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I draw in a lungful of warm, safe air. “No,” I whisper.
He slams his forehead into his steering wheel and groans.
The lump in my throat swells. “Aren’t you going to ask me why?”
Gritting his teeth, he says, “No.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s none of my business.You’renone of my business.”
I pause, then say quietly, “But you want me to be, don’t you? If you didn’t, you wouldn’t keep coming round here.”
“I don’t. I just have questions. Ones that I don’t want the answer to.”
“Like what?” My voice is barely above a whisper now.
A long, heavy silence stretches out between us. Eventually, he says,
“Like what went wrong in your life to get you chained to a radiator at the Van der Boor’s penthouse.” He drags a knuckle across the stubble on his jaw. “Why I killed them for you.”
“Because you’re a good person.”
It’s the first time I hear his laugh. It’s strangled, rusty. Like it’s a sound his vocal cords aren’t used to creating. “You should be afraid of me, Dahlia Rose,” my name sounds heavenly on his lips. “But you’re not.”
I swallow hard. “No, I’m not.”
“And that’s another question I can’t get out of my head.”
My voice is barely audible. “Because I know you won’t hurt me.”
“Then you know nothing.”
I shake my head, more confident now. “Believe me, I know a cruel man when I see one. You’re dangerous, sure. And I’d be lying if I didn’t think you were downright scary. But you’re not cruel. Not to me, anyway.”
The air crackles, hot and heavy. I can practically hear the cogs working in his brain. God, he’s handsome. Sountouchable.
It feels like a lifetime before he lifts his head from the steering wheel and stares up at the roof of his car. Then his eyes settle on mine.
“I’m going away.”
My heart hitches in my throat. “Where?”
He draws in a heavy breath. “You won’t see me again. Forget about the favor—I mean it this time. We’re even now. Take the money I gave you and move. Leave.” He squeezes his eyes shut. “And for Christ’s sake, don’t fucking tell me where you go. I don’t want to know.” When he opens them again, I could swear there was sadness in them.
I’m frozen in my seat. Before I can say anything, he reaches over me, his warm arm brushing over my thigh. A teaser of what I want. What I’ll never have. He clicks open the passenger door, letting in the night chill. “Go,” he says through clenched teeth. “And be safe.”
Somehow, my legs work even though my mouth won’t. In a flash, I’m standing on the curb, watching my knight in shining armor drive away.
I watch until the car tail lights disappear around the corner, plunging me into darkness.
Cillian
I drive in silence, and I drive fast. No radio, just the growl of the Bentley’s engine and my heavy breathing.
I learned a long time ago that you can’t save anyone but yourself. I couldn’t save my mother from the wrath of my father or his friends. I couldn’t save her when she was swinging from the goddamn rafters of the garage, either.
Dahlia Rose isn’t mine to save.
