Dusk (Dangerous Web #1) - Aleatha Romig Page 0,32

and resilience I didn’t possess. “Reid, what is it?”

It was then I saw as well as heard.

His handsome features were transformed. His soft, loving stare was wild with emotions. The muscles in his neck were taut, and his teeth strained under the immense pressure as his chiseled jaw clenched.

Before he could answer, I took a step back. “Reid?” I’d never seen him as anything other than loving and kind.

He walked past me into the apartment, as he scanned the living room. His dark gaze landed on the suitcases before he spun, seizing my shoulders. “What the actual fuck?” My body shook with his words as his grip upon me intensified. “I was right. You’re leaving? You’re fucking leaving.”

The last statement was no longer in question.

“Stop.” I tried to pry myself from his grasp. “Reid...” I looked up at him and into his dark stare churning with anger. In that second, I was unable to match his rage. I didn’t have it in me. What I had was the immense sadness the last week had given me. It no longer simmered but boiled like a raging river trembling through my body. The tears I’d shed in the prior days were nothing in comparison to the gut-wrenching, salty, acidic sobs that sprang like a geyser from the bubbling pool of my emotions.

I’d opened the door ready to fight, but with my body in his grasp, I had none.

The realization hit.

I didn’t have the fight.

I had nothing.

Yes, I had suitcases, an airline ticket, money, and a waiting apartment. Compared to what I’d had a week ago with my brother, a lover, and friends, it was nothing, and nothing was my future.

“I-I,” I stuttered as my chin fell to my chest.

Reid’s large hands released my shoulders. Before I could fall, he gently palmed my cheeks and lifted my bloodshot eyes to his.

We were at a crossroad.

I expected many things.

Reid would yell, as Mason sometimes did.

He would lash out, as men my mother dated had.

He would curse and demand things I wasn’t able or willing to give.

I steeled myself for any of those scenarios.

Though I wasn’t certain how I would respond, I knew I had to. I had to do as Mr. Sparrow bid. No one other than Mason had crossed him. I sure as hell, at five feet two and one hundred and ten pounds, with no money, no army, and no one on my side, wasn’t a formidable opponent against the kingpin of Chicago.

Only my ragged breaths filled my ears until I became aware that I wasn’t the only one struggling. This mountain of a beautiful man before me was too. His breaths matched mine. It was as if we’d run a marathon or more enjoyably, both experienced the best sexual experience of our lives.

Neither of those had occurred.

His pain was palpable. It slithered like a snake from him to me. The poisonous venom reminded me that I wasn’t the only one to experience loss.

“Reid—”

Lorna

The tower – nine years ago

“Reid—?”

One of his hands left my cheek as his finger came to my lips, stopping my words. “No, Lorna, I came here to say something.” He took a deep breath, flaring his nostrils and standing taller. “Tell me why you’re leaving?”

A question.

I wasn’t expecting a question.

My shoulders moved in a shrug as I tried to articulate my plans without saying what Mr. Sparrow had forbidden me to say. “I don’t belong here.”

Letting go of me, Reid took a step back. His wide chest heaved, stretching the material of his shirt with pent-up breath. His mahogany biceps bulged beneath the sleeves, and his long legs moved slowly around Mason’s living room. Finally, he turned, his chin raised high and resolute. “You’re right.”

He moved toward my suitcases and reached for a handle.

My head shook. “What are you doing?” My volume rose. “You’re helping to throw me out?”

He didn’t say a word as his dark gaze consumed me. Instead, he reached for the second and then the third suitcase. Lifting all three, he walked toward the door.

As he set down one and opened the door, I found my anger. I found the emotion my sadness had dwarfed. It came back with a vengeance, fueling me like I hadn’t been fueled since Mason disappeared in the same elevator I would be leaving in. “Fuck you, Reid. Fuck all of you. You pretended to like me, to care about me. Well, congratulations. You fooled me. And you know what else?” My voice rose, each statement gaining strength.

I was a