“Trust me, I’m looking forward to it—just as soon as you tell me what the hell is going on.” I sat back again.
He smiled—just one corner of his lips turned up a bit, and it wasnothinglike the smile he’d given to Emilie—or evenmewhen we were in San Francisco. God, it felt like a lifetime ago already.
“I was at Dave’s Grill because I wanted a shot of Crackdown.”
The words were blunt—his voice ice-cold and perfectly emotionless.
“Why?” I asked. I’d already figured that part out myself, considering how I’d found him and those men the night before in that office.
He shrugged. “Because I wanted to try it.”
“Why, Dominic?”
“Because I wanted—”
“No—don’t bullshit me. If you can’t tell me the truth, I can’t lie for you. Iwon’tlie for you.” I dragged myself to the edge of the chair and held his eyes. “Don’t make me tell them the truth because I will. This is myjob, damn it.”
Out of everyone in the world,hewould understand that perfectly. His job was just as important to him, too, which was why I was so confused that he would actually go to that bar looking for a drug like Crackdown in the first place.
His hands fisted over the table and his jaws clenched. I swore I could hear his teeth pop all the way across the table. But his anger didn’t scare me. I meant what I said—I wouldn’t lie for him if he couldn’t tell me the damn truth. I might have been naive, just like he thought, but I wasn’t stupid.
“I can’t control him.”
The words were barely a whisper, but I heard them. And my breath caught in my throat.
“Your wolf?”
He nodded slowly. “He’s gotten…relentless the past few weeks. I can’t control him. I need something to push him back.”
My God.
“Why? Did you ever have trouble like this before? I never saw bruises like that on you.” And I’d looked. We both knew I had, after I made it clear toeveryonein San Francisco that I even knew what his freakingearslooked like. In detail.
“I’ve always had trouble controlling the wolf. That’s what happens when you grow up without a pack,” he said bitterly.
Suddenly, I felt like shit, which was absurd. It wasn’tmyfault for the way he’d grown up. Still, I lowered my head to the table and started feelingguilty,too. There was no limit to how many things this man could make me feel within a minute.
“Did it work?” The words tasted bad in my mouth because I already knew the answer.
“Better than I thought,” Dominic said. “Which is why I can sit here right now and talk to you.”
“It can kill you, you know. Crackdown is no joke. We don’t even know what kind of magic is inside it yet, but it’s deadly.”
“I know what I’m doing,” he said.
“Yeah—that’s what all addicts say,” I muttered, and it just pissed him off more.
“I amnotan addict,” he spit.
“Good—so you’re not going to take any more of that thing?”
He held my eyes, and his silence was more than enough answer.
“Dominic,” I warned.
“Don’t worry about me, Teddybear. You’ve got enough on your plate, apparently.”
My eyes closed involuntarily because I knew he was right. I shouldn’t be worrying about him—we were nothing. Whatever had happened between us in San Francisco, it was a one time thing. Whatever we’d said, whatever we’d done—it didn’t really mean anything. At least not on his part. My heart broke as the memory of that morning in the woods came rushing to me, as if my own mind wanted to hurt me. How he’d said he loved me. How he’d held me in his arms.