Her chest rises and falls fast, fury and hurt twisting together on her face. I want to rip it away. I want to rip the entire world away until it’s just her and me.
“You think I wanted her?” My voice is a snarl, inches from her ear. “You think anyone else could ever do to me what you do?”
Her lips tremble, but she doesn’t answer.
“You break me, Brooklyn,” I growl, teeth scraping the shell of her ear. “And I’d burn down this whole filthy city before I let another woman touch what’s mine.”
The bass still thunders from inside, muffled by brick, but it’s nothing compared to the sound of her sobs. It’s jagged, unsteady, like it’s sawing through her ribs just to claw its way out.
She shoves at me, fists small and sharp against my chest. “Move.”
“No.”
“Dean—” her voice cracks in half, “let me go.”
My jaw grinds so hard it hurts. “You shouldn’t even be here.”
That makes her flinch. Her chin jerks up, wet lashes clumped with black streaks. “I know,” she spits, voice shaking. “I shouldn’t have followed you. I shouldn’t have seen it. But maybe it’s better I did.”
My chest caves like she just put a hole through it. “Don’t.”
She laughs, bitter and broken, shoving me again like she’s trying to push the whole night off her skin. “No, Dean. Maybe it’s best. Because I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to stand in the shadows while you let other women—” her voice chokes, tears flooding down again— “while you let them put their hands on you.”
I slam a hand against the wall by her head, making her flinch but not run. I bare my teeth, and my lungs burn. “You think I chose her? You think I’d ever choose anyone but you?”
Her lips tremble, but she shakes her head, slow and defiant, like she’s trying to break free even while she’s falling apart. “You already did, Dean. Even if it was just for a second. And I can’t—” her voice fractures, raw and honest— “I can’t be the girl who waits around hoping you’ll pick me over your vices. I can’t.”
The words sink deep, poison threading through my veins. She thinks she saw enough to know me. She thinks she gets to decide when I falter and when I fight.
And yet she’s wrong.
I lean in until my breath fans her damp cheek, until her sobs shake through my chest as much as hers. My voice comes out low, rough, bitten through with anger.
“You didn’t walk into that club. You don’t know what I did. What I didn’t.”
Her tears drip onto her collarbone, sliding into the neckline of her dress. She whispers, voice splintering, “I saw enough.”
My hands fist against the brick. Enough. She thinks she saw enough.
“Brooklyn.” Her name rips out of me like a warning, like a curse. “You don’t get to walk away from me. Not over her. Not over anything. I’m not giving you that choice.”
Her palms slam into my chest again, but this time she’s not just shoving me back—she’s unravelling right there in the alley, voice ripping out of her throat so loud it drowns the bass.
“I can’t do this! I can’t fucking do this!” she screams, tears streaming, chest heaving. “I thought—God, I thought maybe you wanted me. But you don’t. You never did. I was just—just a distraction to you, wasn’t I?”
“Brooklyn—”
“No!” Her sob chokes, her fists trembling as she beats them against me once, twice, before curling them into her own hair like she’s holding her head together. “You said you didn’t want a relationship. You said this wasn’t what you do! And I was so fucking stupid I still let you—let you touch me, ruin me, break me?—”
Her words splinter as her knees almost buckle, voice cracking wide open. “And now I’m the one who’s drowning. I’m the one who’s in love with a man who doesn’t even want me. So I’m done, Dean. I’m done. I’m leaving.”
That word detonates inside me. Leaving.
Before she can step away, I snap. My hand shoots up, clamping around her jaw, my fingers digging into her tear-wet cheeks as I pin her back against the wall.
“You think you get to fucking leave me?” My voice is a snarl, feral and shaking, close enough that my breath shudders against her lips. “You think after everything, after letting me inside you, inside your head, you get to just walk away?”
Her wide, tear-glossed eyes lock on mine, trembling but refusing to close.
