Chapter 42
Saint
The location beneath it.
Campus Pool.
Roman wanted me to find him, or maybe I wanted him to come. Why wait? It’s better to deal with him head-on. I also want him to think he has control.
The campus is almost silent this late, and no one would be at the pool at this hour. Zero gave me his location and contact information.
Only the old lamps burn around the athletic complex, their reflections stretching across the wet pavement from an earlier rain. The pool house sits alone beneath the moon.
I unlock the gate. It groans quietly behind me.
I don’t have to guess to know that Roman is already there. Zero sent me an alert from the live feed. He is currently wiping it out. No evidence.
I find him with his hands in the pockets of his tailored coat, alone, like I expected, looking out over the blue water.
“I was beginning to think you weren’t coming,” he says before turning around.
I don’t answer. I can see his pathetic smile reflected in the pool.
“I understand now.”
I remain quiet.
“You think she’s yours.” The word echoes inside the building.
When I don’t reply, Roman finally turns. “You’ve known her what...” He pretends to count. “A few weeks? I’ve known every version of her. The frightened girl. The obedient one. The one that stopped fighting.” His smile grows. “You don’t know who she really is.”
“I know enough,” I finally reply. Rage boils beneath my veins.
Roman nods slowly. “I doubt that.”
He begins walking around the edge of the pool. “Did she tell you how she’d apologize? How she’d cry? How she’d promise she’d never leave again?”
Each sentence is calculated. He wants anger, a reckless reaction. I didn’t miss the way his eyes trailed over my frame.
I’m bigger than him, but he wants me to be reckless so I lose control.
But I watch him. The way he favors his left leg. The slight hesitation in his stride. The expensive watch on his wrist.
Roman stops a few feet away. “You know what your problem is? You’ve convinced yourself she’s different with you. That she needs saving.” He smiles. “They always think they are.”
The building is quiet enough that I can hear the filtration system beneath the water. The steady hum before the pump turns on.
He steps closer. “You rescued a broken girl.” His eyes meet mine. “She’ll spend the rest of her life confusing that with devotion.”
“You’ve spent this entire conversation talking about Amy. And not once have you asked who I am or what you are up against.”
Roman grins. “Of course, I haven’t. You think this is about proving something.”
“It isn’t,” I reply with confidence.
“What is it, then?” I glance at the water, then back at him. “I’m making sure you never reach her again.”
He can’t marry her if he’s dead, but he doesn’t know that yet. He doesn’t know that he just walked into his own funeral.
“Who are you?”
The question hangs between us. A strange calm settles over the room. There are moments that change a man’s life. Some because of what he gains, and others because of what he chooses to become. There is no relief, only the certainty that Amy will never have to look over her shoulder for him again.
“You should have asked that before you came for her?”