Page 135 of Yours to Keep
“You ran away,” Adrian continues gently. “You got confused. People filled your head with lies.”
“You hurt me,” I force myself to meet his eyes. “You beat me. You controlled me. And you enjoyed it.”
A look of quiet sadness crosses his face. “As if I enjoyed disciplining you. You always needed guidance.”
I want to scream. Instead, I breathe.
Time.That’s what I need. Time for CJ. Time for Deck. Time for Finn to stay alive.
Adrian feeds on fear, on tears, on panic. He watches every expression, collecting weakness the way other people collect photographs. So I give him nothing. No tears. No pleading. No fear.
I simply sit there, meeting his gaze while silence stretches between us.
Eventually, Adrian smiles.
I smile back. Only a fraction, just enough. Not because I’m winning. Not because I’m brave. Because for the first time since he dragged me back here, I’m choosing the next move.
Something flickers across his face. Curiosity.
Good. Let him wonder. Let him underestimate me.
The longer Adrian believes we’re still playing his game, the longer CJ has to find me. So I wait. And I pray the man I love reaches me before Adrian decides he’s finished playing.
33
CJ
“No.”
No. No. No.
It hits like a physical thing, like the sound itself is trying to split my skull open and make me accept what I’m refusing to see.
“Say it again.”
My voice is too steady. That’s the only warning I get that something inside me is about to crack. I can feel it build in me. Fast. Sharp. As if my ribs are trying to hold back something that refuses to stay contained.
The room is silent except for the hum of monitors. PalMerc Security is frozen around me, every face turned toward the screens. I don’t look at them for long. I can’t. My eyes are locked on the frozen CCTV feed, like if I stare hard enough I can rewind time and stop it from happening.
The SUV. The alley. Eli and Finn standing near the water like it was just another day. Then the gun comes up. Then thefight. Then the world narrows into motion and violence and bad timing.
And then they’re gone.
The vehicle pulls away.
Deck and I running after it.
Too late.
Always too late.
The frame freezes on the moment we lost them completely, and my brain refuses to let it move on from there. Ten seconds behind him. That’s all I was. Ten seconds that keep repeating like punishment.
If I had held his hand longer. If I had walked slower with him instead of letting go for even a second. If I had listened to that instinct screaming at me not to let him out of my sight.
He was smiling at me. He was replying to my message. He was still here.
And then he wasn’t.
