I shake my head. “I can’t believe a word you say any longer.”
“Everything I’m telling you is the truth.”
“Everything I know about you is alie.”
“Not everything,” he protests, stepping away from the counter. Taking a pace toward me.
This time, it’s me that backs up. I desperately need the space between us. “You stayed in my apartment.”
“Yes…”
“‘I have no secrets from you,’ you said. ‘Ask me whatever you want.’”
He flinches, drawing in a breath with a subtle hiss. “I did. Yes.”
“And you fuckinglied. Every goddamn question I asked you, youlied.”
“No, I…”
“You’re lyingnow!”
His shoulders slump. His head goesforward. “You’re right. I deliberately withheld the truth.”
Ofcoursehe withheld the truth. He’s a goddamn FBI agent.
Does that somehow justify it?
But it’s not just hisjob, it’s not just that he represents a threat to all that I hold dear. Tasha. Cammy. Dario and Cole. Kurt. Their futures are all in the hands of this man, and it’s allmy fault. And I know I’ll carry the blame of thatforever.
Yet in this moment, that’s not what hurts the most.
It’s the betrayal ofour relationship.
Everything I thought we had, everything I allowed myself to believe.
Everything I’ve let him do to me. And God, the things I’ve let him do. The things he’s donewithoutme letting him.
All of it a lie.
“I hate you.”So much.“You… Idespiseyou.”
“And I love you.”
Fuck.
We’ve already had this conversation. Ididn’timagine it.
He loves me, and all of the things he says, that’s the one I actually believe. Yet that’s the one I can’t possibly accept. Not after all he’s done.
I look away from him, blinking back tears. I don’t want to cry; he doesn’t deserve it.
He speaks again, voice so gentle and calm when my emotions are anything but. “Ravens mate for life, do you know that? I want to—”
“No!” I cry. “You don’t get to say that! Youbetrayedme. You fucked me, used me, twisted my heart, and then shattered it like it meant nothing to you!”
“No.” He shakes his head in denial. “No. Raven, I—”
“No more.” I cut a hand through the air. “Your sixty seconds is goddamnup. Nomore!”
