Page 86 of Dark Knight

“Do you want to know? Are you sure?”

Her chin quivers. She’s reconsidering. Should she keep pushing when there’s a chance of hearing what she fears most?

Curiosity and anger win out in the second it takes for her pained expression to harden. “Yes, dammit! Tell me, right now.”

“Fine. You asked for it.” I can’t look at her. I have to go to the counter, to the espresso maker, so I can spare myself the agony of watching her reaction. “Your father’s coming to take you home.”

I don’t have to look at her, but I hear her sharp gasp. “I don’t understand.”

“Everything’s set up with Jeff. It’s all worked out. Callum had a meeting with him and gave him all the information I had compiled. It’s all over. You have nothing to run away from anymore.”

“And you weren’t going to tell me?”

“That’s what we were going to discuss once you were out of the shower, but stupid me forgot you can’t just do what I ask you to do without starting shit. Now go up, wash off, and get your shit together. He won’t want to be kept waiting when he’s so excited to have you home.”

I can practically hear her brain turning, working this out. She’s going to ask the inevitable question – I feel it coming. And she doesn’t keep me waiting. “What about you?”

“Me?” I fill the metal cup with ground espresso and tamp it down, grinding my teeth as I do.

“Don’t you have to get your things together, too?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Why not?”

You know why not. I almost hate her for this. Putting me through this torture. “Because I’m not leaving.”

Because, in the end, we have no business being together.

CHAPTER30

TATUM

He must be joking. He can’t mean that. Or maybe I heard him wrong.

This is only a dream, right? I’m still in bed, in his arms, and there’s nothing to worry about. Everything’s okay. We’re together. He can’t mean this.

But I’m definitely awake. I feel the satin robe against my skin, the cold floor under my bare feet. I even hear the low hum from the fridge, the sort of sound that fades into the background of your consciousness. Always present, but you don’t notice until the power goes out and everything goes silent.

I wouldn’t hear that if this was a dream.

Hell, I still smell him on me. This is all very real, right down to the nausea churning in my stomach and the sweat beginning to bead at the nape of my neck. “You’re telling me he’s taking me back to the compound today.”

“That’s right.” He goes through the motions of fixing his coffee with his back turned to me. If only there was a way of knowing what he was thinking. No, we’re back to the way it was before, the way it was for so long. He shut me out. His walls are firmly back in place, and I am expected to fall in line without complaint.

“So once again, the two of you have decided what my life will look like.”

“You don’t have to be so dramatic about it.”

I might as well be in the damn Twilight Zone. How can he go from holding me while I sleep to this cold, careless prick? “Oh, I’m sorry. Is this inconvenient for you? Tough shit. You’re not going to shut me out. Not again. That’s over.”

“I’m glad you think so.” All he does is roll his eyes when he turns away from the espresso maker to open the fridge and pull out a carton of milk. “But in case you forgot, Callum still subsidizes your life. He wants you back. All the bad stuff is over. You can get your life on track now.”

“Why does nobody think to ask what I want my life to be?” It’s an entirely rhetorical question – he’s not going to have an answer, and even if he did, he wouldn’t offer it. That would mean being honest with me, and he’s not good at that. “After everything, how can you stand there and pretend you don’t care?”

“Why do you have to make this so dramatic?”

“Why do you have to be such a coward?”

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