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I scan the wilderness around us. Just the two of us, because I demanded it. I wanted to face the man who stalks my dreams, to make him taste what I once endured.

The old me would be horrified—terrified by what I’ve become since taking the name Baine.

Forgiveness means nothing if you can’t bear your own reflection.

There is one thing I need to do before I carry out everything I have planned. I need to look one person in the eyes.

Steffen letting me choose my future is a splinter buried deep. Every step stings, aches, and burns. I’ve tried to dig him out of my heart, but every attempt just reminds me I still carry his heart, stolen and hidden inside me.

I want to know why.

Why did he let me go when he vowed to chase me?

Was the winter wind of my new life too cold for even him?

Striding forward, I reach for the bag over his head and yank it off. His eyes blink, trying to adjust to the bright sunlight. My heart skips a beat once his blue eyes adjust and land on me.

I stand perfectly still, letting his gaze crawl over me, slow and deliberate, a heat prickling beneath my skin.

I sink to my knees before him, close enough to breathe in leather, rain, and that maddening cologne he wore on our date.

My thumb digs beneath the duct tape stretched across his mouth, the sting of his stubble biting into my skin as I dig my nail under the corner. With a sharp jerk, I rip it free.

He doesn’t flinch. He kneels there, broad shoulders squared, looking at me like a dark knight waiting for my command.

“Do you remember when you came to my house on Halloween night?” I ask.

He just watches me, silent and unblinking, until the air between us grows thick and unbearable.

I curl the tape into my fist and let it drop to the floor. “I opened the door that night and said trick-or-treat. You said both.” My glare cuts into him. “I gave you my treat. I let you fuck me.”

He flinches.

“Now it’s time for the trick, Steffen.” My face reddens.

I hate how my heart hammers when I speak his name.

He flashes his teeth. “You were never just a fuck, and you know it.”

I let my hand drift down his jaw, savoring the rough scrape of his stubble. “Oh, are you angry? Maybe it wasn’t a fuck for you, but it was for me.”

“I know when you lie, Little Thief.”

I pull my hand away, letting it fall limp at my side. “Do you?” My voice is low, taunting. “Thieves are good liars, Steffen.”

I lean in, close enough to feel the heat of his stare tracing the line of my throat down to where my chest rises and falls.

My hand slides into my boot, closing around the hilt of my knife—the one he gave me. As I draw it free, the corner of his mouth curls into that familiar, sinister smirk that haunts my sleepless nights.

“I didn’t keep it because I missed you.”

“So why did you? You gonna kill me, Little Thief?” he asks, his tone firm. There’s the man I fell for—mad enough to risk everything, even his own neck. “First my heart, now it’s my life you seek to steal.”

“What if I do?” I press the edge of the cold blade against his lower lip, tilt his chin up, and force his eyes to meet mine. I dare him to answer, flinch, or break. React! Come on, do something that will make me kill you!

“It’s always been yours.” His voice is steady, without a trace of fear as he leans in and presses a slow, deliberate kiss to the razor-sharp tip of the knife. A sudden surge of heat snaps inside me. I flick my wrist, slicing a thin line across his lower lip with the blade.

His smirk deepens, eyes burning into mine as he slowly licks the blood from his lip, savoring the taste. “Your handiwork only makes it taste sweeter,” he whispers proudly.