Before I could recover, the door opened and Toni stood there. I sucked in a breath at the sight of the suitcase in her hand. Her gaze flicked past me to settle on Isadora and she nodded at my sister while ignoring me completely.

“I’ve got a cab on the way. I’ll call when I get settled.”

Isadora’s mouth wobbled before firming into a smile. “Okay.”

Toni started toward the steps and my head spun, desperate for something, anything, to keep her from going.

“Don’t go,” I said, the words coming out through stiff lips.

She didn’t even pause.

“Toni, wait.”

She kept right on walking.

Getting desperate, I moved toward the railing as she started down. “Dammit! Toni, please.”

I didn't remember exactly when the shroud of ice had settled around my heart, but I did remember when I decided to never allow myself love anybody again.

It had been one month to the day after I'd planned on proposing. I’d been trapped inside the office buildings of Phenecie-Lang while a miserable snowstorm had raged outside. Isadora had been safe at home with the staff and I'd been alone. As I’d stared out into the blowing wind, I’d decided that Lily leaving had been a good thing. Love, after all, made a person vulnerable. Better to protect myself. Isadora would be the only person I'd let myself love.

Now, with each step Toni took away from me, I could feel my heart breaking despite myself. It didn't matter that I tried to push her away or that I'd never said the words out loud.

I could almost hear the ice in my chest cracking, thawed by a warmth that had nothing to do with temperature. It was her. All her.

I couldn't go back to that again.

“I love you.”

She hesitated for a fraction of a second, and I grabbed at the chance.

“Please, Toni, I’ve fucked this up so many times and I know that. But please. Please, baby. Please don’t leave me. I love you.”

Chapter 10

Toni

I could feel hysterical laughter bubbling up in my throat, and fought to keep it back.

Was he fucking kidding me?

I love you.

I told myself to keep going. That was all I had to do. Keep walking. Down the steps. Out the door. Out of his life forever. Dazed, I took another step, then two more.

“I love you, Toni.”

He said it a third time. My hand tightened convulsively on the handle of my suitcase, and I sank down on the stairs, setting my suitcase on the one below me. My legs simply wouldn’t hold me anymore.

I closed my eyes. Don’t listen to him. Don’t listen.

Not a single stair in the whole Lang house would dare squeak, not a single floorboard either, but I still knew exactly when he came up to stand behind me.

“Don’t do this,” I whispered. I told him before that I didn't beg, but I was begging him now. Begging him not to hurt me again. “Every time I try to pull myself free, you do or say something that sucks me right back in. You keep hurting me or twisting me up and I’m tired of it. I'm so tired.” My voice cracked on the last word.

I sucked in a breath as he put his hand on my back. As he began to move it in soothing circles, I struggled not to lean into his touch, to take the comfort he was offering. I knew all too well that his comfort came with a price.

“I'm so sorry, baby,” he murmured. “I’m not a nice guy, Toni, but you’re the only person who makes me want to be better. Please, stay. We can talk this out. You were right. I shouldn’t be the only one making the decisions.”

Hesitantly, I looked up at him. Was it possible that he really understood the deeper issue here?

“We’ll call the FBI,” he promised.

“It’s already done.”

At the sound of another voice, both Ash and I looked up. Or, rather, down. Colton was at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes hooded and expression grim as he looked up at us.

Ash tensed.

Sensing the explosion, Colton took a couple steps up to bring him closer to us. “Toni was right. Your family's not the only one involved.” He ran his tongue across his teeth before he added, “I didn’t get a letter, but there was a picture of my dad shoved under the windshield wiper of the truck I drive for the plant sometimes.” He looked past us to where I knew Isadora was standing at the top of the stairs. “You don’t trust the cops, Ash, and I get that. I don’t always trust them either. But if we go running around like a bunch of kids playing junior detective, somebody will get hurt. I want my family safe. And even if you don't like me, that includes your sister.”

Isadora came down the stairs, not looking at Ash or me as she stepped around us. As she wrapped her arms around Colton, I waited. My insides felt strangely hollow, like everything had been scooped out of me.

“You’re right,” Ash said finally. “You’re all right.”

He might've said more, but the doorbell rang and we all stiffened. A moment later, Doug came to tell us that Agent Marcum was waiting for us in the main sitting room.

Ash helped me to my feet and put his hand on the small of my back as we walked down the stairs. I didn't pull away, but I didn't encourage him either. My head was still spinning from everything he'd said. I needed time to process, but I knew I didn't have it. The FBI was waiting and I needed to focus on that. Once Agent Marcum was done, I could worry about everything else.

It was a long and frustrating two hours before she finally left.

After Agent Marcum departed, Isadora and Colton quickly made themselves scarce. As they walked out, Doug came in.

He glanced at Ash, but directed his question to me. “Should I call another cab, Miss Gallagher? I sent the other away because you were busy with Agent Marcum.”

Woodenly, I stared at the floor. It was the smart thing to do, and I was supposed to be smart. Walk away. Don't look back.

“No, thank you,” I said without looking at Ash. I needed to see this through, to see if he meant anything he said.

Once the two of us were alone, however, I had to fight the urge not to change my mind. The tension between us was thick, uncomfortable, but I didn't want to be the one to break it. I wanted to know if he was willing to step forward, to take responsibility, without me feeling like I was talking him into it.

I shifted my gaze from the floor to my hands, studying my fingernails without really seeing them.

“Are you going to look at me?” he asked finally.

“I know what you look like.” Despite my words, I turned my head. I knew it'd be childish of me not to, and what I said had been juvenile enough. I needed to be a grown up about this. I wasn’t five and I wasn’t being scolded by my mother for putting itching powder in Vic’s shoes or tying all of Franky’s socks into knots.

Not that I’d done any of that.

Ash looked awful. It was as though he’d aged decades in the past couple hours. His face was hollow, eyes dull. Somehow, in the hours that had passed between his declaration on the steps and now, the light that had been inside him seemed to have died out.

I felt the same way myself. Empty. “What do you want, Ash? Why are we still doing this?” I asked. The sound of my own voice made me flinch, but I kept going, saying all of the things I'd reminded myself of over the last couple hours. All the reasons why this wouldn't work. “Nothing's going to change. You want to control, to dominate, and not just in the bedroom. You told me that in a Dominant / Submissive relationship, there has to be trust, and that's the problem. You expect trust when it comes to sex, but you won't give it anywhere else. And that's fine if all you want is sex, but I'm not wired that way. Part of it's my fault for thinking we could have that in the bedroom, and at least be friends outside of it. But even that doesn't work with you. You don't respect me.”