Page 154 of Promises in the Dark

The weight of it pressed down hard—betrayal, lies, all the ways we’d been played for a fool.

If I was right, Pyro wasn’t just a reckless prick. He was a goddamn traitor. And if Red’s ex had a hand in it, this shitshow wasn’t just a few botched ops. This was something bigger, something uglier.

Red was quiet for a long time, her fingers absently tracing patterns on my chest. When she finally spoke, her voice was heavy.

“If you’re right about this, Rogue... we’re in deep shit.”

I let out a humorless chuckle. “Sweetheart, we’ve been in deep shit since the day we signed up for this.”

I yanked her closer again, needing to feel her against me, to ground myself in something real. My thoughts were spiraling, but the one thing I knew for sure was that I couldn’t trust anyone right now. Not even my own team.

“What’s the plan?” she asked eventually, voice small, like she already knew the answer was going to be shit.

I reached up, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, marveling at how something so simple could feel so intimate.

“Plan? Fuck if I know. We need more intel. Proof. And we gotta figure out who’s clean. We’re flying blind here.”

She reached out, taking my hand in hers. “We can trust each other.”

I looked at her, really looked at her. In that moment, it hit me just how much she meant to me. How much I needed her. Not just for this fucked-up situation we were stuck in, but for everything. She was the only thing keeping my head above water.

“Yeah,” I said, squeezing her hand. “We can.”

Red’s hand came up to cup my cheek, her touch impossibly gentle. “We’ll figure it out together, Rogue. You’re not alone in this.”

I turned my head, pressing a kiss to her palm, feeling something inside me settle for the first time in days. “I know. And that’s the only reason I haven’t completely lost my fucking mind.”

She was quiet for a moment, her fingers tracing the stubble on my jaw. Then, out of nowhere, she hit me with a question I never saw coming.

“Rogue,” she said, her green eyes searching my face, “will you ever tell me your real name?”

My body went rigid, like I’d been sucker-punched.My real name. I hadn’t thought about that in years—hadn’tallowedmyself to think about it.

That name belonged to a weak, scared kid. A kid who’d curl up in the corner while his old man’s fists came down. A kid who’d cry himself to sleep, wondering why the hell he wasn’t good enough, why his dad couldn’t fucking love him.

I didn’t want to be that boy anymore. Iwasn’tthat boy anymore.

Fuck. Just the thought of it brought back a flood of memories I’d spent years trying to drown in booze and gunfire.

Her question shouldn’t have caught me off guard. Hell, she’d probably been thinking it for a while now. But it hit me harder than I expected.

“Rogue?” Red’s voice was soft, concerned. “Are you okay?”

I realized I’d been silent for too long, my muscles tensed as a drawn bowstring. I forced myself to take a breath, to relax my grip on her and I swallowed hard, trying to find my voice.

“Yeah, I... it’s just...” I trailed off, not knowing how to explain the storm of emotions her simple question had unleashed.

“You don’t have to tell me,” she said quietly. “I shouldn’t have asked.”

I shook my head, forcing myself to meet her eyes. “No, it’s not that. It’s just... my name. I don’t think about it. I left that part of me behind a long time ago.”

She rolled onto her back to face me. “Why not?”

I exhaled hard, trying to find the words that didn’t make me sound like a total fucking wreck.

“Because... it reminds me of who I used to be. This weak, pathetic kid who couldn’t...”

The rest stuck in my throat. Red waited patiently, just laid there with her hand on my chest like she was holding me together, waiting for me to get my shit straight.

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