“I can’t.”
“Then, I can’t let you go.”
They stayed in the tension of it, eyes locked.Drew could see it—the war inside Kael, the pull between duty and something older.Something they’d both buried deep.
“You should trust me,” Drew said softly.“Because we meant something to each other once.That doesn’t just vanish.”
Kael didn’t move for a long time.His eyes searched Drew’s face as if he could still find the truth he wanted hidden there.The silence stretched until it hurt.Drew’s pulse hammered in his throat.
“Kael,” he said, voice cracking with something close to desperation.“You know me.You know I wouldn’t say this if it wasn’t real.There’s something coming.Bigger than the Bratya, bigger than either of us.If I stay, people die.Innocent people.”
Kael’s jaw tightened, muscles shifting under the skin.“You expect me to take that on faith?”
“I expect you to remember who I am,” Drew shot back.“You think I walked away because I wanted to?You think I didn’t die a hundred times knowing what I was doing to you?I did what I had to do.”
Kael took a step closer, anger sparking.“You disappeared.You didn’t even give me a body to bury.”
Drew swallowed, his chest aching.“Because if they knew what you meant to me, they’d have used you to get to me.I couldn’t let that happen.You know that, Kael.Fuck!You know that.”
The words hung between them, raw and electric.Kael looked like he wanted to argue more, but something in Drew’s eyes stopped him.For a moment, the fury bled into sorrow.
“Damn you to hell,” Kael muttered.
“Already have been,” Drew said quietly.“By you and so many others.”
Kael’s shoulders slumped slightly, conflict tearing through him.His hand twitched near his sidearm, then dropped.Finally, with a rough exhale, he reached behind him, pressed a button on the wall.The locks released with a mechanical click.
“There’s a car outside,” Kael said quietly.“Keys are in it.Take it.One of us will pick it up later.”
Drew rose slowly, rubbing his wrists.The steel had cut deep, blood slick against his skin.He looked at Kael one last time.The man who had once been his, well, his everything.Despite the short time they’d had together.
Kael didn’t ask him to stay.
Didn’t even look at him again.
Sadness settled heavy in Drew’s chest as he walked through the warehouse.He could feel the eyes of the men on him, but no one stopped him.Kael’s word was law.
He reached the outer door and paused.The night air was just beyond it—freedom, purpose, danger.He looked back over his shoulder.
Kael stood in the shadows, watching.
“You’re wrong, you know,” Drew said quietly.“About what you told yourself.About us.”
Kael didn’t answer.
Drew’s voice softened, heavy with regret.“Out of everyone in this world, you’re the only one who ever had the right to claim me.”
He turned, pushed the door open.It closed easily behind him—too easily.Easier than closing the door now standing wide open inside his chest.
As the engine roared to life and the car pulled away, the image of Kael’s face lingered—a look of longing and loss that burned itself into Drew’s mind.
He didn’t look back.
