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TWENTY-FOUR

KAGE

I have to tell her.

Tell her and let her hate me for a while, until I can make her understand. Until I find the right words to explain how not telling her up to now hasn’t been lying, but one of those secrets I said I had to keep to keep her safe.

Except she’d know that’s bullshit. She’s too smart for that.

She can already read me too well.

This secret I keep not for her safety, but for selfish reasons.

Because I know if I told her I’ve known all along that her missing fiancé didn’t take a tumble down a mountain like she thinks he did, she’d hate me.

If I told her why I really came to town last September, she’d never forgive me.

And if I told her what the consequences would be for her if Max ever discovers I lied to him, she’d wish I were dead.

I should go before it comes to that.

I should leave and never visit this place again .

I should let her find a normal man and live a normal life and keep watch over her at a distance.

But as she gazes up at me with those beautiful ocean eyes filled with emotion, I know I won’t do any of those things.

Even if I did somehow find the strength to leave, I couldn’t stay away. She’s already proven too powerful for me to resist. Too addictive. I’m too far under her spell.

So the truth isn’t an option.

The only choice I have is to live this double life as carefully as I can. To keep everything separate. The paths of my footsteps on the East Coast and the West can never cross.

I can’t make a single misstep on this tightrope I’m walking, because her life is at stake.

And I can’t lose her.

If ever I do, I’ll burn the whole world to the ground before following her into the dark.