My stomach rolls, but I force myself to keep listening.
“Laure’s family operates differently,” he says. “Or…they did. They destabilized. They poisoned from the inside out. Yourmother wasn’t collateral damage. She was a tactic. A pawn Laurel birthed in order to gain more power and favor.”
The word slices through me.
Pawn.
“And you didn’t tell me because…?” My voice cracks despite my effort to keep it steady.
“Because once you know,” he says, eyes locking with mine, “you can never unknow it. You become a target.”
I search his face for lies. For manipulation. For that smooth, dangerous charm he uses when he wants something.”
I don’t find it.
I find fear.
Fear of losing me.
“They would’ve used you,” he goes on. “If anyone found out you knew the innerworkings of the family, they would use you to get to me.”
“Someone did,” I whisper. “And I didn’t know anything.”
“I know,” he says, voice breaking just enough to terrify me. “And I will spend the rest of my life making sure no one ever gets the chance again.”
The promise isn’t dramatic.
It’s final.
I close my eyes for a second, overwhelmed by the weight of everything crashing down at once. My childhood, my mother, the town, the blood on Colter’s hands that he never let me see.
When I open them again, he’s still there. Still holding on.
“So what am I now?” I ask. “Protected. Or owned?”
Something dark flickers across his face at that.
“Neither,” he says firmly. “You’re mine.”
My pulse stutters.
“I didn’t choose this life.”
“No,” he agrees. “But you chooseme.Or you don’t. And if you want to walk away from me, from your family…I will let you.”
I study him. Really study him.
The man who tore apart an entire operation to get me back. The man who looks like he hasn’t slept since the second I was taken. The man who is dangerous enough to terrify an entire town, and gentle enough to hold a cup to my lips like I might shatter.
“And if I stay?” I ask.
His thumb brushes the inside of my wrist, right over my pulse.
“Then I stop hiding,” he says. “No more half-truths. No more pretending I’m something safer than I am.”
My heard pounds.
I don’t answer right away.
