Page 72 of Possess Me

She laughed. “Me? I’m a pilot. I live a decent life. I pay taxes and support human rights.”

“Who are you?”

“You’re hurting me.” Her teeth were gritted.

Goddamn it. She wasn’t going to budge. I rubbed my face with my other hand. It was time to use other tactics. The craziest thing was that I should feel nothing but anger, interrogating her as I would any enemy.

Yet I didn’t feel that way.

Seeing the look in her eyes, the horror on her face and knowing something had injured her pulled out every emotion I’d thought dead. Hell, that I’d wanted dead and buried. And why? To protect myself, my ridiculous feelings. To hold onto grief as I’d been doing for years.

For the first time in so goddamn long I felt something other than anger and hatred.

“I’m not trying to hurt you, Fallon, but I am trying to get some answers.” The fucking wind was driving me crazy. I knew the best thing to do was to get the hell off this island.

“I’m exactly who I said I was.”

“Jesus, woman. I’ve been honest with you and you’re right that we don’t know each other. Do you have any idea how long it’s taken me to do that?”

“You lost someone.”

“Haven’t we all?” I admitted.

“Yes,” she said so quietly I strained to hear.

Another deeper rumble of thunder was followed by a series of lightning flashes jetting across the sky. She blinked several times and while the light was shadowed, I could swear she had tears in her eyes. With Bella fighting to get free, Fallon pulled the pup closer, nuzzling the top of her head.

“The past will always repeat itself.”

“What was that?” I asked.

“That’s what he said. The words were chilling, as if he had a crystal ball in front of him and was able to tell the future. But I need to ask a question, Vissarian.”

“You can ask me anything.”

“Was he talking about your past or mine?”

CHAPTER 19

Fallon

“The past will always repeat itself.”

The words were jarring, bringing me back to the horror of what I’d endured less than two weeks before. They were the same ones my stepbrother had uttered. Like some crazy mantra. Ludolf whatever his name was had given me the creeps the day before. The way he’d approached my table wasn’t as a man owning a hotel and just checking on his guests would do.

He’d purposely sought me out, first with his eyes while sitting across the deck at the outdoor bar then by coming directly to my table insisting I have dinner with him.

Maybe I could have bought that he was just a lonely older man thinking I was all alone.

I’d known better the moment he’d approached while I’d been taking Bella for a walk before the storm rolled in.

He’d issued a warning that I could be in danger. Even worse, he’d suggested I was the reason for my mother being murdered. The horror of losing her was even more suffocating than before.

Something Vissarian understood. I could see it in his eyes and in every word coming from his mouth.

He’d lost the love of his life. He hadn’t killed her. He’d adored her.

The gut-wrenching pain in his eyes touched me in the deepest place, in the tiny square of hope and need that I’d kept padlocked. He hadn’t hurt or killed his wife. Not like what Jasmine had insinuated, although the old news article had mentioned four men had died at the scene.