To be honest, I couldn’t even tell you the number, but it soars into the hundreds. I should have been dealt karma for it; what I got in return was something I’d never expected.
And fuck did I love her even more for it.
That darkness of hers hummed an unholy tune to my soul, and mine sung right back to it.
I had a moment standing on the verge, ready to take out the whippet skittering through the woods, evading my bullets with a speed I’d never seen before in my life. I’d initially put it down to their height, but the way they moved mesmerised me, and I needed to know exactly who thought they could fuck with me.
Something made me hesitate as they barrelled into the car. I couldn’t see a face in the darkness, but I knew.
I just knew there was something about them.
Because my heart finally beat for the first time in years.
Then I tracked her and Regina to her home, hacked into their system and made my way up the stairs, ready to turn whoever thought they could take me out’s world upside down.
I could bet my life I never in the world would have expected to see it was my darling girl.
I watched her in utter fascination, flipping a gun in her hand and checking the casing. Over and over again. She was so familiar with it, like handling it was second nature.
For a moment, I thought I’d finally succumb to the karma that’s been chasing me ever since I took my first life, lying on the cold hardwood floor of the cabin, imagining shit in my head.
Instead of playing my life’s best seven minutes after my death, I was conjuring what I’d always wanted to see.
Her.
Alive.
Living life like she deserved.
Imagine my surprise when I found the little demon was the one responsible for stalking me. I didn’t think it was possible to love her more, but then she turned and looked at me with a murderous glint in those crystal-like eyes. I knew then I’d fallen for her all over again.
And I wasn’t walking away without her.
If I had to, I’d have dropped to my knees and fucking begged her.
I’d kept an eye on her when I could the day I left, waiting for the phone call to say she was ready. She could have called me twenty-five years later, and I’d have still run to her door. I could have been in the middle of tearing a place to the ground, and if that call had come, I wouldn’t have even thought twice about abandoning what I was doing.
But it never came, and I now know why.
The only reason I knew they didn’t have her, is because I’ve always got my eye on them; they can’t even take a piss without me knowing. Just waiting for the right moment to strike.
Hell knows I’m a patient man.
I’ve still been trying to figure out how she managed to hide her misdeeds, how she managed to slip them beneath my all-seeing radar, hiding behind two companies.
One where her darkened soul truly lies.
Doesn’t matter now; the fact she even managed it is altering the chemicals in my brain.
I’ve never been so proud in my entire fucking life.
Growing up, I never thought I deserved her. Something so pure, so angelic beneath my hands was a sin within itself.
But the devil wasn’t formed without his own corruption.
She didn’t deserve to be brought into my world; willpower disintegrated every time I glanced at her. Until I could no longer fight the urge.
Selfishly, I gave in to the weakness, and I’ve never been able to pull myself away from it. It killed me to hold back the truth, but she’d never have been able to handle the reality about what I was really doing.
