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Each day has dragged on, and every minute has only given her more time to take over my home and my mind.
I can feel her everywhere, in every nook and cranny in the house, watching me from the window as I leave every morning to head out toward my shop, searching for me at night when I make my way back. And just like when I showed her the library, the heat in her gaze from the bedroom window isn’t that of hatred anymore.
Which makes it harder and harder to act like she doesn’t exist or affect me.
I’ve never been a good actor.
Far too quick-tempered and easy to anger to keep my cool long enough to pretend anything.
It made me perfect for my role as Father’s enforcer and served me well when The Beast needed to take action.
But none of it prepared me for Callista Fox or her effect on me.
I tighten my grip on the phone and fire off a reply.
Get the situation with Fox resolved.
Once he’s fixed the problem he created with Rosewood, I can send Callista down the mountain, back to her life, and away from the things that can hurt her here.
Even if it does resolve, she stays.
Anger floods my veins, making my fingers flex so hard that it’s difficult to type.
What the fuck do you think you’re doing?
The reply pops up quickly, like it was already planned.
Another smack in the face.
What needs to be done.
There it is, the final nail in the coffin of my restraint. Releasing a primal scream that echoes through the clearing, I chuck my phone, watching it spiral through the afternoon air and disappear into the trees.
“Fuck. Fuck. FUCK!”
I scrub my hands over my face and through my hair, tugging harshly on the ends as I tuck my head back and face the sun with my eyes squeezed closed.
It beats down on me, just as it has all day, making my skin slick with sweat, but the heated anger now rushing through me threatens to make me boil over in a way that will only put Callista in the path of a force that even I can’t stop.
When The Beast gets unleashed, I can’t rein him in.
Even if I want to.
I need relief any way I can find it right now, and only one place might offer it. Bypassing my workshop, I storm toward the trees and the trail that leads down to the lake near the valley.
Ice-cold waters fed by melted early-fall snow at higher elevations should do the trick.
At least, temporarily.
God knows as soon as I see her again—hell, even smell her—I’ll be dancing that thin line between control and chaos again with no safety net into which to jump.
Every muscle in my body coils tight. I push my way through the trees and step out onto the bank that leads down to the water. Smooth, round stones shaped by the glaciers that once covered this area of the world fill the beach, leading to my salvation from the fire of rage threatening to consume me.
I untie my boots and toe them off, then remove my socks and jeans so I can wade into the frigid waters and let them cool and calm my fiery, naked skin.
The frigid bite sends a shiver through me, but I keep moving deeper and deeper, my feet sinking into the lake bottom until I can submerge completely under the water.
Fuck, does that feel good…
