Page 27 of After Our Kiss

Can I run?I wondered, starting after him on hesitant legs.If I do it when he isn't ready for it, maybe I can get to the docks. But without his key... how do I get a boat?

I pulled up next to Conway where he'd stopped. We stood at the edge of the cliff, waves punching into jagged rocks before disintegrating. Straight below us was the clearest section of ocean. But it was deep—too deep to see what was underneath the rolling surface.

Sand scraped under his heel. His shadow fell over me. “Trying to swim from here to the mainland would be foolish. The rocks will slice you to the bone, if you don't drown first.”

He was making it plain that tying me up wasn't necessary. Not here. A barbed wire topped fence blocked me from the docks, and this side of the island was a natural barrier. Deflated, I shook my head in dismay. “Why are you doing this, Conway? Why won't you tell me what's really going on?”

“Because there's nothing to tell.”

“Nothing?” I faced him, throwing my arm out towards the house. “You kidnap me, drag me to this hell hole, put me within reach of yourbrother,a person you riskedeverythingto get me away from before, and you think there's nothing to tell? Fuck that!” I buried my hands in the front of my sweater, needing to grab something solid to make up for how fragmented I'd become. “How can you stand there and silently watch me suffer?”

His head lowered. “You won't like the answer.”

“I still want it!”

“Because I don't care about you,” he said, each word acid from his tongue. “Stop thinking I ever did.”

My mouth fell open. “Conway...”

“All that I gained from our time together as kids was learning what made you tick. How to hurt you in ways no one else could manage.” The glossiness in his eyes gave him a plastic look. This man was empty of all love for me.

Or that was what he wanted me to think.

The wind that danced across the cliffside pawed at the back of my sweater. Turning, I surveyed the water that undulated below. “You really don't care about me?” I whispered.

“No. Not at all.”

My lashes touched the apples of my cheeks. “Let's find out for sure.”

And I jumped.