“No.” My tremulous whisper is barely audible.
It’shim.
He’s my dark god.
He’s my online confidante.
He’s the masked man who violated me.
They’re all the same man. They’re allhim.
31
DANE
Something sharp pierces my chest, robbing my breath. She’s not supposed to be here.
She was never supposed to see this.
She was never supposed to know.
I came back here to get cleaned up, so that I wouldn’t be covered in blood and grime when I returned home.
Now, she sees the ugly truth of what I am.
I’m her stalker.
Her attacker.
Her villain.
I was a fool to ever delude myself into thinking I could be something else to her, something more.
“Tell me it’s not true.” Her lovely eyes are shining, but her tears don’t bring me a shred of pleasure this time.
“Abigail,” I rasp.
My stomach knots, and I reach for her.
She cringes away.
“Tell me it’s not true!” The words are a desperate shriek this time.
I grasp her shoulders, forcibly pulling her to me. Her fists beat at my chest like the frantic beats of a trapped bird’s wings.
“Let me go!”
“No,” I refuse. My fingers bite into her soft flesh, preventing her from putting an inch of space between us. “You love me.”
If I say it, it might still be true.
Her cheeks are chalk white, and her jaw is slack with horror.
“You violated me.”
The truth in her soft whisper hits me like a gut punch.
“It was you!” she rails.
