Page 85 of Cruel Dominion

Anna stiffened. When she met my eyes, her gaze was full of reproach. “Wait. You didn’t even tell me. You’ve known all this time and you didn’t tell me.”

“I didn’t want to worry you,” I explained. “And between me and your father, you were well protected.”

She stood abruptly, turning to face me with a hard expression on her face. “But you didn’t think I deserved to know what was happening? I could have made different choices, Carter. I wouldn’t have snuck off by myself or put myself in danger. This is my life, not yours!”

My stomach twisted with some unknown emotion.

Anna paced across my living room. I could see her anger rising with each step.

You’re going to lose her.

Fix it.

Fix it.

“I didn’t want you obsessing about your ex,” I said and the words were coming out all wrong. “That’s why he did all this. Because he wanted you to be afraid. I didn’t want him to win.”

She laughed, but the sound was hollow. “I can’t believe I actually thought for one second I could trust you. That you were different. God, you’re just like him.”

Anger surged through me. What did I do to deserve to be compared to that piece of shit? Yes, Anna was mine, but I didn’t try to push her down and make her smaller. I was giving her everything she wanted. What she needed. Even if she didn’t see it that way.

“Take it back,” I said through gritted teeth.

“I won’t. You think you get sooo many brownie points for hiring some retired mall cops to watch me?”

They were far from that and she knew it, but I let her go on.

“No, you’re a real hero.”

She needed to watch her tone.

“You’re only hiding things from me and trying to control every part of my life. No biggie, right Carter?”

She poked me hard in the chest.

“Don’t try and pretend you’re not a manipulative prick just like all the rest of them.”

That, I was guilty of, but I wouldn’t apologize. I was doing what I needed to do to make her safe and make her see where she belonged.

Who she belonged with.

I’d do far worse.

“I did what I needed to. I won’t apologize.”

“Of course you won’t. You don’t care about what I want. You only care about what you think you deserve.”

This is not how you keep her, Carter.

I tapped my fingertips on the arm of the sofa, racing to find the right words. The ones that would make her see. Make her stay.

“Maybe I messed up a bit,” I admitted. “I could’ve told you what was happening and I chose not to. If you want the truth, fine, you have it. From here on, ask me anything you want to know and I’ll tell you, just know that you may not like the answers.”

Her brows furrowed and her jaw flexed as she thought through what I imagined was a thousand questions she wanted answers to. There was only one I wouldn’t give her.

“Are you keeping any other secrets from me?”

“I once came to see you on the beach straight from the ER. I woke up in the emergency room and ripped out the IV before they could?—”

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