Page 145 of Promises in the Dark

My fingers curled around it, the metal cold against my skin, and I shoved it into my pocket without another thought.

We’d been so close. So goddamn close. And now, it was all slipping through my fingers like fucking sand.

Chapter 38

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Iscanned the area, searching for Red. The sounds of the aftermath of the fight were still echoing around me, but I wasn’t focused on that right now.

My eyes were locked on one thing—where the hell was she? My pulse was still racing from the chaos, but something else was burning in my chest—anger.

I spotted her a few feet away, kneeling next to one of the wounded locals, completely absorbed in trying to fix whatever was wrong with the guy, her fiery red hair hanging in her face. She was focused, too damn focused, while I was over here losing my shit because she hadn’t listened. Bullets were flying, and she was out here playing Florence Nightingale, completely ignoring my fucking orders.

She disobeyed me. She ignored my orders. And now I was fucking furious. Not just at her, but at myself. I let her get under my skin, let her distract me in the middle of a firefight, and that could’ve gotten us both killed. Hell, sheshould’vebeen dead. One wrong move, one stray bullet, and she’d be lying there in the dirt, all because she couldn’t follow a simple fucking order.

My fists clenched at my sides as I stalked toward her, heart hammering in my chest. She didn’t even see me coming. Too wrapped up in her little rescue mission.

I didn’t say a damn word when I got to her. Didn’t trust myself to, really. I just pulled the necklace from my pocket and shoved it right in her face, olding it out in front of her like it was a piece of evidence in some crime. Her green eyes snapped up, wide with shock, and she froze. Those steady doctor hands of herstrembled as she reached out, taking the necklace from me without a word.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her voice all soft and unsure, like she didn’t know if she should even be saying it.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t have anything to say to her right now. I turned on my heel, ready to walk away before I said something I’d regret, but I barely made it two steps before I heard her call out again.

“Wait.”

Of course. She couldn’t just let it go.

I heard her mumble something to the woman she was helping. A second later, she was coming after me.

Her voice had that edge, the one that always got under my skin. She was mad thatIwas mad—typical.

I stopped, jaw clenched, fists still tight, waiting for her to catch up.

“What?” I asked, keeping my back to her.

I didn’t want to look at her right now. Not when I was this pissed. Not when my head was all over the place because of her.

“Are you mad at me?” she asked, her voice quieter now, but still with that stubborn undertone.

Mad?Fuckingunderstatement.

I spun around, glaring down at her like I could burn the damn message into her skull. But when I opened my mouth, the words didn’t come out the way I planned.

“You didn’t listen,” I said, my voice low, angry. “I told you to stay put, and instead, you were running around, bullets flying everywhere. You could’ve been fuckingkilled, Red.”

Her face fell. I expected her to argue, to fire back with something about how she was doing her job, how she was here to help. That would’ve been easier. But she didn’t. For once, she just stood there, looking… guilty.

Her eyes softened, her shoulders slumping slightly as she looked down at the ground for a moment, then back up at me.

“I’m sorry,” she said, and for a second, I wasn’t sure I heard her right. “I should’ve listened. I shouldn’t have gone off on my own. From now on, I’m under your command.”

That—fuck. That wasn’t what I expected. Her words hit me harder than I wanted to admit, and for a second, something else flickered inside me. Her saying she’d fall in line, listen to me—it shouldn’t have affected me the way it did, but fuck, it did.

Before I could even respond, she was looking up at me, her green eyes steady, waiting for my reaction. I felt my chest tighten, my body reacting in ways I didn’t want to acknowledge. But of course, with her, nothing was ever simple. Nothing ever was.

Her lips parted slightly, and my eyes couldn’t help but flick down for a split second, betraying me. She was speechless, for once, and that almost made me lose it.

Before I could stop myself, I grabbed her chin, forcing her to look up at me. My fingers were rough, but I didn’t care. She needed to see what she was doing to me—how she was screwing with my head, distracting me when I needed to be focused.

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