Page 97 of Salvatore

“This isn’t a job,” she says, struggling to speak. “This is a death warrant. You said you haven’t killed. But I saw what happened to Lucca and I know what he did to stay alive. Leave with me before you finish killing the man that I love.”

When I meet her gaze, everything I kept from her releases in a few simple words. “This isn’t something I can walk away from alive.”

My words are like vicious blows I can’t spare her from. Her hands fall away from me as she edges away from my reach. I follow her, wanting to take it back?to spare her from the truth and shield her from the monster I sold my soul to.

She knew. Since learning Vin was Mafia, she fucking knew he’d order my kill if I left. But it took me telling her for that dam of lies to break and crush her, and for her to accept there’s no getting out.

I expect her to scream, to hit me, to run away in fear. I don’t expect the heartache that claims her features or the betrayal that trembles her voice when her face meets mine.

The tears she beat back release at once, spilling like raindrops across her paling skin. “I love you, Salvatore. I do,” she adds, when I clench my jaw in disbelief. “Prove to me that you love me, and that you’re the good man I believe in.” Her words claw at my insides as she embraces me with her slender arms. “Please,” she says, weeping. “Let’s leave all this behind.”

What I do next doesn’t come easy. It’s the hardest fucking thing I’ve ever done. I clasp her wrists and pull them down carefully, breaking her hold and keeping her in place. “I can’t,” I answer, the words burning like acid down my throat.

She doesn’t move, her tears drying as numbness claims her. “You promised never to let me go.”

I did. But it’s because I love her that I do.

I step away from her, my chest throbbing in agony as I reach for my clothes. I march across the room, barely feeling the floor beneath my feet. I make it to the hall, slamming the heavy door behind me.

It’s not enough to muffle Aedry’s sobs.

I walk down the stairs, my vision blurring as my eyes burn. She was everything to me. Now the only thing I can make her is a memory.

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