Page 196 of Celestial Combat

The words were simple, but they wrapped around something buried in me. Something scared. Something that still remembered the way he’d turned cold and lethal with my brother’s name on his lips.

I swallowed hard. “You threatened my brother,” I whispered, finally saying what had been looping in my chest since Hawaii. “And I still don’t know how I feel about that.”

His thumbs brushed my jaw, his voice barely audible over the quiet simmer of our dinner. “I don’t either.”

The silence that followed wasn’t heavy. It was honest.

I bit the inside of my cheek, hard. “So, what now? What happens when all of this is over? How are we going to fix this?”

The air between us shifted. I watched his jaw tighten, his gaze flicker away like he couldn’t hold mine anymore.

And just like that, something cold and bitter curled in my chest.

I took a small step back, making his hands drop from my face.

“You’re not coming back to New York, are you?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

He didn’t respond. Just stood there, his broad frame outlined in the golden kitchen light, as quiet as the snow building up against the windows outside.

Tears slipped hot down my cheeks, but I blinked hard and kept my chin up. I didn’t want to fall apart in front of him. Not now. Not after everything.

“There’s nothing there for me, Kali,” he finally said, voice rough like gravel.

“Nothing?” My voice cracked. “How can you say that?”

“You know I can’t go back.”

“What about Python? Everything you built – ”

“I can always rebuild.”

“And Trevor?” I shot back, eyes burning. “You’ve been friends for almost twenty years!”

“A Made Man never forgives someone who pointed a gun at him.”

“But – ”

“Not after I mentioned Natalia and their baby.”

The silence rang out like a gunshot. I bit my cheek harder and tasted blood. My lip trembled despite myself. I stared at the floor because I couldn’t bear to look at him anymore.

“We were supposed to stay together,” I said, barely more than a whisper. “Forever. That’s what you said. That’s whatyoutold me.”

“Kali – ”

“You promised me!”

“I did.”

“You said you loved me!”

“I do!”

“We were supposed to convince them we should be together–”

“I don’t need anybody’s fucking permission to be with the woman I love.” His voice was sharp this time, cutting through the quiet like a blade as he closed the distance between us. “I’m done playing the loyal soldier. I’ve always been my own man. They knew that when they hired me to be your bodyguard. And I only accepted a jobnot on my termsas a favor.”

“But…” My voice trembled. “That’s my family, Zane.”

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