Page 132 of The Merciless King

I desperately need to know where Dante is, and I’m scared to ring my mother.

She knows.

I’m sure she does.

The only reason she’ll want to know if I’m okay is so she can keep this family together. Speed up the wedding to Leo Baldoni.

I don’t want to go back home.

And Braxton has just walked out of my life.

Of course he has.

Sorry I used you. Sorry you are hurting. Sorry that there is no way for me to prove that what we had felt as real to me as it did to you.

He doesn’t owe me anything, but why did he leave?

I sob more, feeling guilty for being so selfish when those women and likely thousands more have lost their entire lives or their life.

Probably both.

But my heart feels like it was ripped out of my chest, and he took it with him.

I love him.

I don’t want him to walk away.

But he has.

And I’ll never see him again—Bang.

I sit up with a gasp.

“So, here’s the thing.” Braxton stands in my doorway looking enormous in his head-to-toe black outfit—jeans and a bomber jacket—and runs a hand through his hair.

I scramble up on my knees.

“Brax, I—”

“No”—he holds up his hand—“I need to say this.”

I wait.

Hope.

Fear.

Panic.

Why is he back?

“Okay.” I sniff and try not to breathe so I can hear everything he says.

He crosses the room to the window and then turns, staring at me with anguish. He walks to the bed, and I tip my head to keep our connection now that I’ve lowered into a kneeling position so as not to scare him off.

Do not scare him off.

“Thing is...” He puts his hands on his hips and drops his head.

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