Page 13 of It Destroys Me

He was quiet for a long time, like he had nothing to say to that. But then his deep voice broke the silence. “I told you I needed time.”

“You’re going to need an eternity if you keep pulling away like that.” I turned my stare back on him. “Two steps forward, three steps backward. Even at eternity, we’ll still be farther apart than when we started.”

His espresso eyes watched me, not showing the anger that Bolton had constantly brooding within his stare.

“You aren’t the only one with intuition.”

He continued to watch me. Continued to study me with eyes brimming with wisdom and intelligence. “I didn’t come down here because I was worried you were malnourished. I came here because I wanted to see you, because I think about you pretty much every time we’re apart. Maybe I do move two steps forward and three steps back, but that’s my pace, and you agreed to it. Life isn’t a straight line like most people think. It’s a series of detours and one-way streets and dead ends.”

“Is this a dead end?” I blurted out the question without thinking it through, planting a seed of doubt in his already uneasy mind.

His stare lingered on my eyes for a long time. “You’re all of the above.”

My eyes narrowed, feeling slighted even though his words seemed gentle.

“You were the detour that made me pull over that night. In the pouring rain. All because I wanted to keep an innocent woman out of the path of destruction. It was a one-way road…and I plan on staying on that road until it ends.”

Chapter 3

Theo

I shut the door of my truck and stepped onto the sidewalk.

That was when my phone started to ring in my pocket.

I pulled it out and checked the screen.

Blocked number.

I gave a sigh before I took the call. “I expected to hear from you sooner.”

Bolton was quiet on the other end, probably pissed off that I ruined the surprise. “The smoke burned my lungs. Was in the hospital for a week.”

“Sorry to hear that,” I said sarcastically. “I hoped you were dead.”

He was quiet.

“I need to learn to lower my expectations.”

“I want to talk.”

“What are we doing now? Sexting?” I curbed my rage as much as possible. When I found out what he’d done to Astrid, the dormant bear inside me had awoken like it’d missed spring and went straight into summer. My knuckles longed to crush his cheekbones. I wanted to make him gag on my gun before I pulled the trigger. All the hatred I’d felt for myself had been redirected to him.

“You know what I mean.”

“If we’re in the same room together, I’ll kill you.”

“Not if you ever want Killian’s bones back.”

“You already told me who has them.”

“And now they’re mine,” he said. “And I’ll never tell you where I’ve buried them unless we speak.”

I was tired of my brother’s remains being used as a baseball in a game of catch. I was tired of them being used as leverage. His spirit was gone from this world, but the bones that had supported his body deserved peace too. Deserved respect and dignity. “She told me I can kill you, Bolton.” The second the opportunity presented itself, I would take it. I didn’t have to be restrained by Astrid’s complicated feelings. When she said she didn’t love him anymore, I believed her. Because only hate could make you wish death upon someone else.

There was a long pause over the phone. “I know.”

Instead of going to the Underground and then home afterward, I stepped into the light that shone on the statue of David, the counterfeit one posted for the public, and looked over the cobblestones to the other street.