Page 13 of Dmitri

He swallows hard before letting go of me. Taking a step back, he shoves his hands in his pockets and pulls out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. “I promised you this was the last job, and I don’t break my promises. You know me.”

I do. Which means I have to decode what he’s asking of me now. “How am I supposed to fuck him?” Because Kaleb said to spread my legs and open my mouth, which I did, goddamnit, and just like always, it’s not enough for him. “Just tell me exactly what I have to do.”

“I need you to get close to this guy. Figure out what makes him tick. What makes him break. What matters to him.”

There’s no way. It’ll take me forever.

“You can do this for me, Dae.” He pulls a cigarette out with his teeth. “You’re good at making a man feel like he can tell you anything.”

My heart collapses. Memories fall from the dark hole in the top of my brain, and splatter behind my eyes, playing out in scenes I don’t like dwelling over…

Kaleb and I laughing in bed as the sun comes up. Kaleb sending over a thousand roses to my house for my birthday. The way he stared at me from across a bonfire we had to celebrate Ace’s initiation. How he would kiss me like I gave him life. How he told me about his father dying, and the way his voice trembled as he broke down about it.

I can look at us now and admit Kaleb is not the man I thought I loved, but he is still raw and vulnerable when I am the only one looking. We’ve been through so much together, it’s hard to remember my life before he came into it.

Addie isn’t the only person I’ve trauma bonded with. Kaleb and I share things, too.

Until he turned my vulnerabilities into his strengths and used me all up.

He lights his cigarette and takes a long drag, blowing it out through his nose.

Running his thumb across his bottom lip, his voice stays low and soft when he asks, “How bad do you want to be free from me, Daelyn?” To make it worse, he closes the space between us again and grabs my hand, running his thumb over the signet he burned into me. “Tell me.”

“I…”

There’s no answer that won’t get me in hot water. If I say I want out badly, he’ll do something to break my heart because on some level I’ll have broken his too. If I say not badly, then he’ll keep using me for his illegal businesses and I’ll end up in prison.

Then where will Addie be?

I’ll have to redirect this conversation to take the focus off me. “Why do you want to fuck him?”

Because if I’m going to bring that fighter into Kaleb’sworld, don’t I deserve to know why?

“Don’t worry about it.” Kaleb takes another drag of his cigarette. “I should have known better than to lean on you for this.”

Hold up. What? “I can do it.”

“No. It’s fine. He’s a lunatic, anyway. I don’t want you around that.”

I see the game he’s playing with me and still I engage. “I just want to knowwhy, Kaleb.”

“He…” Kaleb looks away from me and runs his hand through his hair. It’s the only sign I’ve ever picked up on that tells me when he’s truly upset. “He killed my father.”

The little bit of me that still cares about Kaleb flares back to life. Everyone has a reason for being the way they are. Kaleb’s father getting murdered is the reason Kaleb’s an angry, cutthroat sonofabitch. He’s a wounded animal that lashes out and handles everything with violence. He keeps his guard up because he feels like no one understands him. He has no one. Nothing.

Except me.

A memory of him telling me his sad story creeps into my brain, rewiring my cells again. I cling to the way his soft voice spoke of his heartbroken mother, that at thirteen years old he lost his hero, and how hard life’s been for him ever since. He told me I was the only one who had ever dug their way into his heart, and he wanted to bury me in there forever.

Then a few years later, he heated his signet ring and branded me his.

I wasn’t the love of his life. I was a pawn in his game.

And I still am.

It’s terrifying to realize that death might be my only way out of Kaleb’s world for good.

“What did you learn about him the other night?” he asks, studying me.

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