In the fraction of the second before I shoot, I see that shemakes no move to fall down, as I thought she would. I thought that if I got Noel in conversation, he would be taken by surprise by her sudden movement and it would give me the window to shoot.
But it turns out she has another plan.
My finger leaves the trigger, cold sweat beading down my forehead as I realize I was on the point of shooting Seraphina. Then, I see something silver flash in her hand as she plunges it into Noel’s stomach. A knife. She managed to get a knife.Fuck me. She literally has a knife, and she’s just stabbed him.
My little coldblooded killer.
Noel’s eyes grow wide as she continues to slash into him with her knife, and his mouth opens to form words, but instead, a trickle of blood leaves his lips.
“Get down! Get the fuck down!” I yell, and after a moment, like it’s the hardest thing she’s ever done, she stops stabbing him, and obeys.
He’s already dead from the stab wounds when I riddle him with bullets until he’s an unrecognizable, broken form lying on the humid, vivid green Vermont grass, his face frozen in shock.
Seraphina is crouching close by. She watches him with satisfaction, before turning to me. A look of fear creeps into her eyes as she watches me draw near.
She remembers my threat.I’ll beat the fucking shit out of you.
She wasn’t scared of Noel holding his gun to her head. But she’s scared of me.
As she should be. She disobeyed me, and Iamgoing to fucking punish her. Because she has no right to risk her life for me.
I’mthe one who’s supposed to do that. Who’s supposed to protect her.
I’m going to make sure she understands that from now on.
But first, I need to hold her.
I grab her, pull her to me, and crush her against my chest,letting my tears wet her shoulder. I can feel her tense in surprise, but I’m too exhausted to care. Too emotionally spent to do anything but hug her to me, clutching at the girl I nearly lost. Yet again.
I tear myself away from her, trying to find the strength to do what I know I need to, but I just can’t. Not yet, at least. I kiss her viciously, biting her lower lip until it bleeds, dragging my hands all over her body.
“Did they rape you?” I growl at last.
She shakes her head forcefully. “I’d have killed them if they had.”
My first instinct is to smile at those words. My second is to note the knife she’s still holding, covered in the blood of the man who outsmarted me.
I guess underneath that quiet exterior, she’s far stronger than I ever gave her credit for.
“Yes,” I breathe. “You would have.”
Then I hold her even closer. “But I’ll make sure you never have to make such a call. I’m supposed to protect you, and I failed tonight.” I swallow bitterly. “I want you to know, darling, that nothing anyone could ever do to you would make me love you any less. You belong to me. And so do your scars.”
She nestles closer to me, hesitating before speaking again. “When you said you’d beat the shit out of me… did you mean it?”
I smile into her hair. “I always mean everything I say, pet.”
I feel her sag just a bit in my arms.
“But I think,” I add after a beat, “that it’ll be the kind of beating you enjoy.”
I look down at her and smirk when I see the large grin forming on her face.
Then I lead her over to my car and pop open the trunk. I’m going to have to put off that punishment, just for a bit. Because right now, I don’t want to do anything but claim her.
Still, it’s with more than a little roughness that I push her down into the trunk, her legs wrapping around me. She’s still covered in the blood of the man she just killed, and the dichotomy of seeing her blush while bloody is… interesting to say the least. But blush is exactly what Seraphina does when I flip her nightgown over her waist, baring her naked pussy.
“They’ll see us,” she groans, nodding toward the perimeter of the property where the guards were previously stationed.
