Page 145 of Savage Don

Do I really want to leave?

Fuck. The truth is, I’m not sure. This place almost feels like home. It’s warm and protective and I sleep in a bed with a man who has moved the world to keep me by his side.

But he’s not here right now. And I can’t help the morbid curiosity that pushes me forward.

How did Father clear a path for my escape? What does that mean for me? What does that mean for Ray?

Ray…

The man who protects me from my nightmares. The man who keeps me warm, even when the chill is coming from inside of me. The man who has risked his life and his empire just to get closer to me.

But who am I?

Why am I so important?

Then, it hits me.

My hand is already on the doorknob when I realize what Ray must have written at the bottom of his message before he scribbled it out.

The same thing Father wrote at the end of his text.

I love you.

My hand falls from the doorknob as I picture the crossed-out line on the sticky note.

That’s what it was.

Ray was going to say he loves me.

Fuck.

My falling heart comes to a halt, and I can feel the entirety of my being hanging in an empty space.

He loves me?

… And he knows me well enough to understand that it was the last thing I wanted to hear on a day like this.

Those words are too intense, especially in the midst of all of this violent change.

Father didn’t understand that. Father doesn’t understand me.

A chill skates down my spine as I reach for the doorhandle again. With a new jolt of life pulsing through my body, I rip it open.

But it’s not because I want to escape. I’m not motivated by fear.

I want to tell whoever’s out there to fuck off. To leave me alone.

I’m not leaving.

Someone loves me enough to not tell me it.

Ray understands.

And now I do, too.

There’s no running from the darkness.

You face it, head on. You conquer it.