I take a breath. “How do you do this?”
His eyes flick to mine. “Do what?”
“Walk into places like that,” I whisper. “Stay steady. Act like it’s just another night.”
His mouth tightens. Firelight catches the hard lines of his face, the scars, the ink disappearing under his sleeve.
“It isn’t just another night,” he says. “I’m steady because if I’m not, people die.”
The words land hard.
I study him through the firelight. “Why me?”
His gaze lifts.
“What?”
“You didn’t know me,” I say. “You could’ve stuck to the plan. You could’ve walked away.”
His eyes darken.
“I saw your face,” he says.
My throat tightens.
“And I ran out of patience.”
My hands shake under the blanket.
It shouldn’t mean anything.
It means too much.
I keep my voice low. “You didn’t know who I was.”
Sin holds my gaze. “I knew what they were doing to you.”
The fire pops again, and I flinch.
His eyes stay on me. “You’re going to jump at sounds for a while. That’s normal.”
Normal.
Nothing about tonight feels normal.
I swallow. “I was excited.”
His expression shifts slightly. “Excited.”
“It was our three-month anniversary,” I whisper, hating myself the second I say it. Like that matters now. Like it proves I was stupid enough to believe him.
Sin’s mouth hardens. “He used you.”
I flinch anyway, even though he’s right.
I stare at the blanket. “He wasn’t like that at first.”
Sin doesn’t interrupt. He just waits.
