Page 35 of Dismantle & Prevail

No. Why? How? I have so many questions, but the red alarm blaring in my mind is how I can find this guy and slit his pathetic throat like I did his useless guard.

Continuing, Ari says, “When he realized he could no longer get a reaction out of me, he moved to you.”

This time I do lift off his chest, my arms propping me up to look at him. “What?”

Anguish fills his dark, bloodshot eyes as his arms wrap tighter around me, as if he’s afraid I will try to run away.

“He threatened to take you and do things I will never repeat, all while blaming it on me.”

“I’d never believe that for—”

“I know. And I know you would never go down without a fight, but when you are alone for months hearing what horror movies can only imagine of recreating, your mind starts to believe the lies.”

Knife meet heart.

“That’s why I was so scared when I saw you. I thought he lured you in to do—yeah. That would have broken me, Hellhound. You had already been through so much and—”

My hands move to cup his face. “Hey. It didn’t happen. I’m right here and you are safe.”

Ari nods. “I know, but the second I close my eyes, I slip into an alternate reality where Raynie’s death is my fault and you are back in a place where I promised you I would never let you return to.”

Aries hand moves to my face and swipes away a tear that I didn’t know escaped.

I knew it was bad, but I never imagined it would be to this magnitude.

How the hell am I going to help this man when some days I struggle to keep my head above water?

Once again, I find myself asking, why me? Why did he gravitate towards me?

“Taylor.”

My head snaps up, and Ari searches my eyes.

“Losing you would break me. I saw the woman you were when you came here, and she is not the woman I know today. And I know you’re confused about why I come here every night.”

I nod, wondering how the hell he knew that.

“You once betrayed my trust to save others. You never needed to prove that I could trust you with Braveheart, but you have worked hard to prove that there is no Braveheart without Taylor. And somewhere along the way of you being a pain in my ass, I found a critical friendship in you. So the day you showed up in that cage, despite your life being on the line, I knew you were the one I could run to when the fog and weight of everything I lost was too heavy.”

My head tilts down to rest on his chest as the weight of his words hits me like a brick.

Aries trusts me with his life. Aries trusts me with the deepest, darkest parts of his soul.

I knew Aries had a past that made him the ruthless leader of Braveheart he is today. Everyone here has one. I just never knew it was this cruel.

My past is filled with nothing but people using others for their own personal satisfaction.

Our paths that brought us to where we are today are not the same, but somehow we have found ourselves at a crossroads, meeting at a time where the next day is uncertain.

Aries is consumed by his grief for his daughter and the fear of losing a friend.

I stare at the wall, fearing I may not be the right person to help get this man, who saved my life, back on the path of being a ruthless and fearless leader.

“Butterfly?”

Aries' low, quiet voice has my head snapping up.

“Thank you. You were right. I did need to let it all out.”