Page 91 of Dangerous Promises

I stay there, angrily staring off into the distance, unfocused and unaware, thinking back on the times I had my shot to kill her. Every encounter was a game. It would have taken a simple flick of the wrist, swing of the knife or silent shot with a pistol. I could have done it. I never did. It would've been within my rights of the death promise to do it at any time I wanted.

Not even the night she knocked herself unconscious just outside the gates of her estate. Nobody but me saw that happen. She knocked herself right into the dirt. I could've easily grabbed her leg, pulled her out, and finished her there. Yet I didn't.

Even as I'd traveled so far chasing her, I saw her there and I walked away. I chose to walk away.

All this time I'd told myself it was because I wanted to draw this out. Because I wanted her to live in fear for a little longer.

I sigh deeply and resign myself to a sitting position, shielding my eyes from the sun with my hand.

Victor would've clapped me upside the head for being so weak. For being too weak to extract his revenge? Who knows now what he was capable of doing to me for that.

Still, I miss my brother.

At first, punishing her was the only solution. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't be dead. That is still true. But now I wonder if I was just punishing myself. First, for not being there for Victor. And second, by not allowing myself to have what I so clearly want.

"Hey, loner." I turn over my shoulder to find Isla approaching me. She smiles knowingly as she sits next to me on the edge of their pool.

I glance at her but don't bother saying hello.

"Moping out here now?" she asks.

I give her an annoyed look. "I'm not moping."

Isla smirks at me. "What are you doing then? Because I caught a small glimpse of Sage kissing you in there. Looked hot."

I crack a smile. Sage would be devastated if she knew we'd been caught so brazenly. Luckily only by Isla, though.

"Don't make me kill you for watching," I say, laughing.

She jostles my shoulder with hers. "So you are out here moping? About her?"

I shoot her another look. Mostly because that's easier than trying to express out loud just exactly what is running through my head. I run a stressed hand through my hair, noticing only now at how the muscle pulls against my gunshot wound. She hasn't patched me up very well.

Nope. Instead she ripped me open in new ways.

Isla hugs her knees to her chest, her blonde hair blowing gently behind her with the breeze. "I've always liked her," she says with a smile.

"And thank you for adding your opinion," I say, rolling my eyes and huffing as I rest my hands behind me.

Sitting here it would look like we're doing nothing more than enjoying a nice sunny day by the pool. And it is a beautiful place to do that. Everything on this property feels so familiar now. I know my way around. I have my own room here. The guards easily open the gates to me. It's like it's a part of my own.

I never wanted to hate them.

Well, I hated one of them. For taking something I thought should be mine. That thought drives something foreboding inside of me, leaving a sour taste on my tongue. Because I know that even though I hated him, she didn't.

"She'll never forgive me," I say, whispering the words into the wind and kind of hoping that Isla doesn't hear me.

She does, though, and I am forced to face it.

"Every thing that happened, it was an accident," Isla says. The fact that she doesn't address forgiveness is not lost on me. We both know that's off the table. "You'll both come to see that eventually." She nods to herself, as if she needs convincing just as much as I do.

"Well," I say, shrugging. "Itwasher I was trying to shoot."

Isla just shakes her head at me. "It was all an accident."

I think back to the day again, transporting me to a dark place in time. Where Victor was screaming at me to hurt them, to defend him. Listening to Prince as he shouted at her to kill my brother.

"I aimed that gun to save my brother's life," I say, gritting my teeth as anger consumes the emotions around me. "I'd do it again."