Her arms were crossed, her shoulders hunched, but her eyes…her eyes scanned the shadows.
She was looking for me.
Of course she was.
Fuck.
Now she expected me to be here. Why? To keep her safe? Or throw her up against a wall and kiss her until her knees buckled?
Near the end of the alley, she slowed down and hesitated, as though waiting for me to make a move on her.
I should have approached her, talked to her like a civilized human being.
But I didn’t.
I followed her, staying in the dark.
Let her walk alone.
I tracked her every step with my eyes, my boots silent on the concrete as I moved.
She couldn’t see me, but she sure as hell could feel me.
The tension in her spine, the glances over her shoulder, the way her breath caught when I drew just a little closer told me so.
The moment she disappeared into her building, I crossed the street, keyed in her code to escape the drizzle, and stepped into the vestibule, pulling up the camera feed for her living room to confirm she’d made it to her apartment.
As I waited, a scream tore through the stairwell.
High-pitched. Primal. Ripped straight from her lungs.
I didn’t think; I just moved.
I stormed up, boots hammering the stairs as I took them three at a time. There was another scream, muffled this time, and some scuffling just up above on the third floor.
“No! Stop—get off me!”
A man twice her size had her pinned to the wall, with his forearm to her throat and the other hand grappling for the doorknob behind her.
She stared up at him, wide-eyed, her face bloodless as he huffed out, “Shut the fuck up, you little whore.”
And those were the last words he would ever speak.
I closed the distance in two strides.
He turned his head at the sound of my approach.
“Too late. You’re dead!” I roared.
I grabbed him by the collar and yanked him backward with enough force to crack his spine.
He hit the opposite wall with a grunt.
I slammed my fist into his throat, then reached behind him and grabbed him by the back of his hair and secured him in a chokehold. My face was inches from his as his hand clawed at my jacket, scrambling for a grip.
“Wrong girl,” I growled.
He bucked and twisted, but it was no use. I swung my other arm around him, my fingers hooking his ear. I wrenched his head sideways with a powerful tug until his neck gave with a sickening crack.
