“No. He… no.” She swallows thickly. “I can’t go with you,” she says, and I barely hear the quiet words over the thumping of my heart. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.
“Of course, you can come with me,” I say, refusing to hear what she’s trying to tell me.
“Sebastian, I can’t stay here anymore.”With you.She looks down, and I hear the unspoken words, my head starting to spin. Three days ago, she said shelovedme. At the time, I thought it wasn’t possible. As crazy as it fucking sounds, I’d give anything to hear the words again if the alternative is her leaving. I have half a mind to throw the words back in her face, except I’m almost certain she’s not even aware she said them. Given everything she’s been through, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for her emotions to have been heightened during what we did. Hell, she damn near passed out after orgasming for the second time,ever.
Bringing up what she said would likely push her further away. The opposite of what I want.
You knew this was coming.
“No.” The word leaves my mouth without conscious thought, but while my head whirls, I find that I mean it.
“W-what?” Grace stutters. “We had a deal…”
She’s going to play it that way?
I’m not ready for this—us—to be over. Suddenly, I regret all the time I spent fighting the invisible pull between us. Pushing my thoughts aside, I straighten my back, committed to my decision. “We might’ve had a deal, but you haven’t held up your end.” I hardly recognise my voice.
What the fuck are you doing?
Hurt and confusion swirl in her dark blue eyes, and I fucking hate myself.
“Youkilledhim… I told you the truth. That was my part of the deal,” she says, staring at me in disbelief.
“You didn’t tell me the whole truth. He might have been the man who pulled the trigger, but he wasn’t the one behind it. So, we’re not done,” I say, my sharp tone lashing out at her. It doesn’t matter that I fucking knew there was more to the story before Grace even entered the picture. I’ll use whatever I can to stop her from leaving right now.
The broken look she gives me nearly has me backing down, but I can’t lose her when I’ve only just found her.
“I told you all I know…” she says.
“It’s not enough. Did you know other people were involved?”
“N-no. I knew about Ian, that’s all.” She swallows, still standing by the couch. “He killed your parents, Sebastian. If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even have that. You owe me what we agreed on,” she says, her words growing in strength despite the hurt shining through them.
“I know what he fucking did, Grace! And I killed him for it. I put a gun to his head and pulled the fucking trigger. But it doesn’t change the fact that he was no more than a pawn. I’m not going to stop until I get the man responsible. You’re not leaving until I do.” Grace flinches as my words slice through the air between us.
My breaths are almost ragged as my body vibrates from the build-up of everything that happened tonight. From finding out I let the man truly responsible for my parents’ murder go when I could have ended it all. TokillingIan. Then Grace running from me.
Anger. Fear. Regret. They twist themselves inside me, clouding my mind and pulling me beneath the surface until I barely recognise myself—too detached to stop from lashing out at the one person I need right now.
The same person who’s trying to fucking leave me.
I’m not ready to lose you.
“I can’t stay here, Sebastian. I have to go,” she says, her tone softer than I deserve.
My stomach twists as a growl bubbles up, reverberating through my body before lodging itself in my throat. “Have to or want to?”
Grace’s mouth opens, but when no words come out, she closes it again. My resolve starts to shatter as I wait for her to answer me, tosay something—little pieces breaking away the longer I have to wait.
“It was always going to be this way,” she says, averting her gaze before locking her big fucking midnight eyes with mine.
If I wasn’t slowly falling apart on the inside, I’d fucking scream at her non-answer. “That’s not a fucking answer, Grace. I’m not done finding out what happened to my parents.We’renot done. You’re not leaving.”
Grace jolts as if my words physically struck her. “You would do that to me?” she asks, folding her arms over her stomach. “Even after what I told you… what he did to me? How he kept me?”
Fuck. My heart freezes. Her words break through whatever the hell had overcome me, leaving me stripped bare before her.I can’t do this.
This.