Chapter 179

Ramon POV

I slid down to the floor among the broken glass and blood and sobbed. Great, gasping sounds that tore from my chest with a violence that hurt.

I couldn’t be around Lake. Couldn’t be around Ollie. Couldn’t trust myself not to hurt them, not to act on these twisted desires that apparently lived inside me.

The dream had proven it. Five years ago with fourteen-year-old Lake. Yesterday morning when I’d seen him younger. And now—even now, with the memory fresh and horrible—my body still wanted him.

I was dangerous. A threat to the people I loved most.

And the only way to protect them was to stay away.

I sat there on the bathroom floor as the night faded into dawn, bleeding and crying and coming to terms with what I had to do.

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By six in the morning, I’d made my decision.

I would give Lake his freedom. Complete, total freedom. The debt that had originally brought us together—Samuel’s debt that had been transferred to