Page 123 of Sage Haven

He shook his head once. “Sam.”

My gut clenched.

“What about her?”

He exhaled, heavy and tired. “She keeps asking about Sage.”

I waited.

“She doesn’t buy the story that she just disappeared without a word.” His mouth twisted, part amusement, part regret. “Sam’s convinced something else happened. She wantsmeto look into it.”

I frowned. “Why you?”

He gave me a flat look. “Because she’s smart.” His voice was bitter and resigned. “Because she’s catching on and starting to realize that ‘finding people’ isn’t just some hobby of mine.”

That was a problem.

A big one.

I rubbed a hand down my face. “We can’t let her in, Cas. You know what happens if she finds out even a fraction about what we do and who we do it for.”

His jaw tightened. He stood abruptly, crossing the room like he couldn’t sit still anymore. His shoulders hunched, like he was carrying more weight than his frame was built for.

And I knew he was.

We both were.

“Eventually, I’ll have to say something to tide her over,” he said. “Or I’ll lose her for good.”

His voice cracked just enough to make me freeze.

When his eyes met mine, they were raw. Desperate.

“She thinks I’m living a double life,” he continued. “That I’ve got a house somewhere. A wife. A couple of kids. Like I’m playing the perfect miserable suburban dad on weekends and banging the hot blonde secretary in my off hours.”

I huffed a dry laugh.

Not because it was funny.

Because it was tragic.

That was the kind of life Cas could’ve had. Hell, maybe even me in another lifetime. But not here. Not now. Not with the ENA’s leash tight around our throats.

I pressed my fingers to my temples, feeling the pulse of a migraine building behind my eyes. “Even if you told her the truth, Cas—are you really willing to put her in that kind of danger? You’d lose her anyway. You can’t have a normal life with her. Not in this world we’ve built.”

His gaze dropped as I watched his fists clench.

“I don’t know,” he whispered. “But I just can’t lose her.”

And that was it.

The line in the sand.

I recognized it because it was the same one that I had already crossed with Sage.

The difference was Cas was still pretending it was a choice.

I wanted to tell him it would be okay. That if he fought hard enough, he could have her. That if he ran fast enough, far enough, maybe they could disappear together.