I want to say I have no time for fear.
But it’s not her fault the world broke her.
There will come a day when Kyla has to stand on her own feet, chin high, spine straight—but tonight, I’ll be what she needs. I owe her that. I owe her the protection I failed to give before.
“I’ll stay until you fall asleep,” I promise quietly.
But my thoughts aren’t here.
They’re with Nell. That sly, triumphant smile she wore like a trophy, presenting me the bloodied corpse of a man who once haunted her—like a predator offering proof she’s not prey anymore.
She’s fire.
She’s everything.
But now I’ve got to be smarter and a hell of a lot sharper.
Someone found her. That means my alias could be compromised. If it is, we’re looking at a bloodbath, not a clean operation.
“Cam?”
“Yeah?”
She curls into me on the bed, her grip tightening, her presence heavy. But it’s not the closeness I crave. I’m here out of duty. Loyalty. Not desire.
I still love Kyla, in a faded, distant way.
But I’m brutally and irrevocably in love with Nell.
“I thought about you every day while I was gone. I never stopped loving you.”
Her words slice straight through my chest. I’ve explained this before. It kills me to repeat it, but I can’t let her live on borrowed hope.
“I searched for you for years, Kyla. I didn’t stop. I made a promise to bring you home, and I kept that promise. But we’ve both changed. You’ll always have a place here. But I can’t give you more than that. I’m sorry if that’s not what you want to hear—but we owe each other honesty.”
Silence.
She lets it hang in the air, then her fingers inch forward, curling around the holster on my chest. A reflex. Desperation maybe.
I have to be gentle. She’s shattered; she needs truth, but not cruelty.
“You once told me you’d always love me. That I was everything you could ever want.”
“Kyla… we both know the truth. Before you vanished, we were falling apart. We were teetering on divorce, pretending everything was fine when it wasn’t. I’ll never turn you away. I’ll always care about you. But I can’t be with you.”
“Because of her?”
The pain in her voice is raw.
And I respect that.
But sugar-coating this will only hurt her more in the long run.
“It’s not because of Nell. It’s because of us—how toxic we became. But saying that… me and Nell are together.”
Not officially, maybe. But it’s done. There’s no universe where I let her go. She’s mine. She’s out of the dating pool for good.
“How could you do this to me? After everything? Do I mean nothing now?”
