“Raine—listen.” I step closer. “It’s not what you think. I was trying to protect you, to?—”
“Protect me?” She laughs once, sharp and broken. “You chased me through my house and vineyard, Tristan. You terrified me.”
“I never meant to?—”
“Stop.” She holds up a trembling hand. “Y-You touched me. In my room.” Her lips quiver, hurt lining the planes of her face.
She turns away, sucking in a deep breath, before looking back at me, betrayal and pain in her eyes. “You made me feel safe last night. And now all I can think about is how easily you lied.”
The wordsafecuts deeper than it should.
“I didn’t lie,” I say quietly. “I just—lost control.”
Her eyes flash. “Then stay the hell away from me before you lose it again.”
She drops the mask at my feet and turns toward the house, her shoulders shaking.
The wind moves through the vines, scattering dust and echoes.
When I pick up the mask, the morning sun catches on its smooth surface—white, blinding, empty.
I slip it into my pocket, the weight of it pulling me back down the hill.
She thinks the danger’s over.
She’s wrong.
Because losing her is the only thing that truly terrifies me now.
CHAPTER 22
Tristan
Gravel crunchesunder my boots as I leave the ridge behind.
The mask is still in my pocket—cold, heavy, wrong.
By the time I reach the distillery, dawn has already burned through the fog. Calder’s truck is parked outside. He’s waiting on the steps, coffee in hand, watching me like he’s known all along.
“Rough night?” he asks.
“Don’t start.”
He does anyway. “I heard about the screaming on the ridge. You gonna tell me why the woman you can’t stop staring at thinks someone broke into her house?”
Something in me breaks. “Because it was me.”
Cal doesn’t move for a long beat. “Jesus, Tristan.”
“I didn’t mean for it to go that far. I just—” I drag a hand through my hair. “I needed her to see I could protect her. I needed her to understand she’s not safe there alone.”
“By scaring the hell out of her?”
“I know how it sounds.”
He stares at me. “You’re just like him.”
The words hit like a blade.
