“I’m fine—do I not look fine? Get up. Let’s get out of here.”
“I deserve to rot. I deserve to have him shoot me.”
“If you have time to rot, then rot at home with me. And do your job as my bodyguard.”
“The only thing I had to guard you from was my fucking past!” I exclaim.
Ellison’s eyes narrow. “Being human means making mistakes. It means fucking up and then getting back up so you can fuck up in some other way. Maybe you don’t know that, sinceyou’re some demon from a weird-as-fuck cult, but you’re about to learn it. Come on. I need you to come with me.”
He drags me to my feet and pulls me from the building as I wait for Henrik to change his mind, to shoot me in the back of the head… but he’s too good.
And I bet he has Eve to thank for that.
She could make even the darkest souls bright.
I was proof of that.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
DEUS
I should be doing something. Anything. Instead, I’m sitting in the passenger seat of the car I borrowed, holding my rifle so tightly that the tips of my fingers are turning white.
I should find that man, hunt him down, and kill him so he can never touch anyone I care about ever again.
No, only a monster would do that after he walked away.
But what if he comes back? What if he wants to torment me for the rest of my life?
I should make sure he can never touch Ellison again.
Ellison lowers the phone he’d been using to tell the others that we’re okay.
“They stopped the villain at the apartment… if she was a villain. I guess he hurt her sister really badly… but we have other things to deal with… Asmodeus?”
I jump but refuse to look at him.
“Finding and killing that man will just keep the cycle going,” he says, as if he can read my mind. “You’ve broken the cycle once. Don’t undo what you’ve accomplished. You showed himcompassion by willingly giving yourself to him. He has shown you compassion by walking away. Don’t undo what you’ve done.”
“I have to keep you safe.”
“He’s not a monster. He’s a grieving man who didn’t understand.”
“He could have killed you.”
“But he didn’t.”
He starts driving as we sit in silence. I feel like anything I say, he won’t agree with. And I don’t blame him; my mind is not a pleasant place right now.
“You can take me to my house,” I tell him.
Ellison is quiet for a minute before saying, “You didn’t leave my side when I needed you, so I’m not going to leave yours.”
“It’s different. I’m fine alone.”
“You don’t have to be,” he says, pulling up to his house.
I get out of the car, planning to head for the bedroom I’ve been staying in so I can avoid everything, but I don’t get far before he grabs my wrist.
