What if that pull he had felt had not been strong enough? What if he had ignored it, convinced himself it was nothing but his own weakness calling him back to her?
He would not have forgiven himself.
He could not forgive himself now.
He had not even said goodbye properly. Had not told her anything real. He had just stood there like a f*****g statue while she walked away with her shoulders too tight and her heart too wide open.
And now he knew what fear felt like. Real fear. The kind that grabbed you by the throat and showed you everything you stood to lose before yanking it back from the edge.
For the first time in his life, Ethan Laurent had no strategy for this.
He was born for war. Raised to kill. Trained to sacrifice. But there was no playbook for the raw terror of
