Page 138 of Watch Me Burn
I watch him through the window, taking in the rigid line of his spine and the careful control in every gesture, and my mind drifts to what tomorrow will look like.
Will the light of day make this nightmare clearer, or will it simply illuminate how far I’ve strayed from the person I thought I was?
One thing I know for sure. There’s no going back to who I was before Damien Wolfe climbed into my bed.
That woman died tonight.
Who I am now, standing in the wreckage left behind.
She remains to be seen.
Chapter thirty-five
Damien
The night air bites against my skin as I stand on Luna’s porch, watching Sheriff Mills and the forensics team’s headlights disappear down the gravel drive, taking with them their questions and suspicion. My shoulders drop and my muscles unclench, but the tension that’s been coiled inside me all night remains.
“Thank God that’s over.” Luna steps up beside me, and I turn to look at her. Her voice sounds like sandpaper, worn thin by hours of careful answers and calculated half-truths. In the dim yellow glow of the porch light, she looks like a ghost of herself, all the warmth drained from her face, leaving behind something pale and brittle.
She was magnificent tonight, revealing nothing that would bring more suspicion down on us. But now, watching her sway on her feet, the cost of that performance weighs on me.
My eyes drift to the bruises on her face, and the phantom feel of Caleb’s bones yielding beneath my hands sends a thrill through me that I have to suppress.
Not now, you sick fuck.
Not with Luna looking like she’s one wrong word away from shattering. I wish I could kill that bastard all over again.
“I’ve got Shadow settled.” Maren’s voice comes from the door behind us. She must have slipped in through the kitchen while we were distracted by Mills and her team leaving. “He’s all drugged up and feeling good now.”
Luna nods, running a hand through her hair. “Thanks, Mar. I don’t think I could handle this alone tonight.”
The words feel like a knife twisting in my gut. I want to be the one she turns to, not Maren. I’ve protected her. Isn’t that worth something? But the truth sits there, unspoken but impossible to ignore. I’m the reason she’s shaking beneath her composed exterior. Not Caleb. Not what he did to her. But what I did to him.
What I am.
Maren’s gaze finds mine. The hostility in her eyes burns hot enough to incinerate me where I stand. The echo of her words from earlier rings in my ears.
This is all your fault.
She isn’t wrong. Everything was fine in Luna’s life until I entered it. Now, there’s police tape across her property and blood on her hands.
“We should check on the other animals.” Luna turns back toward the house. “The commotion likely stressed them all.”
I follow her inside, watching how she moves, slightly hunched, as if carrying an invisible weight. She grabs a jacket from the hook beside the door. Even exhausted and traumatized, she’s thinking about her animals first. It’s one of the things I love most about her.
She and Maren head toward the kitchen to go out the back door. It’s the quickest way to the sanctuary’s main building.
“I can help.” I hate how desperate I sound. Like a kicked dog begging for scraps.
Maren steps outside, but Luna pauses with her hand on the doorknob. For a heartbeat, I think she might say yes, but then she shakes her head.
“Maren and I can handle it.”
She turns back just enough that I can see her face, and when our eyes connect, the expression she’s wearing drives the air from my lungs.
“Damien, we need to talk about what happened tonight.” Her voice catches, and she stops to steady it. “And I need to know the truth. All of it.”
My heart pounds. This is the moment I’ve both craved and dreaded. The chance to reveal myself to her, and the near-certain knowledge that when I do, she’ll turn away forever.
