His kiss serves as confirmation.
I guess Idocare. The thought that anyone else could be suffering, right now, what I suffered at Angel’s hands, is more than I can bear. Even if the victim is partly responsible for what happened to me, it’s too much. Stab her, shoot her, throw her off a plane… that I can handle. But bury her alive? It’s the worst way to go.
“Oh, Damien, please,” I gasp. “Please stop it before it’s too late. We don’t even know…please. We don’t know if it reallywasher.”
“We know enough. What do you think I’ve been doing this past month?”
“Uh…” I bite down on my answer.Having sex?That’s what I’vebeen doing. What the hell hashebeen doing?
Planning Lucy’s death, I guess. Well, fuck.
He sits up as well and drags me to him, hugging me possessively. “Did you forget who you married, pet? I’m not a fucking lapdog. I’m a killer.”
I can’t answer. Emotion overwhelms me. I’m torn between being glad she’ll meet her end, not to avenge myself but to protect Damien, and wanting to prevent her death. At least, she shouldn’t die like this.
And it’s not just that. I never thought for a second about what my father and the FBI agent felt when I plunged a knife into them. But now, I’m thinking about Lucy. Somehow, I’m thinking about Lucy.
Maybe it’s because she resembles me in more ways than I’d like to admit. A quiet, invisible woman with a secret.
Damien tilts my head back and gazes at me, reading my thoughts as usual. “Her fate is not sealed, my darling,” he murmurs. “Noel can still save her.”
I swallow, my throat chalky.
“Do you think he will?” he asks, tracing circles on my back. Only now, they’re not all that soothing.
“Does… does he know where she is?” I breathe.
“Yes. And I’m pretty sure that by now, he knows whereweare, too. Or at least, he has a vague idea.”
I inhale sharply, staring at Damien in utter disbelief.
“We gave him her location. And we also gave him a location not too far from here. Well, we didn’tgiveit to him. But we allowed him to find it.”
“Why?” I blurt out, blood thundering in my ears. Why the hell would he allow Noel to find out anything? He’s been leaving us alone for a month now. He’d lost our trace, and Damien just went ahead and led him right here!
I stare at him, for the first time actually questioning his sanity.
But he merely grins, albeit a bit sadly. “He’s been on the hunt for the past month. He was bound to find us. He was already getting a bit close for comfort. No matter how I feel about being on the run…” he clenches his fists and I realize for the first time just how hard it must have been for him to go into hiding, “I would have been happy to run forever if it meant running with you. But you can’t survive long when you’re prey. At some point, if you want to survive, you’ve got to turn predator.”
My hands feel clammy. “So, now what?”
“Now, he’s going to have to make a choice. Kill you, or save Lucy. What do you think he’ll do?”
I rub my temples in confusion. “I guess… he’s going to come here.”
“Not here, exactly. The location we fed him is about thirty miles away. You’re in no danger, my darling.”
“But… but why?”
He kisses my cheek. “Why do you think?”
I gaze up at him, my eyes wide with horror. “Are you going to gofindhim?”
He doesn’t speak, but I read the answer in the grim lines of his face. “Damien! He’ll kill you!”
I throw myself against his chest, burying my face in his warmth. He holds me to him, shushing me quietly.
“So youdocare for me, after all,” he smiles, his fingers finding my hair again. “Sometimes, I wonder.”
