Page 143 of Unexpected Heroine

“Fucking hell, Stella. Stand aside.” He pivots to face me, his hands and eyes begging. “Lettie, please let me explain.”

Stella moves to get back in front of him. “Go on and get your dick in knots for all I care. I know you like that sort of thing.”

Later, I’ll laugh at that.

But now, I need to intervene. Last thing I need is for him to remove her by force. I have no doubt he could do that.

After all, he’s dangerous.

“Not to me,” I mutter softly, thinking of our conversation a few days ago.

Freya hears me since she’s standing the closest to me. “What do you mean, not to you?”

With my gaze locked on Tomer, I brush past my friends. Stopping a mere few inches from him, I tilt my head back to meet his eyes. “You said you weren’t a danger to me. And I believed you.” My anger dissipates in a rush. The vacuum it causes inside me quickly fills with sorrow instead.

Not just sorrow or sadness. Those don’t quite describe what I’m feeling.

It’s mourning. I’m already grieving the loss of him from my life.

And it’s fucking breaking me. More than anything that was done to me by those monsters.

In the end, it’s this that destroys me.

Him.

Stella or Freya—not sure who—slips her hand around the curve of my elbow, tugging me backward.

I yank out of her grasp. “I ain’t ready to go.”

If I leave now, the mountain of unanswered questions will bury me.

I have to ask him for something resembling an explanation.

Nothing he says will make this betrayal okay. I realize as much.

Yet, out of respect for the love I thought we shared, I’ll give him a chance to offer whatever insignificant explanation he has.

“Stella. Freya.” I look over my shoulders at one, then the other. “Give us a minute.”

“Lettie bear, maybe talk later,” Stella starts, approaching me like I’m a wounded, frightened dog.

Close.

Wounded? Yes. Frightened? Not anymore.

I’m done cowering from the truth.

There’s nothing left of me that hasn’t already been battered. Might as well hear him out. It can’t get any worse.

To Stella, I calmly repeat, “I said I need a minute.”

She holds out her palms and backs away. “We’ll load the car. But one of us will be right outside the door if you need us.” Her gaze shifts to Tomer, warning shots firing from her eyeballs.

I shake it off. He won’t hurt me.

Not physically.

He watches them leave, but I study him, memorizing the lines of his face and letting the image crystallize in my mind in case it’s my last chance.

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