“So, you just ruin people’s lives without a care in the world. You don’t ask questions or verify claims before you destroy them?” She scoffs and turns away, unable to look at me any longer. My heart falls to the ground. I’m going to lose her.
“I do,” I say weakly. I clear my throat, then say louder. “I do. Normally, I do. I vet them all. Make sure the claims are real. But, this time, I didn’t and I almost lost you because of that.”
“You’d have to have me to lose me, Wolfe,” she snaps, spinning back to glare at me. I growl at her statement, but she shakes her head. “No. You don’t have me. Not anymore.”
“Anymore?” I breathe, my heart beating out of my chest.
She laughs but there’s no humor in it. “You know what’s funny? You’ve had me all along. Even when you were a nameless man in an elevator, you had me. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I pictured your face formonths. Even after I met–” she gestures to me with a snarl. “You, on the app. I still picturedhim.You had me all along but now, you don’t.”
I fly to my feet, charging forward and closing the distance between us. My hands palm her cheeks, and I smash my mouth to hers. The urgency to prove her wrong. To prove that I’m still hers. That I’m the same man she couldn’t stop thinking about, slams against my bones. She doesn’t kiss me back. She fights and thrashes like the little beast she is. She drags her nails down my skin, ripping me to shreds. I don’t stop. Don’t let go. Just keep kissing her. Forcing her tofeelme. Tounderstand. I don’t stop until her hands drop to her sides, and she starts to sob against me. I rip myself free from her lips and begin to kiss away her tears.
“You have to let me finish, Rayvn.” I beg. “You have to hear me. Let me explain, plea–”
“Kill.”
And just like that, I’ve lost her.
She spoke the one word that she knew I’d never ignore. Never. We may fight like feral animals in the woods. She may let me chase her down and hunt her like a predator ready to take its prey. She may want me to fuck her while she sleeps and slap her around until she cries. But the one thing I will never do, is ignore her safeword and risk losing her trust. Because without it, none of the other shit matters.
Trust.Kat had told me to trust Rayvn. And she needs to trust me back.
I drop my hands and step away from her. I expect to feel anger. Rage. Betrayal. What I don’t expect is deep, brutalheartbreak.
“Take me home, and then leave me the fuck alone.”
With that, she turns and leaves me and my shattered heart in the same forest where it all began.
Chapter Twenty-Four
3 Weeks Later
“Ijustcan’tbelievehe’s actually dead,” Addy murmurs, leaning in further to watch the news report as they announce Vincent Sutton’s untimely death.
Murder.
His body was found a week ago inside his sprawling Nevada vacation home. Next to his body, a hard drive with every single one of his offenses laid out for the world to see. On top of that, an encrypted message was sent to all of the national news stations with the voice recording from that night when he’d kidnapped me and admitted his sins.
I have no idea how W–heaccomplished all of it. My voice wasn’t in the recording at all. No one knows who killed him or sent in the information, but after a weeks investigation, inside sources have stated that the case will likely remain unsolved. Apparently, Wolfe knows people in high places. Not a scrap of evidence was found, which is…unbelievable.
I don’t know what or how to feel about all of it. On one hand, knowing Sutton is dead, especially with all the new evidence, is amassiverelief.Hewent to a great deal of effort to make sure that even with Sutton dead, the world would know what he did. He took the time to make sure no one would ever become aware of my involvement. He gave the women who survived at Sutton’s hands, like Georgia and Tinsley, a fresh start.
He did a lot for them.
For me.
On the other–witnessing a murder was not something I ever expected to see. I’ve had a few nightmares about it, but they aren’t the ones that plague my mind or keep me awake at night. No. Those are laced with bone-deep betrayal and pain. They are monsters chasing me through forests wearing masks. Every time I remove the mask, it’s a smiling beast, telling me I’m a fool for believing the Devil.For loving him.
And God, how I love him. Even with the pain and the betrayal, I still love him. I love him so much, I cry myself to sleep every night from missing him. I love him so much, I hope and pray that he breaks into my home and crawls into my bed to hold me while I mourn him.
At some point in the last three months, Wolfe became my best friend. My partner. My safe place. And when your heart is hurting the way mine does, you want your best friend. Even when they’re the person who hurt you so badly.
A part of me thinks I should have listened to him the way he’d begged me to instead of demanding he took me home. Surprisingly, he did. We silently made our way back to the bike. I wordlessly climbed on behind him as the adrenaline from my night dissolved and turned into a chasm of numbness. He took me home, walked me to my door, and watched as I quietly closed it in his face. He didn't fight, didn't demand or shove his way in after me. Nothing.
I saw the blind acceptance all over his face, though. He knew he fucked up and there would be no coming back from it. He honored my safe word as though it was a holy command and for that, I respect him.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t assumed he’d break in that night, demanding I take him back. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hope he still did. I haven’t heard from him once, but that could be because I blocked his number the moment I stepped into my house that night.
I miss him.