Page 69 of Until You Break

“Three days,” he repeats, his voice softer now, almost tender, though the intensity never leaves his gaze. “And if you try to keep running… I’ll take you anyway. You know I will.”

His grip softens just slightly, his thumb brushing over my cheek, and for a moment, a glimmer of the Dominic I used toknow, the one who looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered.

He doesn’t say anything else, doesn’t wait for a response. He just steps back, his hand lingering on my arm for a moment, his touch burning, before he lets go, turning and disappearing back into the darkness of the garage.

Chapter forty-five

His Sinner

Lying in bed, Ican’t shake the words Dominic threw at me, the challenge in his eyes, the way he practically dared me to come to him, or else.

Three days.

It plays in my head like a countdown I can’t escape. But it’s more than just his ultimatum that keeps me awake, twisting the sheets, my mind spinning with questions I’ve been too afraid to ask.

There’s a haze around those days, the ones we spent locked up together, like my mind put walls around certain memories, keeping them out of reach. And for a while, I’ve told myself it was the trauma, the fear that made me forget, that pushed those memories so far down I couldn’t find them if I tried.

I close my eyes, breathing slowly, letting myself drift back to the nights in those cells. I’d kept myself from thinking about them, from reliving what happened between us there. I’d locked it all up behind thick walls, convinced myself it was better to forget.

But now… now I’m wondering why I did that. Why did I convince myself there were bars between us, when I knew that wasn’t true?

What else am I forgetting?

The memories start to come back in pieces, fragments I can barely piece together.

Dominic, hurt and angry, but always close, always watching me with that same intensity that felt like a brand.

We weren’t separated by bars. We were in the same cell, trapped together, forced into a closeness that felt both terrifying and… right. He was my lifeline in there, the one I clung to when the world felt like it was crumbling.

Dominic told me to remember, to stop pretending, and now I’m starting to understand why.

If I pull back far enough, past the memories in the cell, past the escape… something else starts to surface, a memory I haven’t thought about in years. I shift in bed, my mind slipping further back, to a memory that feels like it belongs to another life.

The first time I saw Dominic.

I was working at the diner when I was still a law student, another endless shift serving coffee and greasy food, barely looking up from the counter. And then he walked in.

Tall, dark hair, piercing green eyes, confident, and impossible to ignore.

He sat at the corner booth with his brothers, his gaze sweeping the room before landing on me, and I felt it—the pull, the spark that would turn my life upside down. God, he was handsome then, just like he is now; intense and quiet, and I remember feeling the thrill that ran through me every time he came in.

I never knew his name back then. He was just a guy, a mystery who made my shifts feel electric. I remember catching myself staring at him once, how he smirked like he knew exactly whatwas going through my head. It was harmless, just a crush, just one of those passing things.

Or so I thought.

But even now, thinking back, I realize… it wasn’tpassing, was it? I would watch the door, disappointed on the nights he didn’t show. My crush on him grew, shifted, became something darker, something that lingered even when he wasn’t around.

Something that made me want to know more about him, even if I had to follow him to find it out for myself. I’d catch myself thinking about him at odd times, wondering what he was doing, what it would be like to talk to him, to have him notice me.

The more I thought about him, the more he consumed me, until he was all I could think about, all I wanted.

And then it hit me, like a slap to the face.

I started this.

This obsession, this twisted connection between us—it wasn’t something Dominic forced on me. It was something I nurtured, something I let grow until it consumed me. I was the one who couldn’t stop thinking about him, who let myself fall deeper and deeper, until he became something more than just a passing interest.

Dominic was just returning the obsession. He let it consume and twist him until he’s become this person who’s willing to destroy anyone or anything that comes between us.

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