“Kiss me, Saoirse,” he snarls.
“I just did.”
He grips my jaw a little tighter, to the point of pain. But I show him none of that. I just stare up at him with my dead eyes.
“No, that was not a fucking kiss,” he hisses. “I don’t want to feel like I’m kissing a corpse.”
“Isn’t that what I am at this point?”
The words escape my lips before I can stop them. In this case, I don’t regret it.
I feel so numb at this point. Immune to the pain I know he wants to inflict on me.
Let him do his worst. I’m past caring.
He squeezes my cheeks hard and then shoves me stumbling backwards.
I fall against a low shelf and it hits the small of my back hard. I wince at the sharp pain that shoots up my spine.
But somehow, it doesn’t hurt as bad as my aching heart does right now.
“You think you’re a corpse?” Tristan says. “Is that what you think?”
“Yes.”
He glares at me for a moment and then he laughs darkly.
“Baby, if you deny me… you’ll wish you were a corpse.”
The words should make me tremble. But they don’t. Not now. Not so soon after having to say goodbye to the one man that I could have been happy with.
“I’ll tell you again, Saoirse,” Tristan says threateningly. “Kiss me. And kiss me like you mean it. Kiss me the way you kissed him.”
I cringe. I can’t help it.
He’s asking for something I can’t possibly give him.
He’s asking for sincerity.
“Come on, baby,” he says, prowling closer to me.
I’m trapped between him and the empty bed now. I glare at him, but I can’t pretend. Not this time. I’m all tapped out.
He seems to realize the same thing. His expression darkens for a quick flash before it fades back to neutral.
Looking calm and composed, he sighs, straightens up, and pulls out his phone. As he dials in a number, he switches to speaker phone.
The dial tone vibrates through the small kitchen. “Morning, boss, what can I do for you?” a high, nasally voice answers.
“Tell the boys on duty that I have some information on Cillian O’Sullivan,” Tristan says. “He’s no longer in police custody, and I think I know where he might be headed.”
I go cold.
The numbness I was so thankful for just moments ago vanishes. It’s replaced by bone-chilling fear.
“No!” I cry, grabbing Tristan’s arm. “Please don’t!”
I have no expectation that he’ll actually listen to me. But to my surprise, he gives me a reassuring smile.