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“But you want to start over.”
“It’s the only life I know.”
“Knew,” she said, correcting him like he’d corrected himself a moment ago. “It’s the only life you knew. You’ve been living a different kind of life this past year.”
“This past month,” he said, taking a step toward her, forcing her to reverse. “I won’t hurt you, Tess.”
“I thought that before you put me in the path of my father’s bullet. It will be harder for you to convince me of it again.”
“I made a mistake.”
Tess shook her head, raising a hand to stop him coming any closer. “I’m not my father and I’m not you. Saying you were wrong doesn’t erase what you did. I’m not that forgiving. You stole from me. Those letters were everything to me. You knew that losing them upset me. How did you get them?”
“You told me you were going out. I knew you wouldn’t be in the house.”
“When? I was with you the whole time from…”
“Your date with Patrick. I was looking for something else. When I found the letters, proof Harry violated the accord, I couldn’t pass it up.”
“Is that why you asked me out? To find out when I wouldn’t be home?” she asked, though the answer was obvious.
His proposition on that first day at Buckhorn was nothing more than a ruse. He sure didn’t do it because he was attracted to her. She was a mission… nothing to him. A means to an end.
“I’m good at what I do,” he said. “Very good at it.”
Tess didn’t need to be told that. Everything was a mess. Was she lost or found? Saved or damned? The world was no longer the one she’d grown up in. Leaving Daire and Harry would be the simplest course. Leaving meant no longer facing embarrassment every minute Daire was in the room.
“Where would I go,” she whispered.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Daire replied.
She hadn’t wanted an answer. The question was for her, not for anyone else. Anne had made decisions about their safety, but she tried to be as considerate of her daughter’s life… as much as she could. Tess had to take control of her own path. It was past time.
“I don’t want to be here,” she admitted. “I don’t want to be close to you. Looking at you every day.”
He got a step closer. Tess didn’t raise her head, but put a hand out to stall him again.
“You don’t have to look at me,” he said, the bassline of his voice flat. “If you want me to vacate, I will. I’ll live outside, train outside, it’s all I need. You only have to give the order.”
No matter how much she scrutinized him, she wasn’t able to recognize the man in front of her.
Incredulous, she stated, “I am not your master. I would never want to be.”
“I had a mission,” he said. “In my head, when there’s an objective, I carry it out. I decided to put you and your mom in front of him. After your mom was gone, it was you. I had to get you to Olympus. I knew that wouldn’t be tough. I knew as soon as Harry got the marker he’d come. Just the possibility it could be Z would bring him there.”
“It wasn’t Z, it was us. It was you,” she said. “I don’t even know what the marker is.”
“The code,” he said. “That we put in the first night. It sends a beacon to the three principals.”
“You said four people knew the code.”
“I knew it,” he said, his shoulders dropping just an inch. “I know a lot of things about Olympus that I shouldn’t… that others don’t.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s my home. Because Harry taught me well.”
“You took me there to hurt me.”
