Own Worst Enemy

If you like music while you read, try "Run Red" by Alexa Ray, David Michael Tardy, and Atom Music Audio. It's the perfect tone for this scene.

*****

~ DAVID ~

Captain Gabriel Stark was usually a rock. An unyielding wall of might that would not be moved from right. Or from certainty.

He was as unchanging as the passage of the sun, and as reliable.

The look on his face now was one I'd rarely seen on him, and yet others who didn't know him so well might have missed it entirely. The tiniest twitch of his brows and jaw spoke of stunned silence—the same as a gaping mouth for any other man.

I had truly shocked him—which made no sense. He had to have known this was the next step? We'd even spoken of it…

Yet, here he stood… blinking like I'd slapped him.

"David… You're already married," he said quietly, his voice low as if he thought to soothe me.

Bastard.

A spear of grief, rage, endless hurt sliced through my chest.