Page 114 of Vow to Claim You

I already know where it’s going.

But first, I get her behind a locked door and make sure she’s safe.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Aric

“Are you hurt?” I ask her, anger biting inside my veins as much as the fear I felt for the first time in years.

“Aric—”

“I asked. Are you hurt?”

Her eyes search mine for a moment as though trying to read me.

“No.”

I nod. “Good.” Now we can have the talk. She’s safe and sound in my bedroom where nothing could ever reach her.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I growl.

Ayanna’s brows crease. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect her to⁠—”

That’s the match to the gasoline.

Not I’m sorry I went.

Not I’m sorry I put myself in danger.

Not I’m sorry I snuck out and turned off my phone and walked into a meeting with a woman I knew was unstable in a country where people have already aimed at me.

I didn’t expect her to.

As though Farida’s behavior is the problem and not the choice that put Ayanna in that room.

As though the near miss is the issue and not the going.

As though she genuinely believes a better outcome would have made the decision acceptable.

The thing I’ve been holding compressed in a locked fist since Maylin’s face in the corridor cracks open.

“You didn’t expect her to,” I echo her words. My voice is flat. Cold. But everything underneath it isn’t.

Ayanna’s chin lifts. “She called me. She said she had information about Luca’s death. She⁠—”

“And that was enough for you to walk out of this house alone. Without Maylin. Without telling anyone where you were going.” I watch her, my first clenching. “Without telling me.”

“I thought I could handle it⁠—”

“You thought you could handle it.”

I’m not shouting. I never do. But the coldness is gone now—replaced by something she hasn’t heard from me before. Something hot underneath the control. Something that makes the control itself feel dangerous rather than reassuring.

“I did handle it,” she says, and there it is—that spark of defiance. “I was talking her down before you arrived⁠—”

“You were cornered against a wall with a knife at your throat.”

“I wasn’t⁠—”