Page 187 of Between Passion and Revenge: Part Two

“Enough!” His voice shatters the air like a gunshot, and he wrenches away from me. But he doesn’t look at me when he says it. Because he knows. He knows I’m right.

I sit up, the room spinning.

“Ifyou stay, Shae?” Storm says from his place near the wall. His back to me, I watch the breaths saw in and out with increasing speed. He faces me, his face a mask of fear and rage and some other emotion so potent I can barely define it.

“I don’t know what to do here, Storm,” I whisper, my heart in the active process of breaking.

“And I don’t know how to go back to before, Sweetness.” The devastation in his voice has me swaying where I sit on the bed. This is him cracking—unmoored, aimless.

This is the man I love.

“But,” he says, swallowing hard. “I promised you I’d let you choose. So I’m gonna let you choose.”

My throat burns with searing pain as I take in what he’s saying.

“You asked once how trust can be rebuilt, and here’s what I had to accept: You can’t rebuild from what was; you can only build something new,” he says, solemn.

“Trust starts with truth. The full truth. And here’s the truth about the man I am today.”

He takes a slow step toward me, one, and then another, until he kneels at my feet. Not touching, just staring openly at me.

“I am a murderer, Shae. I’ve been a murderer since I took Jaxon Samuels’ life to protect you in that alleyway the night you went clubbing at Velour.”

My eyes slide closed at that memory, at him finally clearly confessing to what I’ve always known to be true.

What I’ve already accepted.

“Since you left my apartment the last time I saw you, I’ve killed even more men. I’ve taken lives because of pride, because of greed, because of mercy. I’ve killed to make them pay for their sins; I’ve killed to protect mine.”

He lifts his hands and freezes, as if he wants to touch me but thinks better of it.

“In most cases, I killed because I was ordered to do so, because for the last eight years, I’ve worked for Lakeland, doing his bidding.”

I suck in a breath.

“What do you mean, Storm?” I ask, lost.

“In order to defeat the monster, I had to become one myself.”

At that moment, lightning illuminates the sky outside the window, and a heartbeat later, in rolls the thunder.

“But even as I sank deeper and deeper into Lakeland’s world, plotting to kill him slowly and thoroughly by not just taking his life, but destroying everything he stood for, I never lost one thing: My commitment to protect you, Shae.”

A single tear rolls down his face, and he doesn’t move to wipe it away, nor does another follow it.

“Everything I do until my last breath will be for you, Shae Olivya Rivers. Everything. My heart beats for you, bleeds for you, and I’ll sacrifice every part of me so that you may live. I’ll do anything, go to any length, take any soul if it means you get to be here another day. And anyone who threatens your life, your fucking happiness, will meet justice delivered by my hand.”

Another bolt of lightning.

“That’s why he had to die. Because when I say I love you, I mean every part of my soul in this lifetime and the next exists to meet yours.”

“Oh, Storm,” I say, searching his face and not knowing what the hell to think.

He stands, stepping away, and with every inch that separates us, coldness grows.

“I promised to give you space to choose, and I meant that, Shae. So choose. No more in-between, no more waiting. It’s time. Come find me when you decide.”

FORTY-THREE