Page 176 of Problematic

The mask creaked in my hand.

She was right.

Every word.

“I would have been angry,” she said. “Scared. Horrified, honestly, because even your red flags have red flags with their own tiny employees who also have red flags. But I deserved the truth.” She turned away from me. “I deserved to meet my mate without realizing he had been managing me for weeks.”

My chest hollowed. “You’re right.”

She stared at me with no softness left for me to mistake as hesitation. “You said you wanted to give me a choice,” she said. “So here’s mine.”

My body went still.

“I’m leaving.”

Every instinct I owned rose up ready to stop her, lock the doors, block the elevator. Put every guard in the tower between her and the city. Keep her safe. Keep her mine. Keep her.

“You’re in danger,” I said before I could stop myself.

Her laugh came out wet and hard. “I’m in danger everywhere.”

“I mean it.” My voice roughened. “This isn’t me trying to scare you into staying.”

Her face closed off, and I deserved that too.

“Circeville breached the city before dawn,” I said. “One of them had New Abaddon City Coffee’s employee roster in his coat. Your name was circled.”

She went still. Fear flashed across her face, quick and pale, before anger slammed over it. “What?”

I stayed where I was. “I’m telling you because you deserve the facts. Not because I get to use them as a leash.” The bond pulled hard enough toward her to make my ribs ache. “Liv.”

“You don’t get to tell me I’m in danger and expect me to run straight back into your cage for safety.”

“That’s not what I’m asking for.”

“It’s what your whole body is asking.”

I had no defense. My body wanted the doors sealed. My nightmares wanted her hidden so deeply even the gods would need directions. Every ugly, protective, possessive piece of me had its claws in me, and she saw all of it.

“I believe you,” she said, and that hurt more than disbelief would have. “I believe there’s danger. I believe someone is coming. I believe you’re scared.”

My throat tightened.

“But I’m still leaving.”

For the first time in my life, my eyes stung, my breath came broken.

“And if you love me,” she said, “you will let me.”

I had spent weeks making every wrong choice in the name of keeping her. I could make one right choice and bleed for it.

I nodded. “Okay.”

She bent to pick up her sneakers, then walked toward the door, mate mark glowing beneath her jaw like a court sentence.

At the door, she stopped with one hand near the handle, then turned enough for me to see her face.

“Unlock it.”