Read BROKEN RESOLVE (James & Annelly Book 2) :: Chapter 2

James

Alone now, I try to salvage what little remains of my sanity. Just like Zeb said, I step back inside and lock the door behind me. The card, the flowers, the threat that is Victor Bastille… I leave it all out there.

But it doesn’t matter.

The cold follows me in like a ghost, clinging to my skin, burrowing beneath the surface. The air feels wrong. Unfamiliar. Like this house, this sanctuary I built with my own two hands has turned against me. Like it no longer recognizes me. No longer wants me here.

I press my forehead against the door and shut my eyes.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

It doesn’t help. The walls feel too close. The silence, too loud. The floor beneath my feet feels wrong, unstable, like the whole goddamn foundation is shifting beneath me.

I want to move. To pace. To punch something until my knuckles split open and the pain gives this chaos a name. But I can’t.

Because she’s here.

Downstairs.

Unaware.

And it would be selfish to disappear into my own mess while she’s still in the dark, still trusting me to hold the line.

So I stay.

I stay and fight to control the shaking in my hands. To contain the panic before it consumes me.

I brace my palms on my knees, breathing like I’ve just run ten miles uphill. My ribs ache. My vision blurs. The pressure in my chest builds faster than I can work to clear it.

Then Tyler’s face flashes in my mind—grinning this morning as he teased me for zoning out. Said I looked like a lovesick fool, staring off into space while smiling like an idiot, obviously thinking of her. I denied it, of course. Full scowl and all, but he was right. Because he knows me better than anyone else in the world.

And now he’s at school.

Oblivious.

Safe—for now.

But how long will that last? How long until the ripples from my mistakes reach him, too? Until I have to look him in the eye and tell him we can’t stay? That the place I built for us—the only true home we’ve ever had—isn’t secure anymore? That we have to start over somewhere else?

The burn behind my eyes is blinding. The ache in my chest, worse. But I bite it back. Swallow it down. Because if I let it out, if I fall apart now, I won’t stop. I’ll break. And I can’t afford to do that right now. Not when everything I’ve worked for, everything I care about, is slipping through my fingers.

So I lean into the anger instead. Letting it build. Letting it burn. Fanning the flames until it boils beneath my skin, scorching everything soft inside me. Everything that aches, everything that makes me feel helpless.

It’s just what I need.

Takes the edge off the fear.

Numbs the grief.

But with nowhere to put it—no outlet, no target—it turns to static. To thunder inside my skull. To screaming between my ears.

My eyes flick to the stairs.

She’s down there. In my office. So close, and yet impossibly far.

And she’s in danger.

I push off the door, muscles tight with the need to move. The need to see her. To make sure she’s okay. To anchor myself in her before I fucking shatter.

I head downstairs without a plan. Without a single clear thought beyond her. Each step feels like walking into a fire. An inferno I can't extinguish, that I know might burn me alive. One I’m not sure I can survive.

But for her?

I’ll take the risk. I’ll face the heat. For her, I’ll walk through the flames, regardless of the cost.

That’s why I keep on going.

When I finally reach the office, I pause in the doorway. She’s still seated next to my desk, her lips curled in the softest smile as she chats with Owen on my laptop. Her laugh—quiet, real—hits me like a gut punch. It sounds like light. Like hope. Like something that shouldn’t exist in the same world as the white roses and the threatening note still sitting on my porch.

And then… like she senses me, she looks up.

Our eyes meet.

Her smile falters.

She studies me. And even though I try, even though every cell in my body screams at me to be strong, to man the hell up, to bury the storm of emotions detonating inside me… I can’t. I’m just not strong enough to hide all the cracks.

“Hey, Owen? James is back,” she says softly. “I’m gonna go.” With no hesitation. No explanation. She just clicks the button and ends the call.

Because she knows.

Because she can see right through me.

I try to stand straighter. To school my features. To pull the mask back into place.

But the second I look into her eyes—those wild green eyes that always see too much—it all unravels.

Before I can stop myself, I’m moving. Dropping to my knees in front of her, I reach for her hands… and breathe out in relief when she doesn’t pull away.

She doesn’t ask. Doesn’t push. She just watches me. Soft. Quiet. Steady. Like she knows it’s what I need.

And that’s all it takes.

A sob rips out of me—raw, ragged, uncontainable. I lower my head to her lap like a man defeated.

And this girl—

This amazing fucking girl—

She doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t speak. She just holds me. One hand in my hair, the other drawing slow, soothing circles on my back.

And I let go.

Of the panic. Of the anger. Of the shame.

Of everything.

It all pours out of me—wave after wave.

Breaking me

Soothing me.

And somehow in the end… piecing me back together.

I don’t understand it. I don’t want to need it. But in this moment—this unbearable, silent collapse of everything that I am—there’s no safer place in the world than her hands.

And that’s when I know I’m fucked.

It’s over.

There’s no going back.

I’m irrevocably hers.

And no matter what happens next, there are only two ways this ends—

With me losing her because I failed her.

Or because I don’t have it in me to be the man she needs. No matter how badly I want it. No matter how hard I try.

Either way, I’m guaranteed to end up the same:

Shattered.

And more irreparably broken than I already am.

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