Page 78 of Dark Truths

“Like staying with you is any better? You’re an FBI agent, Dimitri. You’re the very definition of dangerous,” I argue back.

“Never to you. I would never hurt you.”

“Oh yeah? Well, you’re hurting me now.”

My ankle snags on a rock and I curse out loud as I stumble, barely catching myself in time before I fall on my face.

“Gabriella! For fuck’s sake.”

Growling under my breath, I push forward. The brush grows thicker and slows my progress, just enough for Dimitri to catch up with me. His hand latches around my upper arm and swings me around to face him.

The moon is full in the cloudless night sky high above. Its rays of light filtering in through the tree canopy provide just enough for me to make out his face, and see the torment and emotional rage in his eyes. Almost like he’s the one hurt, the one lied to and betrayed.

“Just let me explain,” he pleads.

“How long?” I ask instead.

“What?”

“How long have you been spying on my family?”

He frowns, his face torn between which lie to tell me.

“I swear to all things holy, Dimitri. If you lie to me again, you will never see me again.”

My threat seems to do the trick because the hesitation disappears from his face as he sighs. “I’ve lost track of the time, but it’s been a couple of years now.”

“Why?” The pain of hearing the truth out loud hurts more than I thought it would.

“At first it was just to uncover the truth about the High Table, but then it became something more when we tracked the human trafficking auctions to Miami.”

The words spill from his mouth so easily and so flawlessly, almost like a burden is being lifted from his shoulders that it can’t be anything but the truth. Doesn’t make it any easier to hear, though.

“Would you have ever told me?”

The hesitation returns to his face, not because he’s about to lie, but because he knows the truth is going to hurt.?

“I don't know.”

I twist my arm free and step back. The sad part is he allows me. Bowing my head, a rush of hot tears fills my eyes before they fall like twin scalding rivers down my cheeks.

“Were you just going to leave one day, then? Disappear after tearing my family apart and sending them to jail?”

“Yes, but—”

My head snaps up, and I level him with a cruel gaze.“You fucking bastard,” I cry before I shove at him. When he barely moves, it only fuels my anger. “If that’s true, why couldn’t you just leave me alone after the miscarriage? Why did you have to start things up between us again? How could you be so fucking cruel? Was I just another whore for you to stick your cock into? Why bother starting things between us at all?”

Like a statue, Dimitri stands completely frozen, his face devoid of expression and his eyes as cold as ice as I fire off question after question.How can he act like this doesn’t hurt him too? Why doesn’t he care?

“Answer me!” I shout, shoving at him again. I do it over and over until my hands transform into fists and then I’m slamming them against his chest. My vision blurs as my racing heart pounds in my ears. My chest tightens, and it grows difficult to breathe. I’m panicking, falling headfirst into a dark maze of despair, with no way out. “Why tell me now? Why couldn’t you just leave me alone? Why?” My words come out choked and a second later, all strength leaves my legs. I collapse forward into him and his arms instinctively come up to circle around my waist.

We fall to our knees together on the damp forest floor. As I sob uncontrollably, he doesn’t release me, but runs one hand up and down my back in a soothing manner, pressing the other tightly to my back, keeping me glued to him.

As the sound of my sobs fades away, his voice breaks the silence with a mixture of vulnerability and sadness. “Because I fell in love.”

I pull back and raise my face to stare up at him. Our eyes meet and I only see genuine pain in the icy depths. Pain from a truth so profound he feels stripped raw.

"What?" I whisper. “You love me?”

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