into her seat, eyes darting to the road. Her face went pale.
“Raviallll!” she screamed. “A truck!”
A massive eighteen-wheeler was barreling straight toward us in the opposite lane, horn blaring loud enough to rattle the windows. We had drifted halfway into the oncoming traffic. Ravial still hadn’t turned his head.
I whipped around. My eyes went huge. “Mi Ravial…. the truck!”
The horn screamed again, closer, deafening.
Ravial finally glanced at the road for half a second, then looked right back at me, completely unbothered, that same cold smile still on his face.
“Let it hit us,” he said, voice smooth and deranged. “I’d rather die right here with you than let some Juilliard boy think he can make my wife laugh.”
The truck’s horn turned into one long, panicked wail.
Avery screamed.
I grabbed the wheel and yanked it hard just as Ravial finally swerved back into our lane at the last possible second. The truck roared past us with inches to spare, wind rocking the car.
Ravial didn’t even blink.
My heart slammed against my ribs. “Yu almost killed us over a voice note!”
Ravial shrugged, steering now perfectly steady again. “But I didn’t” he said calmly, like nothing had happened. “I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Even when I’m not looking at the road.”
He glanced at me again, eyes hidden behind the blindfold but I could feel the heat in them.
I stared at him, half horrified, half fighting the ridiculous butterflies exploding in my stomach.
“Yu a whole lunatic, mi Ravial.”
He reached over, caught my hand, and brought it to his lips without taking his eyes off the road this time.
“Your lunatic,” he murmured against my skin. “And I’d do it again.”
I snatched my hand back. “Next time yu jealous, just say so. No need to almost crash the car.”
“Next time I’ll crash it on purpose if he sends another voice note.”
“Mi Ravial!”
From the back Avery groaned and covered her face with both hands.
“I hate both of you.”
Ravial’s low chuckle filled the car, dark and warm at the same time.
And somehow, even after almost dying, I was still smiling.