One person whose trust I decimated.
Not to mention what I did to her heart…
Fuck.
My chest tightens again thinking about that look on her face at the shop, how quickly I became the enemy and not the man who had just cared for her, who had shown her how incredible it could be to let go of the things she clung to so tightly.
God, I really fucked this up.
I knew this would be hard, but one thing I never accounted for was what walking in and seeing that look again will do to me.
Nothing can prepare me for it.
The ding that signals us reaching the penthouse makes me cringe, and my escort grabs my arm again and drags me out and into the hallway that contains two doors: one to the left, one to the right.
Even if Atlas is home, he wouldn’t be at his place. They would have told him what happened by now. The Hawke flock will be together, unless they made a decision to limit everyone’s exposure—which could certainly be the case.
Saint might have moved most of them to a location I’m not familiar with, some place I could never find.
If he took Bishop there instead of here…
If I’m wrong…
We move to the door on the left, and someone inside opens it for us. Before I can even take a step, I’m shoved forward by a forceful hand on my back. Stumbling, I fall to my knees on the hard floor, barely managing to maintain my balance enough to avoid ending up face-first on it.
But maybe that would have been better.
I wouldn’t have had to see the furious eyes staring back at me.
It isn’t just Saint. Caroline, Isaac, Stone, Kennedy, and Cass all glare at me from their places around the open living room. But there is only one set of eyes I search for.
Those smoky bourbon ones I love so damn much…
I find them in the back corner, where she leans against the wall, tucked away near the fireplace as if she wanted to put as much space between us as possible and make herself as small as possible.
And it isn’t just hatred and anger that burn in her gaze.
It’s utter betrayal.
And that’s so much worse.
For someone like Bishop, who spent her entire life with walls built around herself and her heart, who helped erect them around her family to ensure they were always protected, finding out the one person she let in has been lying to her is the ultimate treason.
Something you never come back from.
Her heart has been crushed beyond repair, and my own shatters seeing her like this.
Trembling.
Curled in on herself as if she doesn’t have the strength to even stand on her own.
Terrified of what she’s done to the people she loves so deeply and for whom she sacrificed so much.
The door clicks closed behind me, sealing me in with the people who have every right to want me dead, even though all I’ve ever done has been to try to save them.
Saint steps into my line of sight, blocking my view of Bishop, an unmovable wall of hostility. “You don’t get to look at her.”
I struggle to get to my feet from my kneeling position with my hands still secured behind me, but I somehow manage it, swaying slightly when I do. “You need to let me explain.”
