Salt Kiss – Episode 31
Tristan stared at Isolde Laurence’s photograph until the woman’s composed expression blurred beneath his anger. Mark had accepted his trust while concealing an engagement, and now expected him to protect the proof of that betrayal.
“Find someone else,” Tristan said.
Mark closed the dossier. “I would if anyone else could keep her alive.”
“You have an entire security network.”
“It has already been compromised.” Mark gestured toward the evidence surrounding them. “You are the only person I trust.”
The words would once have meant everything. Now they sounded like another way to use what Tristan felt.
“Is the marriage connected to the threat?”
“The engagement was arranged to end a conflict between powerful families. Someone now benefits from preventing that peace.”
Tristan understood the tactical reality even while resenting it. Isolde was not merely a bride. She was a target whose death could reignite a war conducted through money, influence, and hired weapons.
“Does she want to marry you?” he asked.
Mark’s hesitation answered first. “Want has little to do with the agreement.”
The admission shifted Tristan’s anger. Isolde had been promised without meaningful choice, just as Tristan’s father had once treated his future as something to command.
He opened the dossier again. Isolde was staying at a Laurence property outside the city under family protection, though recent communications suggested someone inside her security detail had been compromised.
“I retrieve her, deliver her safely, and then we discuss what you concealed,” Tristan said.
“Agreed.”
“No more half-truths.”
Mark met his gaze. “No more half-truths.”
Tristan took the dossier and left before the promise could weaken him. By nightfall he was driving toward the Laurence estate, carrying orders from the man who had broken his heart and a photograph of the woman he was supposed to bring home to him.