I wish she’d say something. I’m driving us back to the estate, but the car is running on instinct while the rest of me is still standing in that office staring at her face.
My kidney. Kozlov agreed to take it in exchange for the debt.
She said it so calmly, as if she was discussing selling off a dress rather than one of her organs. I pushed her to that point. Had she already been planning it when I told her to stay away from me and my son? Had she decided this when she was let go from the hospital, something her friend held me responsible for?
The guilt in the pit of my stomach wars with anger. Anger that she was willing to destroy herself without a second thought. My hands flex on the wheel, and I hear a cracking sound. I immediately ease my grip.
My jaw is tight enough to ache. She is a nurse. She knows exactly what happens once you’re under. I was so sure she had gone there to give in to Kozlov’s terms. The truth of what I heard makes me want to turn the car back around and rip Kozlov’s head off. I want his blood on my hands. My wolf wants his heart, to eat the flesh, to show the loan shark the consequences of touching what’s ours.
The road curves. Trees press in on both sides. My foot pushes harder against the accelerator.
And then the other side of it hits, the way it keeps hitting, over and over since Linda read me that address.
I did this.
I voided her contract. Told her to stay away from Ethan. Said it harshly because I needed it to stick, needed her away from me, away from the bond, away from everything that was going to get her killed if I didn’t shut it down. I told myself it was the right call, and I left her with nothing. No job. No Ethan. No reason to fight. I stripped every reason she had, and she walked straight toward the only door still open, which happened to belong to the man who had been sending people to hurt her for a year.
She went to Kozlov because I made sure there was nowhere else to go.
That thought sits in my chest like something burning.
She’s angry with me. I can sense it. Her expression is carefully blank, and she refuses to so much as look at me. She can be angry with me all she wants. I screwed her over. But she can’t be angry over me stopping her from selling her kidney to Kozlov.
The track that splits off toward the lake comes up on the left, and I take the abrupt turn leading to it. She needs to cool down.
The car bumps over the narrow road and rolls to a stop at the bank. I put it in park and throw open my door. Rounding the carto the passenger side, I open her door, and for a moment, I stare down at her rigid profile. She’s still not looking at me.
Fine.
I reach in and grab her by the wrist, pulling her to me till she stumbles out. She lets out a startled yelp. “W-What are you doing?!”
Oh, so now she’s paying attention to me.
She makes a sound of protest, stumbling on the grass, and I keep moving toward the bank. Then picking her up in my arms, I toss her into the lake.
The lake takes her whole.
I stand on the bank and wait, my hands on my hips.
She comes up gasping, hair plastered to her face, water in her eyes, arms cutting through the surface.
“What the—” She drags a breath before shouting, “What is wrong with you?! Are you insane?!”
“I thought you needed to cool off.” I tuck my hands into my pockets.
Miranda’s chest is heaving, and she hits the water with her fists. “You’ve lost your goddamn mind, Wolfe!”
Fury is working across her face, bright and alive, and the thing in my chest that has been clenched since Kozlov’s office loosens by a fraction.
There she is.
“I should be saying that to you,” I growl. “What the hell was that? Is your life so meaningless that you’ll kill yourself to pay off a debt?!”
“It’s none of your fucking business!” Miranda screams at me, hitting the water again. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her curse, and I don’t care.
“Did you think he was going to stop at one kidney?” I snarl. “He would’ve taken everything he could sell. He would have—”
“And?”
