“Oh.”
“I’ll take care of everything else. This will never come back to you.”
I bite my lip. “But what about the blood? There was a lot. Someone… one of you, I mean… won’t they check the cameras if he just disappears? Two people. They’ll find me.” My chest is rising and falling rapidly again. There is no way I’m not getting caught.
I’m going to be killed.
Firm fingers find my chin and grip. Only then do I realize I’m shaking my head.
“Look at me.”
I can’t. I stare at the intricate tattoos visible behind the open collar of his dress shirt, swirling up his corded neck.
“Sera.” His tone is sharper. “Look at me.”
I inhale a steadying breath and drag my eyes up until I meet his dark gaze. My stomach flips at his expression.
“No one,” he says, with such intensity that I shiver again. But this time it’s not fear. “No onewilleverknow you were in that alley. No matter what, I won’t let it come back to you.”
I swallow hard, incapable of dealing with the blazing emotion I see in his eyes or what it’s doing to my chest.
I can’t take it. It’s too much. Too intimate, too…
“Are we going to pinky promise?” I say, falling back on the sarcasm that never fails to help me cover what I’m actually feeling.
His eyes hold mine, and it feels like he is looking straight inside to where I’ve been hiding for the last two years.
“No, it’s a vow.”
My heart flips several times. Almost reflexively, like a built-in safety measure, I raise my middle finger. “Fuck off.A vow.” I snort.
He looks so comically shocked his lips part. For a second, I’m afraid I’ve gone too far.
Why am I always such an asshole?
“Did you just flip me off?” he asks incredulously.
I feel my cheeks heat, but before I can apologize, he laughs. A full-body, head tipped back, throat exposed laugh that rolls through the car. “I’m pledging my loyalty to you, and you tell me to fuck off.” He wheezes between laughs. “You are thestrangestgirl I’ve ever met.”
My cheeks are hot, but my lips tip in response to his genuine amusement. “If I’m strange, what does that make you? It’syourfather I murdered.”
I regret my words the second they pass my lips, and his expression sobers. “True. But I’ve never doubted that I’m an aberration to society.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Humor is a good coping mechanism for us killers.”
And then… He smiles at me.
I should be destroyed by his words. It’s exactly what I am now. A killer. Even if the man deserved it, I took a life tonight.
But instead of my conscience taking center stage, apparently my hormones decide now is the perfect time to resurrect themselves from hibernation.
I’m not sure what I look like, but Liev’s eyes suddenly dilate, his dark gaze falling to my mouth, and I realize the soft pants I hear are mine.
For a heartbeat, neither of us moves. The air feels charged, and before I even realize what I’m doing, I lean forward and press my mouth to his. The warm firmness of his lips against mine registers for a split second, along with the tingle between my legs, before I jerk back.
Pressing my fingers to my lips, I stare at him, unable to read his expression.
