Salt Kiss – Episode 30
Tristan spent the night in the security room, reviewing useless footage because work was easier than wondering whom Mark had refused to name. By morning, anger had settled into something colder.
Mark entered carrying two coffees. Tristan accepted neither.
“We need to talk,” Mark said.
“That would require you to tell me something.”
Mark absorbed the accusation. “The call concerned a longstanding arrangement between families. It predates your employment and our relationship.”
The word relationship should have reassured Tristan. Instead, Mark’s careful phrasing made dread gather in his chest.
“What kind of arrangement?”
Before Mark could answer, an assistant entered with travel documents and a sealed dossier. “Ms. Laurence’s representatives confirmed her location. They expect your man to retrieve her personally.”
Silence fell. Tristan looked from the dossier to Mark.
“Who is Ms. Laurence?”
The assistant retreated, understanding too late that he had revealed something Mark intended to control.
Mark closed the door. “Isolde Laurence is part of the agreement.”
“That is not an answer.”
Mark’s composure finally failed. “She is my fiancée.”
The words erased every private promise Tristan had allowed himself to believe. Mark had demanded honesty, accepted his trust, and claimed him before an entire club while belonging to someone else by contract.
“How long have you been engaged?”
“Long before you came here. The marriage is political, not romantic.”
“You should have told me before I knelt.” Tristan’s voice remained steady only because pain had not yet found its full force.
Mark pushed the dossier toward him. “Isolde is in danger, and you are the only person I trust to bring her home.” Tristan stared at the photograph inside, trapped between heartbreak and duty. The woman he had never met had just become both his next mission and the proof that Mark Trevena had never truly been his.