Page 101 of Eternal Surrender

“Having trouble manipulating me?”

“The door’s closing, Ingrid. Any last words?” I lifted my feet out of the water and stood up.

Keeping some distance between us, wanting her to feel safe.

She came closer, close enough to touch. “Those responsible for these deaths will be brought to justice.”

I clenched my jaw trying to hold back. “What do you know of punishment?”

She hesitated.

We were extraordinarily close.

I towered over her.

She raised her chin, taunting me with her lips, that whisper of a pout, a promise suspended in the fragile space between us.

“Leave,” I warned.

She bit her lip slowly, almost absently, and something inside me shuddered.

“Jadeon died trying to save your life,” I snapped. “Isn’t that the ultimate punishment?”

Pain flashed through her eyes, a sudden brightness, then shock, and after it a tremor that passed through her. For a moment, she stood unmoored, confused, as though her delicate soul had been torn.

It wounded me deeply to know my words were the instrument of her pain.

“I don’t believe you.” She frowned her confusion. “You told me he’s in Italy.”

“Look around you. Is this not proof enough that Orpheus is dead too? Belshazzar’s was Orpheus.”

“More lies.”

“Don’t look at me like that.” I didn’t care how it sounded.

“See, you do this. You give me a glimpse into what you are, but then you pull back.”

“Goodbye, Ingrid.”

She raised her forearm. “I took another look at the photos from Gillian’s autopsy. The girl we found dead at Stonehenge. Gillian had this exact same brand on her arm.” Her voice broke, and she studied the brand as though for the first time. “You ask me to forget, and then give me this.”

Staring at her lips, I tried to stop myself from tasting them, tasting her.

“Do you know the difference between a brand and a tattoo?” Ingrid’s expression became fierce. “A brand goes deeper and it’s permanent.”

“You think it represents shame?”

“If not, then what?”

“You’re the detective, you work it out.”

“I want answers.”

“You want what you cannot have.”

“Are you a danger to me?”

I arched a seductive brow, and then bared my fangs.