Page 138 of Always

“You can trust me, Braden. All of your secrets are safe with me.”

I rake my fingers through my hair. “I do trust you. More than you know.”

“More than I know?” She lifts her eyebrows. “How can—”

I shoot my bourbon down my throat and groan. Then I regard her. Sternly.

Time for the moment of truth.

All my plans. All I thought I could have…

I brace myself. Cold plunge. It has to be said. It has to be said without emotion.

“This can’t continue.”

“What?” she asks softly, her voice cracking.

“Reardon found my weakness. I went to him, threatened him, and instead of going after me, he went after you, Skye. My Achilles’ heel.”

She rises to come toward me, but I stop her with a gesture.

She drops her ass back into her chair. “Everyone has an Achilles’ heel, Braden.”

“I don’t.” I pour myself another finger of bourbon. “I can’t.”

God, this is killing me.

There were times, after Addie, when I wondered if I even possessed a heart.

I do.

I know I do because it’s breaking in this moment. “Don’t you see?” I slam my glass down on the table. “I can’t keep you safe.”

“But you did keep me safe.”

“Because of circumstance. What if the doorman hadn’t texted me?”

“But he did.”

“Damn it, Skye!” I stand and hurl the glass against the wall. Shards scatter and rain onto the carpet. Amber liquid drips down the crown molding.

She cowers against the crash.

How I want to go to her, crush her to me, promise her that everything will be okay. That I love her, and that I’ll never leave her.

But I must be the strong one.

Until she steadies herself, stands straight, defiance exuding through her.

“You told me in the cornfield that there was only one master of control between us,” she says, her lips trembling. “You. You, Braden. You’re in control, and you protected me.”

“What if I can’t the next time?”

“Who says there’ll be a next time?”

“I was wrong,” I say. “I didn’t think anything could touch you. Touch us. I didn’t realize…”

“Didn’t realize what?” she urges.

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