Prologue

“Why are you here?”

One year, three months, six days, and fourteen hours later—but really, who’s counting?—there he was, standing in front of her.

He rolled his eyes at her, as if it couldn't have been more obvious. He always did that whenever she unintentionally showed how truly naïve she was.

Still am.

Though, she’d never admit it.

“Why do you think I’m here?” he countered back, clearly only to humor her.

Was he always this arrogant?

She thought back to the time they’d spent together. He still walked with the same overly confident manner that seemed to be instilled in him; he still sported the same hair that always looked like he’d just rolled out of bed—he claimed it to be effortless, but she knew he spent at least an hour every morning molding it to his liking. He still had the same well-defined nose, the same boyish smile…and those eyes—those warm, expressive eyes that somehow broke through every defense she had built up over the past twenty-four years she’d been on this earth.

With ease, he knocked down every wall she had worked so hard to put up—and left them in the dust.

Of all the dangerous people she’d encountered in her life…he was her downfall.

She involuntarily scoffed at the irony, which caused him to look at her in amusement.

“I told you I loved you,” he began, “and then you disappeared on m