Page 103 of Where We Promise

My heart seemed to free fall.

“He’s what?”

Luke was an asshole. He’d hurt me more than anyone else had ever hurt me, but he was still a big part of my past. He was Connor’s father…he was a piece of shit, but he didn’t deserve to die.

Jameson kept his face down while he started washing the dishes.

“Silas wouldn’t?—”

I moved from the chair, rounding the counter and angrily turned the water off.

“Who gave the order?” My tone was low, barely contained.

Jameson leveled me with a firm, confident stare, no regret in those brown irises at all when he said, “Me.”

I shook my head, tears starting to cloud my vision. “You wouldn’t…he was your friend.”

Jameson scoffed, dropping the plate into the sink, which made it break.

“My friend? Pen, you still don’t really understand what the fuck happened between him and I, do you?”

I peeked over at Connor, but he hadn’t even stirred from the echo of the dish breaking.

Jamie stepped closer. “I may have done a shit poor job of claiming you over the years, Pen, but I did try. I—” He stopped like he was trying to hold off, as if he didn’t want to say it.

“Just tell me. You tried how?”

“Your mom encouraged me to write you that one time, said she’d help deliver it, so I thought when I was ready to pursue you, she’d help me. I took you a bouquet of wildflowers and a letter, telling you I wanted you to be mine. She said she’d give it to you…but you never?—”

He trailed off again, his throat worked, and his eyes glittered.

“You’d already moved on with Luke, and I assumed you’d just chosen him over me. So, I had to watch you two together, day after day. I had to hear about how he fucked you and kissed you. I watched how you gave up your future and handed him yours, only for him to set it all on fire. You have no fucking clue how long I have wanted to kill him.”

Tears streamed down my face at his confession, at the way his features shifted and changed into something cruel.

“This isn’t you, Jamie.”

He laughed, running his hand through his hair. “Finally killing the man who took the girl I wanted?” He stepped closer, and I retreated.

“Finally putting a bullet in the head of the man who told me that your pussy was the best he’d had, which was why he agreed to give you a property patch? When he first met you, he flirted, even knowing I’d met you first, even after I pushed him against the wall that same night and told him you were mine. He still pushed. Still flirted.”

I continued to retreat as he stalked toward me. The fire in his eyes was so unfamiliar to me, it made me nervous…not that he’d hurt me, I knew he never would, but it felt like he was walking along a cliff and one wrong move would send him over the edge.

“I puked my fucking guts out while he stood there laughing at the fact that he’d be able to fuck you without a condom because he’d knocked you up. While you may not like this, Penelope, you are my wife now. Mine. I will not tolerate another man in your life, not when he’s hurt you, and certainly not after he’s had you in every way that I now own you.”

My back hit the wall, and Jamie’s arm went to the space next to my head. His other hand came up to my face, his thumb pushing down on my bottom lip.

“For years I had to live without you. For years I was just existing in the background. This is me, Pen…the King of Chaos. You’re tied to me now and all this hatred that taints my soul is yours. Fuck, you caused most of it.”

Jamie gently grabbed my hand and slid it under his shirt, across the script tattoo, right above the band of his boxers.

“This is you.”

I finally met his stare.

“I’m your ruin?” I tilted my head back as another tear slid free.

His brown eyes branded me. “Yes. Since that day we first met.”

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