Page 153 of Coerced

“No.” He made an exasperated face. He wasn’t dropping sparks of power anymore, which I took as a sign that he had himself under better control. “She got between me and him and made me let him live.”

“How?” I crossed my arms and cocked an eyebrow. “How did this girl, who Gigi tells me is tiny and quiet and gentle, makeyoudo that?”

“She asked me to.”

I blinked. The tiger had been enraged enough to go for the jugular, and she’d only had toaskhim and he’d stopped?

“So she’s definitely not afraid of you. Have you ever lost your temper with her? Like, she was the center of your rage?”

His eyes flared up again, and I scolded myself. He’d been almost calm.

“Yes. Once.”

“And did you hurt her?”

“No. Not physically. At least, Gigi swears I didn’t.”

“What did she do after you finished yelling and blowing up things and calmed down?”

“She tried to talk to me. To apologize. And she reached out her hand to touch my arm. I dodged her because I still wasn’t safe, and I didn’t talk to her because I woulda regretted whatever came outta my mouth.”

“Was this the incident Gigi told me about? The one on the Appalachian Trail right before the ambush?”

“Yes.”

“If she hated you and wanted you outta her life, why would she have tried to talk to you? Tried to make up with you? Kerry, I’ve never met Gemma Shepherd, but I can tell you for a fact that she isn’t dating you out of pity or because she’s too afraid of you to break up with you.”

“Then why?” he demanded. “Why does she want to be with a piece of roached-out demon-taint?”

“She loves you.”

“She doesn’tloveme. How could she?”

“Everything you’ve told me says otherwise.”

As he turned his face away, compassion swelled my heart. I knew what he was feeling, what he was thinking.

I, too, had faced the same battle nearly all my life.

People like Rome, who grow up knowing they’re valued, can’t understand how difficult it is to accept that others will find you worthwhile when you consider yourself worthless. Likewise, it’s almost impossible to believe someone can love you when you hate yourself so much.

Unfortunately, there is nothing outside of yourself that can ever enable you to move from the darkness into the light. I couldn’t let his words hang between us, though, without offering some comfort.

“The taint stirred up the monster inside you so much, you can’t remember. When it quiets down again, you will, and you’ll wonder why you doubted her.”

I only hope that happens before the darkness crushes you.

His phone chimed, and he held it out like he wanted me to read it.

“Rome says it’s time.”

His power, which had faded to a candle’s glow around him, burst up like a bonfire.

“Finally!”

#

Kerry

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