Page 25 of Infernal

“Um, that’s going to be a big fat hell no.” I pushed off the car and ambled towards him. “I want to know what you said to me. Right here and right now,” I demanded and then thought of something even better. “Actually, I want my memories back.” At this point, I really didn’t trust him to give me the truth. I was going to need to see it for myself.

“I beg your pardon?”

“You heard me.” I took another brazen step forward. “Whatever you erased from my mind, undo it.”

“That isn’t the way it works.”

“Taylor remembered everything you compelled her to forget,” I pointed out, unwilling to back down from this.

“Taylor’s heart stopped. Are you saying you want me to stop you heart?” He looked at me as though I’d lost my mind.

Who knows? Maybe I had.

“No.” I swallowed the knot in my throat. “Of course not. But, whatever you erased, it’s still there, locked away in some secret part of my mind. Lucifer could see it. He just couldn’t get to it.”

He slid his hand through his hair as he stared out at the road.

“But you can.” I closed the last vestiges of distance between us and forced myself into his personal space. I could smell the liquor on his breath, almost taste the chocolate in his cologne. My heart speed up as he looked down at me.

“Compel me to remember.”

Chaos stirred in the depths of his dark eyes. “You don’t know what you’re asking of me.”

“Yes, I do.” Okay, so I didn’t, but that wasn’t going to stop me from pushing for this with everything I had. “Please, Dominic. You have to do this for me—you owe it to me,” I said, my voice straining. “I have to remember.”

“Why does it matter to you what I said?”

“It’s notwhatyou said that matters.” And that was the truth. Whatever it was he said, whatever vile name he called me, it didn’t matter to me one bit. “It’s the fact that there’s a piece of my memory that’s missing, and I don’t know what it is.” It didn’t feel right inside—it made me feel incomplete, as though a part of me was missing.

And I didn’t like it one bit.

He looked away again, considering it. The moonlight seemed to dance in the black velvet of his eyes, and suddenly, I wanted to be closer to him. My hand came up, curious to see if his skin was as soft as it looked, but he quickly caught my wrist before I could make contact. Brief as the contact was, it was enough to incite the bond.

“There are some things that are better left unsaid,” he whispered, his eyes skirting over my features.

“Maybe, but I still think I should be the one who gets to decide.”

Headlights drenched us in light as a lone car zipped by us.

“If there’s any part of you that cares about me—that wants me to trust you again, you’ll do this,” I pleaded. Using his hold on me against him, I tugged him towards me so that he could see,reallysee that I meant business.

There was no way around this. I needed to have those pieces back.

And I needed to know I could still trust him.

His eyes slid down to my mouth, and my breathing quickened. I wasn’t sure what was going on in that head of his, but he was at war with himself, and I could tell the exact moment he conceded.

“Alright,” he finally agreed, though it was obvious he wasn’t happy about it. He looked down at me and sighed. “But we’re going to the Manor first. I’m going to need a drink to do this.”

Well, then.

That made two of us.

9. TRUTH BE DAMNED

The grounds were crawling with fog when we pulled into the Huntington Manor a short time later. Gabriel’s SUV was still missing from the driveway, which meant he’d either stepped out again or hadn’t yet come home from searching for me. A small voice inside me was telling me to wait for Gabriel to come home—that it was safer to do this with a third party in the room, but damn it if I wanted the truth more than I feared the consequences.

My heart lurched in my chest as we entered the den. I tried not to think of anything too much as I waited by the fireplace, warming my hands above the licking flames as I watched Dominic fix himself a drink. Every second that his back was turned to me felt like sixty.

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