Atonement (Master's Protege 2)

I shake my head. “I’m not sure how long this will take. I’ll call you when we’re ready to go.”

I feel like I’m going to be sick. I don’t like the way Violet’s face has paled, or the way she gently tugs her hand out of mine and wraps her arms around her body.

“Okay,” Skylar says with a nod. “Violet, just remember you love him, okay?”

Violet looks sharply at Skylar, and I groan. Seriously, Skylar? Seriously?

“Skylar, go read a book or something, and stop interfering,” Violet scolds. Skylar shrugs and heads to the truck. Maybe I should send her to the house. Who knows how long this will take.

When the door shuts behind her, Violet turns to me. Her amethyst eyes glow with fire, and she stands up straighter. My girl may be a tiny thing, but she’s powerful and potent, and I feel that straight in my gut right now. She raises one brow at me. “Spill, Mr. Master.”

“Target range.”

She slow-blinks, then nods. “Do you plan on seducing me after you tell me whatever the hell it is you need to tell me?”

“No, babe. I’m not planning on seducing you.” I can’t keep the melancholy out of my tone.

Jesus. I’ve waited months and months to get Violet to myself. I’ve worked my ass off building trust, establishing what’s between us. I want Violet, and I don’t want to share her… not now, not ever.

But I’ll have to give her a chance to walk away.

I’ve never felt so helpless in my life.

We get to the target range, and the world seems eerily silent. It’s as if the entire planet is waiting on the conversation I’m about to have with her.

A part of me hopes there will be a distraction of some sort, that a meteor will fall to Earth, or a bomb will explode, or… something. Anything, to keep me away from having the conversation I have to have with her.

She shuts the door with finality, then turns to me. “Cain, I feel like I’m going to be sick waiting for this.”

“Me, too.”

Her voice is pained when she pleads with me. She places her hands on my shoulders, nearly standing on her tiptoes. “Then tell me, babe. Please.”

I bend down and brush my lips to hers. It might be the last time I ever do. I want one more chance with her, one more taste of her, before I lay out what could destroy us.

When I pull away, her eyes are filled with tears. “That felt like a goodbye. Why did that feel like a goodbye?”

I’d flay the very skin off my back to keep her happy. To keep those eyes from filling with tears like that.

There’s no more time. I have to man the fuck up and tell her.

I have to tell her everything.

“Violet, when you first came here, that day you came and asked me to help you find your parents’ killer?”

She nods slowly. Waiting. There’s no easy way to say this.

“I already knew who you were.” I watch her eyes grow troubled, but she doesn’t speak.

“It was my intent from the very beginning to bring you here. I… had been obsessed with you for months.”

A look of confusion crosses her features. I’m sure she’s replaying everything in her mind, trying to figure this all out, trying to decipher my meaning. “What do you mean?”

I sit heavily on a chair by the door and tug her down to my lap, but she gently extricates herself from me and sits beside me instead.

Jesus.

“I was doing surveillance with Armand and Joe. There was an asshole cheating on his wife, and we were monitoring people at the mall. We had cameras set up, and we recorded everything to get evidence. And…well, there you were.”

“At the mall?” She looks perplexed. She needs a full view of things before she can make any judgment call. It’s her way. “Oh. Oh, wait.” She pales. “Cain, that was… back in the spring. I did a demonstration at the mall. That was… months and months before I met you.” Even her lips look paler.

Jesus.

“I know.” I clear my throat. “I saw you there, and I had to have you. You looked at the camera. You didn’t even know that you did, and I… saw your eyes. They mesmerized me. I remember thinking they looked like amethyst caught in moonlight.”

She looks at me sadly. “You had me followed.”

“I followed you myself. I watched you. I looked into you.”

“You stalked me, Cain.” Her voice sounds distant and hollow. I reach for her hand, but she pulls back. I feel stung. She hasn’t yelled or gotten angry or hurt me in any way.

A part of me wishes she would.

I’m not going to sugarcoat this. “I did, baby.”

Her voice is a whisper. “Don’t call me that.”

My gut clenches. “I was obsessed with you, Violet. No. I am obsessed with you.”