Salt Kiss – Episode 28
The message forced them out of the gala before the speeches began. Tristan sealed the camera in an evidence bag and kept Mark between himself and the armored vehicle.
“They know about us,” Tristan said once the doors locked.
“There is no ‘us’ for them to know,” Mark replied too quickly.
The denial struck like an insult. “Then I suppose the man threatening me imagined everything.”
Mark turned toward him. “I am trying to keep you from becoming a target.”
“Too late. Someone stood beside my bed.” Tristan held up the evidence bag. “Distance won’t undo that.”
Back at the safe house, the camera’s serial number led to a security contractor once employed by a rival organization. The same name appeared in an old file Mark had kept locked away.
Tristan placed the file on the table. “Tell me the rest.”
Mark’s first instinct was refusal. Then he saw that secrecy had become more dangerous than memory.
Years earlier, Mark had loved a man who believed they could escape the violent alliances surrounding them. A rival used that love to draw Mark into an ambush.
Mark survived. His lover did not.
“I begged them to spare him,” Mark said. “They wanted me to understand that affection was leverage.”
Tristan remembered the broken plea hidden inside Mark’s earlier confession. At last, the grief had a shape.
“You built control around the wound,” Tristan said.
“And now I have repeated the same mistake.” Mark looked at him with naked fear. “I gave them someone else to use.”
Tristan crossed the room and took his hand. “You didn’t give them anything. I chose to stay.”
“Choice does not make you bulletproof.”
“Neither does being alone.” Tristan held on when Mark tried to withdraw. For the first time, protecting him meant refusing the very distance Mark believed would keep them safe.