I’ve been a soldier, a mercenary, and I’ve fought my way out of more bars in more countries than I can count.

That is a look of enough.

“You done?” I ask her, my chest still rising and falling, betraying how unsettled this has me. “You gonna stop? Because I can go all night, bitch.”

I can. I just don’t want to. I’m fucking sick of this girl.

She pulls herself up into a sitting position. Her back rests against the wall made of stacked logs. She’s breathing heavy too, and she looks just as pissed off as I do. But the longer she stays silent, the clearer this all becomes.

She’s mad, yeah. But she’s more than that. The tears well up in her eyes and she presses her lips together, like she’s trying to keep the words inside.

“Speak up,” I yell. Loud enough to make her jump and angry enough to make her afraid. “Because that was it, Syd. That right there? That was my line and you just crossed it.”

A trickle of blood seeps out of her mouth and I wonder, just for a split second, if she bit her tongue or if that’s a sign of something more serious. But she wipes it away with the back of her hand and then spits on my goddamned floor.

I take a deep breath and ask for patience. And then I turn and walk back up the stairs. I grab her coat and snow pants and throw them down at her. The zipper on the jacket catches her lip and she yelps.

“Take the shit I gave you. Get out of my house. Get your ass back in that Cat. And take the path I spent all damn day plowing for you until you get to the end. There’s two trucks there. One is yours. One is mine. Take yours. Leave mine. And never come back here. Do you understand me?” I hurl her boots next, and they hit the wall on each side of her head. Not by accident.

She stays still.

“Now!”

The tears fall down her cheeks before she can bow her head and hide them with her hair. “Just tell me why,” she whispers. “That’s all I want. One answer. Why?”

I hold up my hands with the urge to strangle her. “Why? What?”

“That night. Back at that cabin. The night you came to save me—”

“I never came to save you, Sydney. Let’s get that clear right now. I came to get you, yes. Because I got some information earlier in the day about you, Garrett, and your father. But it wasn’t anything good, Syd. In fact, I’ve never heard such disgusting filth in all my life. I thought—” I stop and thread my fingers through my hair. “I thought you were a victim. That you needed help. That Garrett was controlling you. But you proved to me tonight that you’re not. You don’t need help. At least not the kind I thought. And he isn’t controlling you, Sydney. You do his bidding because you want to. You’re in on his plans because you like it. And let me tell you something right now. I saw you, Sydney. I saw you. I watched you and Garrett after all that shit went down. You weren’t hard to find, either of you. Those two years you spent with him before he ‘disappeared’ should make you as sick as it makes me. And the fact that he kept you close, like a submissive dog, just made it all so much easier. I saw you.”

She stands up, grabs her coat and snow pants, and hugs them to her chest as she looks me in the eye. “That wasn’t me.”

“Right.” I laugh. “Let me guess. You have a twin?” I laugh again, then stop. Because hell, they all have twins, don’t they? Harper has one. James has one. Why can’t Sydney have one? Shit, maybe Sasha has one? I spin around and scrub my hand down my face as I consider this possibility.

“No,” she snarls. “That’s not what I meant.”

I spin back, relieved. “Then what the fuck are you talking about?”

She grabs her boots and walks across the landing, then jumps down the stairs two at a time.

I just watch her go.

Let her go, that small bit of sanity left in my head tells me. Just let her go.

I do. I sit my ass down on the stairs and count the number of steps it takes her to get to the bottom. I’m still sitting there when she stops and then I listen to her pull on the snow gear. Two minutes go by, and then a rush of air through the house and the slam of the door down below tells me she took my advice.

But my curiosity is up now. I know this girl is not what she appears. I know she’s had a lot of fucked-up years. Before I showed up in her life, and after. And I know that everything about her is a wildcard. She represents everything that could go wrong with my last mission. But I can’t stop myself.

I follow her. I jump down to the next landing, and then take the stairs that lead to the first floor, hoping she’s still outside when I get to the foyer.

I pull the door open and… she is. The way she parked gives me a side view of her face. Her cheeks are already red under the interior dome light of the Cat, and she’s cursing under her breath as she presses the ignition button.

Her head spins towards me, then she drags her attention back to starting the Cat.

I grab a coat and gloves from the mudroom off to the right of the foyer and slip my feet into a pair of boots before pulling the door closed behind me and going outside. “Let me do it.” She slams the Cat’s door closed before I can get there and flips me off through the ice-covered window. I pull it back open. “Locks are broken, genius.”

“You want me to leave?” she growls. “Then back off and let me leave. I’m done with you. I’m done with all of this.”

I pull her out of the cab and throw her down into the snow so I can take her place, and then check the choke and press the ignition.

It whines.

I look over at her and she’s still lying down in the snow, her arms and legs spread wide, like she’s a kid about to make a snow angel. “What’d you do to it?”

“Just go back inside, Case. I can take care of myself. You want me to leave, I’ll leave.”

I try the ignition again. Same shit. So I get out and slam the door. “Look, I don’t know what you think is going on here, but you’re crazy. Why didn’t you leave? Huh? Why didn’t you just follow the fucking path and go?”

“Because I need answers.” She says it so softly, I almost miss it.

“I don’t have any answers, Sydney.” I cross the short distance between us and stand over her. “You’re the one with the answers. You people—”

“I’m not one of them.”

“The fuck you aren’t! You’re all the same. And I’ll tell you something right now, I’m not falling for this act you’ve got going. I’m not falling for this pathetic girl thing you’re pulling anymore. I told you. I know you. I’ve been watching you for years. I’ve seen you do so many despicable things. I’ve seen you at your worst.”

“Well, I guess you have it all figured out then, don’t you.” She props herself up on her elbows so she can see me better. “You have nothing figured out, Case—”

“Quit fucking calling me Case.” I can’t stand that name. “No one calls me Case.”

She considers this for a moment, letting me fume internally. “That’s why I call you that. Because to everyone else you’re Merc the killer. But ever since the day my father told me you were coming, I made you into Case the savior.”

“You’re sick.”

“Yup,” she says, getting to her feet after a few moments of struggle in the thick winter clothes. “I’m definitely that.” And then she turns her back and starts walking towards the woods.

I wait it out. Wait for her to turn back so I can call her bluff. But she doesn’t. She keeps walking. Right into the darkness.

And now what? I’m gonna let a girl walk out into the woods at night? Even this girl? I’m gonna let the wolves get a whiff of the blood running down her face? Let her fall in the snow and break an ankle?

An ankle, Merc?

I huff out a small laugh. I’m crazy. I’ve always been a little bit off, that’s no secret. All the anger, and the violence, and the revenge. All the planning, and the waiting, and the watching. It’s all crazy.