“I didn’t say that.”
Alarm bells ring in my head.
His brown hair sticks up in wild, frantic angles that only comes from raking a hand through it over and over.His rumpled jeans show stains on one leg and rips on the other, and he probably grabbed that wrinkled shirt off a floor.Or slept in it.If he’s sleeping at all.
Shadows darken his eyes.His face is drawn tight.His jaw locks so violently it ticks, and his chest rises hard and shallow.Did he run here?
His wrist is swollen along the ridge of bone, the skin mottled in sick yellows.No brace or bandages.Nothing to help it heal.
He’s not taking care of himself.
This isn’t the cocky, shameless, sex-drunk Jag who thrives on getting a rise out of me.Nor is this the version who manipulates, taunts, and stalks his prey with practiced bedroom eyes.
This one is… Wrong.
He looks hollow, unsteady, frayed at every edge.
Something is very wrong.
“What happened to you?”I whisper.“Why are you here?How did you even get on the island?”
He closes his eyes like the questions hurt.
“Jag.”I gnash my teeth.“What do you want?”
“I had to see you.”He looks at me now, his eyes darker, sunken, haunted.“Before I go.”
“Go where?”
“I’m leaving Sitka.”
“You’re running again?Who’s hunting you?”
His jaw flexes, a single angry clench.
“Why didn’t you leave a rock at the goddamn grave like you always do?”
Drawing a slow breath through his nose, he removes something from his pocket and presses it into my palm.
Another rock.
I look at it, at the black letters written across the surface.
Ends Here
My heart scrapes against my ribs.
“This is the last time you’ll see me, Dove.”He grips my fingers, his hand shaking against mine.
Jag never shakes.
“What the hell does that mean?”Icy dread crawls over my scalp.“You can’t just… Jag, you don’t get to show up in the middle of the night with your non-answers, and— And this.”I shove the rock against his chest.“Explain it.”
“I’m not answering your questions.”His expression hardens as the rock falls to the floor.“I can’t.”
Blood thrashes in my ears.I want to scream, but Wolf is upstairs, and I need to sort this out before he wakes.
“Why now?Why tonight?”I force my anger into a whisper.A harsh, seething growl.“After stalking me for years and killing everyone I know?Why are you doing this?”
