She pulls a cross out of her pocket and places the pointed tip poking out between her fingers as she makes a fist around the rest of it.
“Stay back. I’ll be able to take at least one out if you don’t give me away.”
I narrow my gaze at her,. “What’s your safeword, Tesoro?”
Tilting her head to the side, she stares at me with a confused expression on her gorgeous face.
“Donut. Why?”
My lips pull up into a smirk as I remember the one and only time she used her safeword. Fucking perfection.
“We’ll stay back for a few minutes. If you encounter trouble before we have eyes on you again, yell your safeword and we’ll be there.”
Carter glares at me.
“Knox. We aren’t taking any risks. She’s not doing this alone. Not for a fucking minute.”
He glances at her, and then his gaze comes back to me, with a profound sadness in his eyes.
“I can’t lose her, Knox. I won’t fucking survive it.”
While he has yet to speak the words, my brother is not only obsessed, but madly in love with this woman, and I fear what he would do if he ever lost her.
“We aren’t losing her, Carter. Ever. I wouldn’t do that to you, and I wouldn’t do it to myself. It will be only a few minutes. Our girl is very fucking capable.”
He walks over to her where she stands looking like a fucking Goddess. Her blue eyes sparkle in the night sky, with the moon bright above her, giving her an ethereal glow.
“Hands behind your back, Little Heathen.”
She immediately does as he says and tilts her head back, looking up at him. Carter presses his palms to her face, and stares at her with adoration.
“Don’t do anything stupid tonight. I can’t exist without you. I would choose to not live at all if I lost you. It’s not because I’m weak. It’s because I choose not to live without you. I could, but I don’t want to. My heart is so fucking dark, but it’s yours, Little Heathen. I’m a fucking broken man, but I’m better with you in my life. I need you to be careful. This black heart only beats for you. Don’t let them take you from me.”
A tear rolls down her cheek as she whispers his name.
“Carter.”
He slides one hand around the back of her neck, and leans down to press his lips to hers. At first, he kisses her slowly and passionately, before it turns frantic. I’m slightly jealous that it isn’t my tongue in her mouth, tasting every delectable inch, but I let my brother have this moment with our girl and stay back.
He pulls back, and she says, “I promise I’ll be careful. I’ll be okay, Carter. I know what I’m doing, and I don’t want to leave you either.”
Carter's lips pull up into a smile.
“Then go kill those assholes, beautiful Little Heathen.”
CHAPTER FORTY
KILLIAN
My brothers hang back while Heather darts under a tree and scans left to right before taking a step forward to the church. Carter balls his hands into fists as she disappears behind the building. Knox is speaking low, so I can’t hear him, but I know he’s telling Carter to relax and let her do what she needs to.
I stay hidden under a tree a good two hundred feet away from my brothers as I wait for them to move. I’m not worried about them catching me. I’m only hiding because I don’t want to have to explain myself. ‘Why are you here, Killian? Why do you care? Why can’t you keep your fucking eyes off her?’ They are all questions I can’t begin to answer. I don’t have a fucking clue why my every waking thought is about this infuriating woman.
Once my brothers move in, I follow behind them as I hear a struggle. The soundtrack of heavy breaths and grunts ring out in the otherwise silent night as we approach the back of the building. There are worn picnic tables lined up in the yard, two with dead animals on top of them in different stages of being skinned and processed. To the left I spot one with a man lyingon the surface, with Killer on top of him. Her knee is on his stomach, while she holds a cross against his throat.
“God will punish you. He will damn you to hell,” the man underneath her rasps out.
Her response is quick and laced with venom.
