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Rayne stays quiet in the seat next to me. I’m not sure if it’s a good thing or not.
If she talks, she might start telling me exactly what happened. That could spell the beginning of the end for Steven.
The longer she stays quiet, though, the more I’m worried she’s traumatized. That I didn’t make it to her in time. Even though I was steps away, that man did something to Rayne I can’t undo.
How much worse would it have been if I hadn’t been there? I don’t want to think about it, but I can’t not.
She appeared on my beach a week ago, and I told her to leave. I told her I never wanted to see her again.
If anything had happened to her today, it would have been my fault.
I tighten my hands on the steering wheel until my knuckles turn white. The ocean is straight ahead, stretching out in a pale blue streak to blend with the horizon. At the next turn off, I take a sharp left and start zigzagging up a hill.
Rayne looks around in a daze, but she still doesn’t say anything. The road rises and curves, but she doesn’t say a word until it levels out and I stop the car at a lookout point.
“What are we doing here?” Her voice is raw from screaming. It crackles, even though she was barely whispering.
Rage throbs in my chest. “Not killing your boss. Is that okay with you?”
She hesitates and then gives a small shrug. “I’m actually undecided right now.”
That surprises a laugh out of me, but the sound cuts off an instant later. Nothing about this is funny.
I look over at Rayne, but she’s staring straight ahead. Through the windshield, I can see the tops of the wooden fence installed to keep sightseers from tumbling down the cliff face into the ocean. Beyond that, it is nothing but water and sky.
Wordlessly, Rayne reaches for the door handle and climbs out of the car. I sit in the driver’s seat and watch her move towards the edge.
The wind tosses her hair back in a warm chestnut tangle. She wraps her arms tightly around herself to keep away the chill. Her fingers drum on her biceps, and I can see one of her nails is chipped and bloody.
I grit my teeth. I wish I’d brought Steven Linley up here. I’d throw him over the edge without a second thought and I’d relish every bone he broke on his way down the mountainside.
To keep myself from turning the car around and doing just that, I turn off the engine and climb out.
Rayne doesn’t look over as I move to stand next to her. She just stares straight ahead, a rattling sigh pushing between her lips. “Why are you here, Kirill?”
“I didn’t have a plan. Just saw the turn-off and I took it. Now that I’m here, I think it offers a nice perspective.”
“Notherehere,” Rayne snaps, a surprising bite in her voice. “Why were you at the Linleys’ house in the first place?”
I shove my hands in my pockets. “I was watching you.”
She goes perfectly still. Her gaze is fixed on the horizon, but her attention is on me.
She takes shallow breaths, her lips parting with each exhale. I can’t make out her thoughts, but I can hear them buzzing around in her head. Angry bees, restless, inconsolable.
“Why?” she finally asks.
There’s no sense in not telling her the truth. Not now.
“Because I wanted to.”
So many bigger things contained in those four little words.
Because I couldn’t stop thinking about that man at the bar touching you while you danced.
Because knowing you were just a few minutes away but never seeing you was driving me fucking crazy.
Because no one has ever infuriated and intrigued me the way you do, and I’ve spent five years trying to get you out of my head, out of my system, out of my dreams, but I can’t, I just fucking can’t, so this is the only thing left for me to do.
